Illusion and Reality. Materialism and impersonalism. Krishna Consciousness and Mayadevi Consciousness. Religion is the right angle of perception. Rupa Goswami's value system is self-sacrifice. Sincere search for Truth. The ideal of Mahaprabhu is to be the servant of the servant of the servant... The school of sahajiyas - pseudo-Vaishnavas. The many-faced manifestation of Mayadevi. Acquisitive zones. Should we strive to get rid of illusion? Making requests to the Lord. Mercy is above insults and justice. Our position in the service of the Vaishavas. Grace has no reason. The value of human life. Goals and ideals of followers of different religions. The highest ideal of theistic thought is selfless service.
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33 What comes first, matter or consciousness?
Material scientists say that when objective material elements come together, at some stage they become conscious of themselves. This is roughly what their entire science is based on. In Vaishnavism, in general in spiritual practice, the opposite is said - the basic element of everything is consciousness. And consciousness is already forming forms, creating forms. Consciousness is capable of perceiving the world around us, and since consciousness is primary, it generates the surrounding world, and it is not the surrounding world that generates consciousness.
Illusion and Reality
00:00:01 Including how they talk about consciousness. That is, materialists, material scientists, they say that when objective material elements are connected, then at some stage they begin to become aware of themselves. This is roughly what all science is based on. In Vaishnavism, in general in spiritual practice, they say the opposite - the basic element of everything is consciousness. And consciousness is already forming forms, creating forms. Consciousness is capable of perceiving the surrounding world, and since consciousness is primary, it generates the surrounding world, and not the surrounding world generates consciousness. For example, it is believed, well, let’s say that the Sun is some kind of objective reality that exists independently of our consciousness and this seems quite reasonable to us, right? Let's say this microphone, it exists regardless of whether I am there or not. It seems obvious things.
00:01:03 But spiritual science says no. If I didn't exist, this microphone wouldn't exist. Such is the paradox. If we start digging deeper, let's say an example with the Sun. What is the Sun? This is some kind of bright ball. Small, big - it doesn't matter. This is some kind of huge source of radiation. Something bright. What is the concept of “brightness” anyway? Brightness is a property or some definition from consciousness. So I think that this is bright and therefore it is bright. That is, brightness as a property does not exist without a perceiver of this brightness.
00:01:50 Next, round, right? The concept of “round” or “spherical” does not exist without someone who understands that it is a circle. If there were no subject of perception, then even the concept of “circle” would not exist. There would be no concept of “brightness”. The concept of “loudness” and “form” did not exist. That is, all these things that, superimposed on one another: bright, round, loud, smelly, and so on, when they are superimposed, a certain object is obtained. But if we decompose this object into properties, then it turns out that these properties are just my perception. That is, I am the basis that the world exists. Well, I put it in quotes, that is, a certain element of consciousness perceives the qualities of the world and therefore this world exists. This is generally accepted in spiritual science and is indirectly discussed in the book “Subjective Evolution of Consciousness,” Sridhar Maharaj explains.
00:02:55 - Computer, right? If it reads some program, then it exists. It cannot be counted and is practically non-existent.
- Yes, if there is no subject of perception, if there is no one who knows that this is bright, round, old, new, human-shaped, well, in general as a quality, then this does not exist. That is, the sun would not be bright if there were no one who understands that it is bright. So? And if the sun wasn’t bright, then it wouldn’t be the sun anymore, you know? That is, it would be something different. But even if it were something else, it would still have some qualities. But these qualities exist only when there is someone who perceives these qualities. Therefore, the world, it exists only in consciousness. Or as Hegel said - in the imagination.
00:03:53 - That is, the world in the form in which we perceive it, it exists only in consciousness.
-How are reality, consciousness, and then illusion connected?
- Illusion is a reflection of reality. That is, if there is such a thing as illusion, Maya, then there is a prototype, there is reality. Illusion without reality is nonsense. Why? Because if there was an illusion, but there was no reality from which this illusion is written, then this illusion would be reality. Therefore, there is reality and there is illusion. Why do we say that we are now in an illusion, and where does the illusion come from? Illusions are some kind of objective formation, independent of us. No. Illusions, like any object in this world, together the objects of this world create some kind of picture. And in Vaishnavism it is stated that this picture, which living creature observes in totality, constitutes an illusion.
00:05:01 Why, so to speak, why do Vaishnavas take the liberty of declaring such things? Why do they say: “What you see is all an illusion”? Because illusions depend not on what it is, but on how we perceive it. And Vaishnavas say that if you perceive the world from the point of view of a consumer, or from the point of view of an exploiter who wants to embrace, fuck, grab, then you will not perceive the world as it is. That is, if you go into the showroom of expensive cars, and it seems to you that they, these cars belong to you, then you are in an illusion. So? Now, if you go into the showroom of expensive cars and realize that you simply do not have the money to buy them, that these cars belong to someone else, then you are not in an illusion.
00:05:58 The cars were green, red there, yellow, and remained the same. But your perception changes. This is exactly how we perceive this world, as long as we are in the state of a consumer of this world, as long as we are in this world with the idea that everything here belongs to me or something belongs, we are in the same position as someone who enters a car showroom . We are in an illusion; nothing belongs to us in this world. We came here absolutely naked and we will leave absolutely naked. Doesn't even belong to us own body. The past does not belong to us. The future does not belong to us. Here. That is, nothing belongs to us in this world, and at a certain stage of evolution the soul understands that nothing belongs to me in this world.
Materialism and impersonalism
00:06:57 But the soul is a point of consciousness or a unit of consciousness, and there are teachings that say: “A point of consciousness, it...” And what a point is - it’s something striving towards infinity, but into small infinity. But such teachings as Buddhism, Mayavada, Shankracharya say that by striving into infinity, you are actually striving into infinity, so to speak, into boundless infinity. Not to a point infinitely, but to infinity as into space. That is, they seem to change places. They say that when a point approaches zero, when it becomes absolutely nothing, it suddenly becomes everything. This is roughly what Buddhists and Mayavadis talk about.
00:07:48 That is, a materialist is someone who is at a point in space, but believes that everything revolves around him. And the Mayavada or impersonalist, he believes that I am at a point in space and, shrinking to zero, I suddenly become all of this space. That is, they say that a drop falling into the ocean becomes this ocean. In fact, when a drop falls into the ocean, it dissolves in the ocean, it does not become the ocean. Because the ocean existed before this drop got there, and will exist after that. A drop hits or misses, the ocean depends on it...
- Is she losing her individuality?
- It loses, it dissolves, but it does not become an ocean, because the ocean does not lose its individuality. She dissolves. A drop does not exist, that is, you can catch this drop, a drop, as an object, exists only when it is outside the ocean. When it is inside the ocean, drops do not exist. As soon as it pops out, we can say - this is a drop. If it falls again, the drop no longer exists. And the ocean, just as it was without a drop, remains with a drop.
Krishna Consciousness and Mayadevi Consciousness
00:09:00 That is, he does not change because of this. Here. The Vaishnava teachings say that you cannot become the ocean, you can dissolve in it, you can dissolve in the radiance of the Supreme, but you can never become the radiance of the Supreme. But you can become a part of the ministry. There are, as it were, three roads for us: the first is to try to take over the world, the second road is to become the world itself. Try, or rather, become the world itself. And the third is to serve the One from whom this world came.
- Well, the world is in consciousness. As you know, Berkeley taught that the world is a manifestation of his perception. And in some book he suggested taking a walk over the abyss. He said that the abyss is a program of perception. Take a walk over the abyss. He didn't know what to answer.
00:09:53 You can answer: Berkeley, he is really right that the world is a product of consciousness. Unfortunately, he put “mine” in front of consciousness. These are different things - the world is a creation of my consciousness, or the consciousness of the one who created this world. It is obvious that the one in whose consciousness the world exists can control this world. Here. But since, on the contrary, since I cannot control this world, it means that this world is not a creation of my consciousness. That is, Berkeley is right that the world exists in consciousness, but not in his consciousness, but in the consciousness of the world. It is obvious that the one in whose consciousness the universe is, he is greater than this universe, because at least he existed before he imagined this universe in his consciousness. And he has the right to exist later, and he can erase this universe from memory, then it will cease to exist. That is, the information carrier is greater than the information itself.
00:11:01 - It turns out that I also exist, but in His consciousness.
- Certainly. This is a paradox, we, this is what is called “we exist in Krishna consciousness.” When we are asked: “How long have you been in Krishna consciousness?” We have always been in Krishna consciousness. Unfortunately, we are now in the mind of one of his maids, She is called Maha-maya. We are now in Her consciousness. She controls us. She provides us with a body. His maid Mayadevi, She provides us with a body, She provides us with feelings with the help of which we can perceive the world around us, and She creates objects of perception from herself, from her components. That is, now we are completely in the consciousness of Maya. Our body, senses and what the senses perceive are created from the twenty-three elements that make up the material world. These are earth, water, fire, air, five senses, thoughts, reason, the second self. All this together are the elements of matter.
00:12:13 She isolates some things from herself, and these things are called feelings, then she isolates something, this is called matter, she isolates something, this is called reason, thoughts, and so on. That is, She provides us with everything, rents everything to us, and we are now in Her consciousness. We are in her womb. Therefore, she is also called Kalima - mother. She provides us with everything.
Religion is the right angle of perception
00:12:38 And the task, so to speak, our task is to leave the consciousness of Maya, move into Krishna Consciousness, into the consciousness of the Lord, into the consciousness of the one who controls this Maya. That is, from the consciousness of the overseer, mother Durga or Kalima, or Maha-maya, matter is the overseer of this world. So, our task is to get out from under her supervision, from under the supervision of the jailer, and fall under the supervision of the Almighty. That is, to move from Maya consciousness to Krishna Consciousness in order to be in his consciousness.
- She is in His consciousness and I am in the consciousness of the Lord, it turns out that these positions are original.
- Yes, that’s why Sridhar Maharaj says that the problem is only to change the angle of perception. Religion, he said. He said that religion is a proper adjudgement. That is, religion is the pursuit of the right angle of perception.
00:13:46 That is, we are really all in Krishna consciousness. If we did not exist in His consciousness, we would not exist at all. In whose consciousness would we then exist? The only question is to take the right positions in relation to Him. Now we have turned our backs on Him. We have turned away and what we see is this sector of His universe... We do not see Him, we have turned our backs to Him. We see something that was generated by Him and we think that without seeing Him, we have turned away, we see something, we want to dominate it, manage it. But religion is turning your face to Him and seeing Him and serving Him. Take the right position in relation to Him.
00:14:35 - It turns out that we see the world not as it is. We do not see because of our pollution of consciousness. How to clear your consciousness in order to see the world as it is from deception, in order to see the world as it is?”
- Communicate with those who have already cleared their consciousness.
- How can you see it?
- This is impossible. You see, if we are in an illusion, then we will not be able to determine who is in the illusion and who is not.
Rupa Goswami's value system is self-sacrifice
00: 15:04 - That's the point, how to an ordinary person determine that there are many different religious teachings, and each one claims: “Behold, our path is correct, accept our path, and you will achieve good.”
- What exactly? It is very beautiful to say “you will achieve good.” And what exactly?
- Raya, well, that is, how...
- That's absolutely true. Therefore, Rupa Goswami sets the coordinate system, the value system “you will achieve good.” And he names what good is. Benefits are, this is the system of values he sets on a scale of coordinates called self-sacrifice. Or dedication. Here.
00:15:48 If in some religious concept they tell you: “You will reach heaven.” And you ask: “What will I do there?” They will tell you, for example, in some religion it is said: “You will sit near God and eat there from his gifts” or, well, something, “you will be eternally blissful,” then on the scale of self-giving or self-sacrifice this is an insignificant value. Sitting near God, for what? To taste the fruits of pleasure. Here Rupa Goswami says that the purest, the most subtle and fragile, and the most beautiful is to be with God in order to serve Him, without expecting anything in return.
00:16:37 Therefore, different religions offer their own options. You just ask what the result is or final goal. If they tell you, “You will have more pleasure there than here,” then this is a worldly religion. Why are you being offered to move to another dimension? Because here you feel bad, but there you will feel good. Here. In Vaishnavism it is said: “You can go to another dimension to serve.” That’s it, so to speak, and then we choose whether the game is worth the candle, whether it’s worth going somewhere to serve forever. Moreover, no one promises that this will be associated with happiness, joy, bliss. This will be a service.
00:17:21 Mahaprabhu himself says: “Lord, the ultimate dream of mine is to be the dust on which your servants run in the morning. Along the way, so to speak. There will be dust on the path, so that not even You, but Your servants will run over me.” This is said by the Lord Himself, who has assumed the form of a devotee. And this, in our understanding, is a pure ideal, not mixed with self-interest, with the idea of grabbing and acquisitiveness. And we try to cherish this ideal and serve this ideal.
Sincere search for Truth
00:17:58 - Can I ask another question? What to do, despite the [inaudible] person actually being a beggar, but he doesn’t know. What do you recommend, maybe I should read it? I don't know. Most likely, he really doesn’t read anything. How would we start communicating with him... How would he like it? What does he need?
- What does it mean he is looking for the truth? What does he expect from the truth? Well, let's say he found her, what happens next? What will the truth offer him? What does he want from this truth? For example, there I am looking for a job. Or I'm looking for a kilogram of sausage in the store. At some stage this is true. But what do I want from this truth? If a person is looking for the truth to admire it, come to Krishna there, or to Allah there, to God and see: “Yes, you look fine today. Good! For a long time I have been..." What does it mean to "seek the truth"? What does he want from this truth?
00:19:05 - In what is visible, a person seeks, wants to devote himself to something higher. Don't just buy material things. Apparently, the man is a beggar, but some things seem to be, well, a little..."
- We must then tell him that the truth, it doesn’t matter if he ever comes to it, the truth will surpass all his expectations. And if the truth scares him, that's his problem. Because the truth that gave birth, initially gave birth to such concepts as benefits, beauty, love, mercy, it appears, it set this tone. What is beauty? What is love? What is faith? These are very subtle, almost elusive concepts. Does this truth scare him? Is he afraid of the truth that gave birth to love and devotion, mercy? Does this scare him?
00:20:09 - No, it’s not the truth that scares you.
- And what? How to explain in a simple way... For example, he is frightened by those people who somehow inform. Nowadays there are a lot of people who seem to convey the truth, but in fact, they just live off of it. It exists everywhere. Many so something, value, raise there somehow a little like, like! It’s not a spiritual decision, but why should I, for example, if I can create my own direction. Right? With his flock, with his material wealth.
- Well, yes, but it is not spiritual.
- They say: “Yes, yes, but they act differently. Well, he sees it. They are not looking on the one hand, but those people who seem to convey the truth, they scare him.
- Well, that means if a person is scared by these people, he should stop communicating with them, in my opinion, this is obvious.
- So his conclusion from this is that everyone is so deceptive.
- Is he coming to a conclusion?
- Yes.
- Okay, in this action the seeker of truth, the search for truth and truth itself, who is the main character? Truth in general, can it, does it have the right to vote?
00:21:30 - Well, Truth itself - it either reveals itself to a person or not.
- Yes, that is, no matter how you look for her, or even if you suddenly decide to run away from her, if she wants, she will still open up to you. Understand? That is, truth is subjective, it decides for itself. The time has come, the time has not come, you know? And if he is looking for the truth, he must understand that if the truth wants him to come to it, then it will be revealed to him, one way or another, it will give him beacons by which he can come to it. If he's really looking for her. If he is looking for something else, he will, he will find something else. So, if he meets with some false preachers, deceivers who say one thing and do another, and at the same time he seeks the truth, and pray to this truth, then it will come to him, one way or another.
00:22:30 Why? Because the impulse itself, once upon a time he had this impulse to seek the truth, this impulse does not matter, it was the truth that was laid in him. If he trusted this initial impulse, right? Truth, I want you, I feel that there is some transcendental reality - a reality on the other side of the world of feelings, the world of objects. I want to strive for you. If he trusted this truth, then he must trust it next time. The only thing is that he must then turn to her in his prayers so that she, this truth. removed all obstacles from his path. Here.
00:23:14 The very fact that he sees lies and deceit in some people, this very fact says that this is the truth that is already showing him. Already warning. Because if he were destined to be deceived, then he would be in these false prophets, false teachers, that is, he would... He would not have become wary that these people were deceiving me. He would walk, fly like a moth to the sun.
- Well, on the one hand, if you understand that, in principle, a person is actually looking for the Truth, then he will not get [inaudible]. And if he, at least once [inaudible], why does this happen?
00:24:00 -Why does this happen? Again, the root, the reason lies within ourselves. If we want to buy a diamond for three kopecks, then they will sell us a fake for three kopecks. If you followed a liar, then you need to delve into your heart and see, try to discover what I was looking for perishable, but thought that I was looking for the eternal and spiritual. That I was deceived? So I wanted something. I wanted to become famous. I wanted money. I wanted to remain in the memory of my descendants, to leave behind, as you say, a flock, followers there. What was I looking for? And here is Mayadevi, who guards this truth, illusion, her task is to protect reality from us. So that, God forbid, we do not disrupt the usual course of things there. Yes? And if we convince ourselves that we are looking for the truth, in fact, our task is to become great preachers there, great Vaishnavas, or to leave a memory in the hearts of our descendants forever after us there. Or whatever else, well, there are a lot of things in this world that are temporary, right? This Mayadevi, an illusion, is happy to give you this three-penny diamond, this fake. You want the truth, but you want to profit from that truth. You want to use the teacher’s words in such a way as to put forward your ideas under the guise of serving the teacher, you are promoting your ideas.
00:25:40 For God's sake. I will give you a flock, this flock will include the same deceived deceivers. They will glorify you, and you don’t forget to throw them a bone, that they are great, that they were looking for truth there, they have received the light, and so on. That is, I need to delve into myself, what was I looking for, am I looking for service as the lowest servant of God, or do I want to be higher there, in the higher echelons near Radha, Krishna, there to serve them. Someday I will die, and I will serve next to Radha and Krishna, bringing them flowers. There or I will believe in Jesus Christ and go to heaven. Why? Why should I believe in Jesus Christ? Because in heaven I will be fine. Here I have no money, here I don’t have a job, but there everything will be fine for me, there they will feed me five loaves of bread.
Mahaprabhu's ideal is to be the servant of the servant of the servant...
00:26:38 What am I looking for from this truth? If I'm looking for a three-penny fake, they'll give us this fake. Therefore, Christians say: “Don’t ask God, because he can fulfill your desire.” Here. How can one become infected with this search for truth? You need to communicate with those who are already infected, with the sick who have become infected, who have felt the taste of selfless service; if you communicate with them, you can become infected. That is, if you communicate with those who have some kind of ideal, then you inevitably become infected with this ideal, or this value system. If you end up in fifth grade high school, then for you the values will be lollipops, chewing gum, disks, a mobile phone... If you find yourself among millionaires, then there is a Siemens C55, this is no longer something valuable. For them, what is valuable there, among millionaires, what is value? For example, buy the Chelsea club or become the governor of Chukotka. That is, they are completely different, a completely different scale of coordinates, a different system of values.
00:27:55 If you get into kindergarten, then the value for you will be candy wrappers, pebbles, you know? In fifth grade you already have chewing gum and a mobile phone. In the tenth grade, jeans from Versace and so on. Therefore, what environment you find yourself in, or rather, what environment your ideal places you in, what you expect from the Almighty or from life, that is the environment you find yourself in. And in this environment you become infected with that value system. So, if you find yourself among Vaishnavas, then for them... What is their value system? This is uncomplaining, selfless service. Some would call this self-deprecation, right? But this is the ideal of our Lord, the ideal of Mahaprabhu, who wanted to become dust. Dasa, dasana, dasa - to be the servant of the servant of the servant.
00:28:49 Mahaprabhu said: “My ultimate dream is to serve the servant of your servant.” That is, it is not even to serve you, he turns to the Lord, but to the servant of the servant. If you find yourself among Vaishnavas, then you become infected with this ideal. If you come among the pseudo-Vaishnavas who say: “The purpose of a living being is to serve Radha and Krishna directly.” And you begin to educate yourself. These Vaisnavas, they are called sahajiyas or imitators, they say that if you hear from a Vaisnava, from a true Vaisnava, about the pastimes of Radha and Krishna, then by meditating on these pastimes, you enter into these pastimes. There are such Vaisnavas. They are called Sahaji, Sahaji school. That is, they paint a certain picture in their mind and think that they become part of the reality in which this picture is painted.
School of Sahajiyas - pseudo-Vaishnavas
00:29:49 Or is it the same as you taking someone's family album with photographs, paste your photograph there and say that you are a member of the family. That is, even if you made a good photo montage, you show it to someone else, he says: “Yes, damn it, it’s beautiful there, you’re relaxing on the beach.” But in reality you have nothing to do with the family. This is also a great danger for Sahaja. The mercy of Vaishnavas, the mercy of genuine Vaishnavas, our teachers, is that they very carefully guide us through all these pits, bumps, and opportunities to fall. They deceive us so that we do not fall into the value system of sahajiyas, cheap service, or into the value system of unbelievers.
00:30:39 As I recently talked with one devotee, he has now apparently withdrawn from devotional service for a while. He said, “I have read the Puranas and I have read the Mahabharata, and the description of the universe in the Puranas and the Mahabharata is different, so it is not true.” That is, as if he had descended to a certain position of a materialist. And they are very Vaishnavas, they carefully guide us between two extremes - this is imaginary devotion, or imaginary service to Krishna, and no service at all. They lead us along this golden mean. This is the incredible mercy of the Vaisnavas, so they say: “Now you should not read this at all. Now you should read this. It is better to cultivate this knowledge, but not to cultivate this.” These are very subtle things, and the mercy of the Vaishnavas, their greatness lies in what they present to us in the best possible way so that we can perceive it. They give us the basics, they teach us how to count, and then we learn on our own. Therefore, we need to communicate with Vaishnavas and we can be infected with the ideal from them.
The Many Faces of Mayadevi
00:31:58 - Mind and intelligence are the servants of Maya. But are they alive, or is this how they are? Feelings, I understand. How are they?
- Well, in a sense, everything in this world has a personality quality. In this sense, both mind and reason are a reflection of a certain personality. You can give this example: you approach an ant heap with a stick and start stirring up the anthill. For ants, this stick is a natural disaster. They don't suspect that there is a personality behind it. For them this is a phenomenon, just like for us, the wind blows and it seems to us that the atmospheric pressure there has changed, and therefore the wind blew. Somewhere there is more, somewhere there is less, and the wind blew. We are approximately in the same state as the ants, who see a stick and think that it is a certain... They can even explain that the stick, the angle of inclination is there, the wind blew, it became there... But in reality there is a personality behind it, there I am , which I move with this stick.
00:33:05 In exactly the same way, behind, say, such a phenomenon as the wind, there is a certain personality who quite possibly can simply blow, and scientists begin to explain. The pressure drops there, feather clouds there, and so on. In the same way, the mind, behind this there is a certain personality and reason, also behind this there is a certain personality. But this person is that same Mayadevi. She covers herself with different elements. She covers herself with five main elements: earth, water, fire, air, space. Yes? Or this is also called ether, in fact it is space. Further, it manifests itself as time. It manifests itself as a thought. It manifests itself as reason. It's like our body, it's like some kind of computer. Yes? This computer has a hard drive - the brain, there are programs - thoughts, there is a case - this is the body, there is a camera - these are the eyes, and so on. If we look at it separately, we will look at it as something unrelated, right?
00:34:27 But in fact, the manufacturer is behind this computer, quite certain personality, which connected all these nodes. In the same way, Mayadevi, or illusion, is behind providing us with mind, reason, body, feelings. She is everything, she supplies, and we already fill it with ourselves. And when we die, when the body dies, we have this luggage, we kind of write it on a floppy disk, computers have something like this - sleep mode. You died, then you turned on and everything that you had accumulated there - thoughts, ideas, some impulses, urges, all this is re-registered in the new body, and you again begin to pursue the same goals. Maybe already on another computer. You used to have a laptop, now you have a desktop computer there. Previously you had a body on four supports, now on two supports. Then it will be at six, there. Do you understand?
Acquisitive zones
00:35:33 But the idea or the reason why you are still here is to grab. That is, if in this life you lack two hands to grab, then in the next life you will be given four legs. Or ten, or forty. If you really want a lot, you will crawl without legs. But the idea, or this one driving force, why are we still here, it will remain the same - to acquire, acquire, seize. Therefore, I always say that our hands are designed like this, and not like this. Of course, of course it's difficult.
00:36:14 When we understand that gross things do not bring us pleasure, those things that can be touched do not bring us pleasure, then we begin to search, we begin to grab in more subtle areas. We are starting to grab the glory. That is, at first we grab Orenburg scarves there, jeans there, then we realize that moths are rotting there and eating them. Let's do something longer. What could be longer? This is glory. And we begin to become famous, for example, as a great, kind, decent, virtuous person. Give alms, build hospitals, write books, teach people with a rewarding finger. For what? So that when my body dies, my descendants will remember me. That is, to grab not rough things that live less than your body, but to grab something more durable - this is glory and recognition of descendants. But this glory will also die.
00:37:14 Why? Because it lives in the minds of people who will die. And at a certain stage we understand that we must look for something eternal that will never die. And strangely enough, this eternal is self-sacrifice and devotion to the Almighty. This will never die. This is called spiritual. The spiritual is that which is eternal. Material is everything that decomposes. Therefore, in the thirteenth chapter of Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says: “The material nature, splitting into elements, begins to interact with itself.” That is, some elements begin to influence others. They unite there and fall apart. And a living being sits, as if in a test tube, and suffers and rejoices from what is happening around him. That is, it’s the same as when we go to the cinema, and there are elusive avengers jumping, shooting, shooting with slingshots. And we get used to it and it makes us feel good there, ours won the war, or it feels bad when ours lost there. Here. And then when the end of the film we get up, and we understand that this reality that was on the screen is actually a play of light, light and shadow. We, personally, have nothing to do with it.
00:38:45 And Krishna, he says about the same thing, that these material elements, they connect with each other, the sun rises there, an earthquake, or a wad of money goes from your pocket to someone else’s pocket. Or, conversely, it goes from his pocket to your pocket. And so, we are in this cinema hall, and we watch and rejoice, or suffer. That is, if it gets into your pocket, then it’s bad. If something ends up in your pocket, it's good. And we rejoice or suffer from it. And this is called illusion.
Should we strive to get rid of illusion?
00:39:20 - When you understand this whole situation.
- Arjuna said about the same thing. Arjuna said to Krishna: “This is all good, I understand all this, but getting rid of it is even more difficult than stopping the wind with your breath.” That is, it’s impossible there, some kind of hurricane there, Annie is blowing, and you’re on it. It's pointless, yes, to stop him. In the same way, curbing this desire to snatch is even more difficult than stopping the wind. Here. Why? Because Schopenhauer said: “It is easy not to do what you want, but it is difficult not to want what you want.” And this is precisely what our mind is responsible for. To want or not to want what one wants or does not want. I want it, but now I don’t want it. This is impossible, this is very difficult, you need to abstract yourself from your thoughts, you need to understand that you and your thoughts are different things and then you can already control your mind, your thoughts.
00:40:35 But this is impossible. In our condition. For us, Sridhar Maharaj is our guiding star in this sense. He said that: “We are not trying to get rid of Maya. Since Krishna says it is impossible, we won't. Our only hope is that we will be allowed to serve someone who does not come to Maye. Even though I am in complete illusion, I will at least help someone who is outside the illusion. That's enough for me,” he says. I want, he says, to be in the lower echelons of servants. He remembers when Saraswati Thakur invited him to go to the west to preach. Sridhar Maharaj says: “I refused for two reasons: firstly, I cannot speak in front of a large audience. I immediately begin to feel embarrassed, confused, and, secondly, I don’t understand their accent, I don’t understand their English. Therefore, he says, there are more qualified preachers, you can send them. But if you insist, I will, of course, go.” And another preacher went. And before he left, this preacher, he asked Sridhar Maharaj: “Many sannyasis, they dream of such an offer, to go to the west to preach, in fact to be the first to bring the teachings of Mahaprabhu to the western world.”
00:41:56 Sridhar Maharaj said: “But this does not attract me. It is not my plan to become or be known as a great preacher. I'll be content with playing in the background. Helping someone preach.” That is, for us, perhaps, this is the only such consolation, the words of Sridhar Maharaj, he says: “You can’t even dream of getting rid of Maya. It is impossible to get out of Maya, so we will pray to Krishna to give us a person who is not in Maya, whom we could serve while in Maya. It's OK".
Making requests to the Lord
00:42:33 - [Inaudible]. It says that if a person [cannot be heard].
- What, he?
- That is, a person should worship the Lord in any position. Whether he has a desire or not. If, for example, a person, in the sense of a devotee, is inspired [inaudible].
- Well, yes. Krishna says that fools worship devas, that is, demigods: Indra, Ganesh, everyone there, right? In the seventh chapter, 29th verse, I think. He says that they do not understand that the demigods, they work under My direction, under My command, and whatever you offer to them, they then give to Me. And I am already deciding whether to reward you for this sacrifice, for this yagya, or not to reward you. That's why he says: "Bow before me directly." Well, in the sense that don’t ask anything from demigods. If you need anything, ask me for it. Since, anyway, I allow you to use or not use these fruits, then bow down and ask me for it. Over time, your impulses, your aspirations will be purified, and you will no longer ask for perishable things.
00:44:25 Because asking the Lord, the Almighty Lord, for something to dissolve in time is the same as coming to a billionaire who will tell you: “Take what you want.” And you say: “Can I have a chewing gum wrapper?” That is, the Lord has all the riches in this world, and you came to ask him for a car. He can give you in general, he can give you friendship with himself, and you say: “No, no, no, I’d like a candy wrapper there, please.” Or the gum you chewed.
00:45:04 I just remember as a child, when there was no chewing gum, we passed it on to each other. Chewed it, gave it to someone else, at school, yes.
- Otherwise, you would have thought of it.
“It’s stupid to ask, but he says: “If you still have material desires, ask me for them, I will answer your desires.” But over time you will understand that I have something great to offer you, an offer you cannot refuse. Something eternal, not perishable. And then you will think why I was so stupid, asking him for something mortal.” This is the purification of the soul, when we ask God for material benefits, and then we understand that he can give us spiritual benefits.
Mercy is higher than insults and justice
00:46:03 - You say that when there is [inaudible].
- Well, yes, but mercy is higher than insults. We, in our current state, we offend the Almighty not only by asking, but by maintaining material desires. We insult him with every move we make. We just sit here and insult him. Here. But mercy is higher all the same. Yes, we commit all these insults, ten, twenty, a million, how many there are, I’ll list them. But mercy, it covers all this. Because if the Lord sees that we are trying to serve his close friend, then he begins to help us, and then nothing depends on him. We cleanse our heart. Willy-nilly. Why? Because we know that the close companions of the Lord, they do not want anything from him.
00:47:12 That is, when Krishna’s close friends serve Him, he wants to reciprocate. But they, the trick is that they don’t want anything in return. If they took something in return for their service, then this purity would be violated. Here. That's why they don't want anything from him. And suddenly, so to speak, devils appear, some kind of goblins, hobbits, who also want to serve them. Can you imagine? We are now in approximately the same position as Krishna. Because Krishna wants to serve the Vaisnavas, his close devotees, and we also want to serve. But our position is even more advantageous. The Vaisnavas accept our service, but they do not accept the service from Krishna. Therefore, he begins to help us so that we can do better; since his service is not accepted, he begins to help us.
00:48:16 In this sense, our position is better, more profitable than his. Poor Krishna. So the Vaisnavas have settled down very well. This is called mutual responsibility. Servant of servant of servant of servant and so on goes in circles, Krishna is already also the servant of the servant of the servant, when he comes in the form of Muha Prabhu, he serves dasana dasana dasna. Such is the mutual responsibility. So... What is service to Vaishnavas?
Our Position in the Vaishava Ministry
00:48:52 This is to help them in their mission; they come into this world with a specific mission. Collect items to offer to Krishna. Because everything has already been staked out there, but in this world there is still something that can be taken and offered. They come here to collect souls and offer them like flowers at the feet of Krishna. This is their mission. Of course, from the external point of view, that is, from the point of view of Krishna, his devotees go to the material world and collect flowers for him there to offer. But from the point of view material world this is called preaching. That is, they come here and start preaching to someone so that he turns into a flower, roughly speaking, and him... That is, we look at it as a sermon. In fact, they come here to collect flowers and mushrooms, berries, whatever they like. And bring all this, so to speak, to Krishna’s common fund. Here. And here it is called preaching. The fact that we will fall into this basket can be forgotten, it is unrealistic.
00:50:04 But we can help them, those who collect. Tell me where the mushroom spots are. That is, this is called service to Vaishnavas. They came with a specific mission, we can help them. Well, we can forget about the fact that we end up in a basket, it’s simply unrealistic. That is, the probability is zero. But the fact that others can fall into this basket when they come to preach, the probability is quite high, because Vaishnavas, they are omnipotent, they can do anything.
Grace has no reason
00:50:39 We were just discussing today how to write a propaganda leaflet, why chant Hare Krishna. This morning we discussed it, but I don’t think we came to a common opinion. How to convince the jivas so that they end up in a basket with mushrooms, berries, flowers.
- What are our prospects, if possible?
- We have none. But everyone should think that others have great prospects, but we have... Each individual has no prospects, but others do. Others have great prospects.
- How to understand? The concept of “spiritual life” without prospects. Explain how it is possible? How is spiritual life possible without prospects?
- Spiritual life is possible because others are engaged in spiritual life. We see that devotees serve Krishna, engage in some kind of seva, service, but we ourselves do not serve. We're just pretending. But others serve.
00:51:45 - That is, spiritual life is possible, but not in relation to me, but in relation to others.
- That is, they have prospects?
- Of course, everyone has prospects. Each of us doesn't have one. Others have prospects, you and I do not.
- No, it’s just me. The probability is zero. There is a nuance that by the grace of Vaishnavas everything is possible, but it is better not to count on it. In general, any calculation in infinite spheres is a stupid task - to calculate. Count on mercy. What are the chances? I will chant 16 or whatever rounds there and at the end of my life I will be shown mercy. Or I will buy a ticket, go to Vrindavan, and there they will show me mercy. Mercy, it is not compatible with calculation. Because mercy has no reason. But we, so to speak, have gone overboard with this expression “causeless mercy”, it literally means no reason.
00:53:03 It is located at the very origins of the universe. Before, there was no mercy at all, because there were no reasons. Therefore, no matter how much we puff ourselves up, try and repeat, we can achieve some results. We can, for example, get rid of karma with the help of the holy name. We can become sinless with the help of the holy name, there is a whole set there. Go to heaven there, anywhere. Open the chakras or whatever with the help of the holy name. But we will not receive mercy with help, with the help of the holy name. Because mercy does not depend... In fact, it itself holy name and there is mercy. Just another facet of it. And we can, so to speak, as we said today, sound on the same wavelength with this mercy, or become a grain of the holy name. Vibrate with him. We can sound a subtle, subtle sound on this, the subtlest chord of faith. Well, again, this does not depend on how many rounds we have repeated and how many principles we have observed today.
The value of human life
00:54:18 - Maharaj, it is known what happens to the soul if a person died first, if he himself was killed...
- Well, if he was pushed out of the body, then he will need to get into another body. That is, if you are thrown out of the car, you will go, sit in another car, on a bus there, I don’t know.
- If he is kicked out, what will happen?
- Well, this is always in an individual case, if he was killed. It’s just that when they kill, say, a cow or a person, a monkey, creatures that are very close to the stage of spirituality, or should I say, potential spiritual possibilities, then this is regrettable. Human life, it is compared to the game of a striker in football. When the striker suddenly loses the ball just before scoring a goal, the stadium is seething, everyone feels sorry, right? But when you lose the ball somewhere in the middle of the field, at the goal, you are also beaten, no one cares about it, that is, it is accepted as a normal phenomenon. There, but right at the goal, you should have scored a goal, but the ball was taken away from you, this is very unfortunate. In much the same way, when we get into the human body, we, as attackers, can score a goal. It’s not for nothing that in English “goal” is “purpose”. We can achieve our goal.
00:55:56 But if we don’t use this chance, it doesn’t matter if we were killed there, or we killed ourselves, or we just died in a warm bed without leaving or leaving a will, it doesn’t matter. If we did not use this chance to score a goal, to achieve the goal of the soul’s existence, then it is very regrettable. But if we, so to speak, were swatted when we are a mosquito, or when we are a cockroach there... That is, we are up to this, to the state of a striker who can score a goal very far and, in general, this is not so scary. But when we, as a person, die and did not use our chance, it is very bad. Well, what happens there is this mechanism, there it is, the soul flies out and resettles there, it’s not so important. It is important that if consciousness has an impulse to grab, to acquire, then it will receive a form in which this impulse can be realized. What form it will be is not so important, and how it happens, whether it happens over nine months or immediately, or after a few years, it doesn’t matter.
00:57:09 - Well, you have to find out, then you’ll tell me. Happened so many times already.
- Well, if for several years, then where does she live?
- You see, in that dimension, when we cross this line of rough physical existence, there is no such objective concept as “year”, “several years”. There, one second, which is like a second here, can fly by like many, many years. When, for example, in a dream, you have a dream, the dream lasts one second, but it seems to you that you lived there for several years in a dream. Well, it feels like you, for a few days at least. But what actually happens in the brain is this process, it happens in one second. In the same way, when we leave the body, it may seem like a long, long time to us, but we can be born right away.
00:58:10 And on the objective, or on the gross plane of existence, it may take a second there, two seconds, a hundred years, but how it turns out in the spheres of subtle consciousness, in the spheres of the mental world, it is unpredictable. It may last a second, or it may last hundreds of years. It is important not how many years have passed according to earthly chronology, but how you felt at the same time, how long this has been yours toothache stretched out, you know? When you have a toothache, it seems like forever. Yes, but for the doctor it seems there, well, in two seconds everything will pass. Now we will give you anesthesia, and everything will pass. But it seems like an eternity to you. Here. And when you look favorite movie, it’s an hour and a half, it seems to you that it flew by in one second. That is, time is a subjective concept. And if suddenly two days passed on Earth, then there you are in the sphere of the mental world, you could experience this suffering, remorse, which in Christianity is called hell, for millions of years. You could have experienced terrible torment for millions of years, frying in this frying pan, but here it only took two seconds. What matters is what you felt, and not how many times the second hand moved on the dial, you know? I may be explaining it chaotically, so may he rest in peace.
Goals and ideals of followers of different religions
00:59:41 - Listen, what if people of other faiths come to you? How do your Vaisnavas and Khrestans exist?
- You can’t see it, right? Well, firstly, it is not written on their foreheads what faith they are. Now, and secondly, the main thing is not what faith they have, but what they want from us. If they came to fight, then we will fight. If they came to shake hands, then we will squeeze hands. You understand how, here we're talking about about ideals, it doesn’t matter what tradition you are in, the main thing is what goal you are pursuing by being in this tradition. That is, if you are in Christianity in order to serve the ideals of Jesus Christ, that’s one thing. If you are a Christian because your fathers and grandfathers were Christians, that is different. Or are you in Christianity because, so to speak, the whole country is Orthodox, if you are anything else there, they will punch you in the face - that’s the third thing. Or are you a Christian because they promise you paradise, a heavenly life in heaven - this is the fourth thing. That is, what goal do you set?
01:01:00 Likewise, devotees. Someone comes to Krishna Consciousness because of this beautiful Indian fairy tale. Someone comes because this is a very logical teaching and you can go, as the Hare Krishnas say, to Vaikuntha, where God has four arms and I also have four arms, we will serve him. Vaishnavism and Vaishnavism differ depending on their ideals. Just like Christianity is different from Christianity, even within the same creed there are different ideals. Some want to receive something from Christ, some pray to Jesus Christ to save them from their sins, while others pray to him because he is the embodiment of mercy.
01:01:51 - Christianity, in general, rejects all these other teachings.
- What kind of Christianity exactly?
- Orthodox.
- I know Orthodox Christians who do not reject them.
- A?
- What are the teachings, aren’t they people? Teachings are people. I know a church minister who doesn't reject. This is something like in pre-Copernican times, when it was believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, and the sun, planets, and stars revolved around the earth. Copernicus came and said: “No, we revolve around the sun.” That is, he turned the concepts upside down and often in one country or another, let’s take Russia, it is believed that the point or the most correct, normal thing is to be Orthodox. Yes? We don’t even suspect that no one in the world knows anything about Orthodoxy. Can you imagine that in America they don’t even know about such a religion? A very narrow spectrum of people knows that Orthodoxy exists. And here we believe that this is something universal, basic, fundamental.
01:03:10 That is, we live, as it were, relatively speaking, in pre-Copernican time. It seems to us that we are in charge, everything else revolves around us. If some church official does not accept some other teaching, then he is the arbiter, the censor, the arbiter of destinies. He establishes what is right and what is wrong. Do you understand? Therefore, we propose to start not from who believes something is right or wrong, but from ideals. What ideal do you set in Christianity, what ideal do you set in Vaishnavism, and within the framework of one teaching there are different gradations according to ideals. We believe that the ideal that our spiritual continuity carries is the highest ideal. This is selfless service. So selfless service, service to the point of self-forgetfulness. That is, there are ideals of selfless service, the limit of which is self-sacrifice, but the teachers of our line speak of ideals not even of self-sacrifice, but of self-forgetfulness.
01:04:31 When a living being or a particle of consciousness ceases to be aware of itself. Self-forgetfulness. For him, only the object of service exists; she no longer distinguishes between herself and the object of service. We believe that this ideal is higher, and whether, say, some narrow group in one particular country at the beginning of the twenty-first century recognizes it, we are not very interested. Even from an arithmetical point of view, there are more Hindus than Orthodox Christians. There are more than a billion Hindus on earth, and 80 million Orthodox Christians. Even from this point of view. But again, the point is not in the number, but in the ideal that is being set. Therefore, we all, to one degree or another, live in pre-Copernican times, but we set ourselves as the starting point. Everything revolves around me. Now, if I was born there at the end of the twentieth century in an Orthodox country, then this is the basis of the foundations, and everything else revolves around this.
01:05:43 And in our line this is called local interest. Or a displaced interest from the universal center to oneself. In some other country where Baptistism, Protestantism rules, there, for example, in America, they have a different frame of reference. They believe that Baptism or Orthodoxy or Protestantism is the most basic, or the center around which everything revolves. In England there are Anglicans, in Africa there is some kind of voodoo. And everyone thinks that their religion is the most basic thing. Therefore, we do not say that “but ours is the truest.” Why? Yes, because in India someone once gave it away. No, we say: “Let’s take as a point of reference, not the historical context, nor the number of adherents of a particular faith, but the ideal.” Even if this ideal has two there, or one adherent. But if this ideal is higher than others on the scale of self-denial and self-forgetfulness and devotion, then this ideal is considered a point and if someone.
01:06:56 They asked Sridhar Maharaj, they said: “Well, you think that this is the highest thing that you present, and what if someone comes and gives you a higher one.” He said: “For God’s sake, if someone gives me something higher, I will gladly accept.” He says: “I am forever in a state of search. I am an eternal student, if someone gives me a higher ideal, I will gladly bring it.”
01:07:19 If someone gives us a higher ideal than what Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu brought, service with the mind, body, thoughts, feelings, melting one’s consciousness into the absolute. If someone gives us a higher ideal, we are ready to accept it, but again, give us an ideal on the scale of self-forgetfulness and self-devotion, and not some kind of quantitative or historical one. A thousand years, say, of the adoption of Christianity. For example, in my opinion, Christianity, on the scale of these ideals - mercy and love, is higher than Judaism, in my opinion. Now, I’m no expert, but Judaism emphasizes the idea of God as a judge, a fair judge. In Christianity, another touch is added to this idea, a certain touch is added that he is not just a judge, he is a merciful judge. And on this scale of mercy, Christianity, it seems to me, is higher than Judaism. And higher than Hinduism. Because Hinduism, that’s what we believe, is “you give me - I give you.” I serve some God, I do something for him, and he gives me something in return. This is called idol worship.
The highest ideal of theistic thought is selfless service
01:08:42 But Vaishnavism, how is it different? That this concept that God is a judge is generally crossed out. If in Christianity the aspect of mercy is added to the judge, then in Vaishnavism the judge is completely crossed out. God, he is merciful, but in Gaudiya Vaishnavism it is said that God, he is also beautiful and he is very friendly to you, regardless of whether you have sinned or not, he is ready to help you. For him the concept of sin does not exist. For God, in the Vaishnava coordinate system, the concept of your sin does not exist; for Him, there are only the concepts of “beautiful” and “ugly.” That is, if in order to serve God, to serve Krishna as his companion, the companions had or had to violate some generally accepted rules of morality, or commandments of the scriptures, which the Lord himself even gave. If in order to serve Him they have to break these commandments, then from His point of view it is beautiful, and from His point of view it is absolutely sinless. But if someone, for the sake of following the commandments to the letter, does not serve God when it is necessary to violate this letter, then for the Lord this is ugly and it is sinful, although from the point of view of the scriptures this is absolutely correct.
01:10:14 We know this textbook example, when Krishna had a headache, well, this is a kind of example illustrating the state of mind, or as they say, not the state of mind, or the state of mind of devotees. Krishna had a headache and asked his friend Narada Muni, the sage, to collect medicine. And Narada said to him: “What medicine do you need for your head? You, he says, collect dust from the paths along which my devotees have run. Collect this dust that they ran over, and I’ll put it on my head, and my headache will go away.” Narada ran to the brahmanas, i.e. to priests who follow all the commandments. Well, he explained the situation that he needed dust from your feet. They say: “No, what are you saying, if we give away our dust, we’ll go to hell for it.” Here. Then he ran to Krishna's wives. To wives, to legal wives. I explained the situation, they said: “No, no, no. With us, we can’t, because we would offend God, so to speak, let’s go to the pharmacy and buy something for ourselves.” They also refused. Then he ran to his beloved girlfriends, they said: “Do you need dust? For God's sake, take as much as you want. We have as much of this dirt as you want.” Narada tells them: “But you don’t understand that you will go to hell forever, not only will it make you feel bad, you’ll have a headache there for two hours. You will always be in hell. From now on until the end, that’s it.” They say: “For God’s sake, if He feels better, even for two minutes, for God’s sake.”
01:11:54 That is, this emphasizes the mood of a pure devotee. An ideal that sets before you. We do not say that we are the bearers of these ideals. We say that this is our ideal, which is unattainable. Why did we say before that we have a chance? We don't have a chance. Because the chance of achieving the ideal is zero. This is the ideal in Vaishnavism. We are ready to do anything for the sake of service. Therefore, when they look at, say, Vaishnavism from an external point of view, well, let’s say, you or someone came there for the first time, or I, we look, people in skirts are standing there, banging on cymbals and drums and singing some songs. And we can say that this is completely unacceptable, but if you look, say, into the heart of each individual person, then completely different pictures open up there. Someone came and sang from a pure heart, just to serve. And someone came because they had time to kill. Or because it’s beautiful here, they’ll feed you for free later. Someone asks that their son not be killed there in Chechnya.
01:13:09 That is, one woman simply came, she asked God so that her son would not be killed in Chechnya. That's good, right? But this is not pure service to God. He, of course, will probably fulfill your wish if he deems it necessary, but for this reason they don’t come to God. To God, in our line, or ideally, they come to God to ask: “Maybe you need something else? You have everything, maybe you need something else? Do you want me to become a brick of your pleasure? If you want, I’ll become another speck of dust that you can enjoy.” This is the ideal of Vaishnavism. Don't ask God for something, but ask him to use you for his own purposes. Suddenly he is missing something, and you are right there at hand.
01:14:00 But our teachers, they go even further. They say not to ask God, but to ask his servants. To be a slave of a slave of a slave. Because being a servant of God is very cool. So to speak, being in the upper echelons is normal. There, so to speak, fingers blow. But to be a slave of a slave of a slave and so on to an infinite degree is the ideal of the teachers of our line. The lineage called Sri Rupanuga Sampradaya, which originates from Rupa Gosvami, the six Gosvamis. We don't have an image here. And it was precisely this ideal that Mahaprabhu brought with him - the Lord, who united in himself, that is, if we abstract from Indian mythology, then there is a beginning that absolutely accepts service to itself and there is an opposite beginning that gives this service. And this is conceptually Krishna and his beloved Srimati Radharani. She gives herself completely in His service, and He takes it all away. And at some stage of this relationship, Krishna does not understand, this is the beginning that accepts service, suddenly does not understand what is happening in Her heart there. How is it possible that She absolutely sacrifices herself.
01:15:25 And He is trying to understand, to enter Her. What's going on there? And when this articulation of two principles, the servants and the consumer of service unite, then it is Mahaprabhu, who is standing on the left. He absorbs both of these principles and this explosion of mercy occurs, drops of which are splashed in the material world and fall here to us. And these are the ideals that I, I don’t know whether I succeeded or failed, tried to imagine, which our teachers talk about. Mahaprabhu brought these ideals. That is, Radha and Krishna united together, Mahaprabhu occurs. It is black on the inside and golden on the outside. That is, Krishna is inside and Radharani is outside. And this ideal was brought by Mahaprabhu and we are trying to serve with this ideal and always hold it above our heads. Never bring it down to your level.
My name is Danil, I’m 16. I have this problem, it worries me very much. In general, when in a certain period of life everything goes somehow wrong (either you are constantly unlucky, or friends, damn it, turn out to be not friends, but sometimes you just have a hard time looking at the world because there is so little good in it), I I’m starting to, how to say, withdraw into myself or something. That is, I just start to just dream. And not about better life, money, etc., I’m not really interested in this, but about another world. I have my own ideals of the world and my own characters, and in general, I go into it. This usually happened before bed. then I lived one day again and at night, lying in bed, I again went into my little world. but now it began to happen at any time. Now I go into myself wherever I can. I'm just (for others) hanging out. Even sometimes, when I go into my own world, I simply don’t notice the real world. so many people live and study in order to have a job, have a family, children, etc., but it’s as if I live and study in order to stupidly maintain the life of my “bodily shell”, and live in another world with my soul and mind. At such moments, practically nothing interests me, it scares me, and yet I would like to somehow start living real life, but compared to my world, the real world seems callous and cruel to me, and accordingly, I don’t want to get rid of my world.
Hello, Danil. there is nothing wrong with escaping into your own fantasy world. As you yourself understand, this is your protection from the real world. This means that you cannot cope with the experiences that reality causes you, you cannot stand your feelings, and you run away from both reality and experiences. If you are going through a difficult period in your life and this protection is temporary, there is no danger in it. The psyche must somehow protect itself. A person cannot withstand everything. If you understand that you constantly resort to this defense, it is better for you to seek help from a psychologist. The presence of another person, the safe space of therapy, will help you learn to bear what you currently cannot bear alone. An internal space will be formed, a core that will eventually allow you to cope with feelings on your own, and then there will be no need to escape to another reality.
Sincerely
Sherstyuk Irina Viktorovna, psychologist Kharkov
Good answer 1 Bad answer 0Hello Danil!
The thing is. that in real life you have no INTEREST! Namely, he is the engine of everything! Find an interest in something... and everything will fall into place.
In general, care is a good defense mechanism so that the body does not wear out, but in cases where your actions are not required to solve problems. Otherwise you can get burned in a fire! :)
Trotsenko Natalya Yurievna, psychologist Vladikavkaz
Good answer 4 Bad answer 1Hello, Danil. Those who are unable to cope with the load of social tasks or have a sensitive psyche that cannot react more calmly to a variety of stimuli and troubles go to the fantasy world. outside world. If this happens all the time, you need to think about why. Perhaps your family does not have a warm relationship with your parents and there is no support from them? I think you need to see a psychologist. Otherwise, if you become dependent on your wonderful refuge, there is a possibility of getting stuck in development and personality disintegration. I wish you good luck
Zamazy Olga Valentinovna, psychologist Kemerovo
Good answer 0 Bad answer 1Throughout his existence, a person strives to understand the world, to know himself, the meaning of his existence.
But knowledge occurs extremely slowly, because every time, faced with something unknown, a person resorts to the bad habit of giving everything your explanation.
Due to the imperfection of his perception, with his explanation he completely confuses what he intended to comprehend.
And his exorbitant ego, with the desire to seem smarter to others, and especially to himself, than he really is, creates in him the conviction that the confusion of thoughts that has arisen in his mind is the only correct idea of the world.
The desire to appear smarter reflects only a hidden inner conviction that he is dumber than he could be.
This idea of improving oneself once again demonstrates about the imperfection of human thinking, since he can be neither better nor worse, but only who he is.
Anyone who does not create clear beliefs in himself about how everything should be in the world he perceives sooner or later comes to the conclusion that the world is not what it seems. And this pushes him to the idea that perhaps he is not only a body.
And if a person is not only a body, then what else? It starts with this question self-knowledge - exploring oneself. Self-exploration develops the ability to distinguish the true from the illusory, allowing you to know your true essence.
But why does a person often cannot distinguish illusion from reality, why does he see the world differently from what it really is?
Where is the deception? What is the imperfection of a person’s worldview? How do material worlds arise in human perception from the invisible energy that fills space? And what makes a person believe in his imaginary world as real?
Energy is a bizarre play of its waves, like computer program creates a virtual “perceiver”, who in his imagination perceives the intricacy of countless threads of energy vibrations as objects and events of the material world. Such deception arises due to the imperfection of human perception organs.
The peculiarities of human perception lie in the fact that he does not have devices that could directly perceive energy in the form it is. Eyes, ears, smell, touch, taste buds - these are only devices that perceive energy flows and convert them into electric currents like a CCTV camera, microphone, etc.
All perception occurs only in the mind where these electrical signals go. But, if you look at it, the mind itself is nothing. The mind is just impulses of biocurrents in certain places of the cerebral cortex. These impulses are deciphered by a program that can be called a “perceiver” and which is configured in a certain way from vibrations of the same energy.
The virtual "perceiver" is a program, consisting of biocurrents, which the program endows with virtual feelings and emotions, which are also biocurrents in the cerebral cortex.
It turns out that a person is a virtual spectator and actor who simultaneously watches and participates in a virtual show of a virtual movie on a virtual screen of a virtual cinema, which he himself records on a virtual tape recorder of his memory. The “perceiver” only transforms in his imagination the invisible energy permeating space in such a way that he perceives what is happening as the material world.
The emotions that arise during perception in the “perceiver” force one to believe in this illusion as reality, and daily repeating events allow the conviction of the reality of what is happening to take root in the memory.
This is how a person’s faith and beliefs in the reality of the material world created in his imagination are formed. But the memory itself, where beliefs and convictions are stored, is also virtual.
Everything is only energy - an endless intricacy of countless threads of infinitely varied vibrations (rotations, waves). But then what is energy, who creates it, who is the creator of all this infinite?
People different countries and religions, trying to explain this, call the source of its origin differently:
Infinite Consciousness, Great Creator, Brahma, God, Krishna, Allah.
But not a single concept of the mind can explain energy, because it itself is imagined by the Infinite Consciousness and exists in It as a future wave on a completely calm surface of the ocean.
Sometimes it seems that the whole world is my fantasy. Too often, frankly speaking. And it’s so painful to realize that you are surrounded by your made-up world: with made-up names, friends, made-up events. Very often we add to this world what happens to us in real life, but it just looks somehow stupid against the backdrop of past, invented beautiful events.
I often notice that such people are very self-absorbed. They feel much more comfortable in their own world than in the real one, real world. And these people are very weak. They cannot withstand the pressure of the public, everyday problems and simply close themselves in their imagination. There are no problems for them, there are no certain people. There is only what they truly love and what they want to have, but for some reason they do not get. And very often it happens that these people simply disappear before our eyes.
Here they were, but here they are not.
No, of course, they exist, but they become so invisible that they get lost among people. And to get lost in the crowd is to lose yourself. This is what happens. Gradually but surely, these people are losing themselves. Your thoughts, your appearance, your personality. They try to adapt to the person they have imagined for themselves. And very often, if not always, this leads to complete collapse. It is simply impossible to live two lives equally. One of the lives will still outweigh and you will be very lucky if it is real life.
I don’t argue, there are people who are able to withstand this, who are kept afloat by their own fantasies, not allowing them to drown. But there are so few of these people that it is almost unnoticeable. I often see people walking down the street, and they simply don’t understand where they are going! Either they need to turn or go straight. They just walk, immersed in their thoughts, in their emotions. And they don’t care about anything when they are in their own world.
Most often these people are children. Because of any problem, they plunge deeper and deeper into themselves, closing themselves off from the outside world, from external problems, not realizing that this is just their imaginary world. They use this as a means of protection, not noticing that they are being drawn further and further into their fantasy. More often than not, this is the key event in their lives.
I don’t argue, I also had a world where there were no annoying people buzzing like flies, there were no pressing problems. But one incident pulled me out of there forever. This event proved to me that no matter how good it is in the imaginary world, real life takes place here and its events do not depend at all on what you imagined. It's just very difficult to get out of there. Difficult, but possible. And if everyone tried to live real life, even for a day, they would understand this.
“Are these tears of sadness or tears of joy?
- Aren't these the same tears?
- Yes... Why does everything that starts so promising end in disappointment?
- Not for everyone.
- For everyone who has imagination. You can achieve a lot in life if your needs are small. The moment you allow yourself sweet dreams, you risk finding yourself under their rubble.”
Hi all. I want to share my story. I'm already 21. It started from childhood. I am quite active, kind, smart man, always among acquaintances, friends, etc. Let's just say people are drawn to me, but of course there is a certain amount of strangeness in me, sometimes I go into oblivion and may not call or talk for weeks, or even more. But I think everyone is used to it. Is it normal to believe in imaginary friends or your own world, etc. as an adult? I'm serious. Loneliness is unbearable. And we are all alone. And when you believe that you have your own world, then life can be easier. I have an imaginary world in my head. These are not just a couple of imaginary friends, I have been inventing this world throughout my life. New characters, new plots are introduced, all connected to each other. There are about 5 permanent characters that my universe revolves around. They are like family to me. I fantasize, invent, talk with imaginary friends.... But I naturally distinguish between reality and fiction. Sometimes, before going to bed, I think if I could make a plot out of all this for a book... I have my own script in my head. Completely opposite of my real life. I take some individual situations from my life and always redo everything in my head exactly the other way around. Everything I dream about in life has already come true there. It's all there. I'm happy there. I understand that everything that is there cannot be brought to life... From very early childhood, I began to talk to myself out loud. And now I’m 21 and I still do this. I can imagine a fictional character next to me and talk to him. Aloud. I constantly talk to myself, to my imaginary friends all day long. And the worst thing is, I can't make friends, I have good relationship with everyone, but they are not as interesting as those in my head. In fact, I am happy living in that world, I smile imagining and improving it, but I cannot live like this any longer, it distracts me too much, but at the same time, the only thing that gives me great joy. I don’t understand the reason for my detachment from people, I’m sociable, but I don’t like people, I even seem to be afraid of them. I don’t have any problems at home, my parents don’t give a damn about me, but at the same time they let me decide for myself how to live, within reason, of course. There are often scandals with my father over trifles, we haven’t even touched each other since we were 10 years old, he’ll come, I’ll say hi, and go back to the room. As a child, I had no friends, everyone bullied me at school, maybe this was the beginning of the creation of my world... People are brightly interested in everything, some goals, plans, friends, but I am not interested in living. No. I don't think I'm crazy and my place is now in a mental hospital. I study normally at the institute, communicate with people... I have pets. But in my head I have a completely opposite life. I'm happy there, but not here. What kind of mental product is this? I constantly feel depressed. I don’t trust strangers and people I barely know. Only here... there are things that I cannot tell anyone. I just can’t, that’s all. Experiences, various fears, I keep all this to myself. Gradually, all this accumulates inside, and in the end it becomes very difficult to endure all this... And then they appear - imaginary friends. I always talk to them when my heart is consumed by melancholy and I want to speak to someone... but there is no one. I can express to them everything that has accumulated in my soul, discuss any problem, without fear that someone else will find out about it or that they will laugh at me. When I'm alone, I talk to them out loud. In public, I conduct mental dialogues. Communicating with myself in this way, I overcome the loneliness that constantly weighs on me. Although there are so many real people around... Sometimes my imaginary friends advise me of something useful that I simply would not have thought of on my own. They cheer me up when I'm sad. They calm me down when I'm scared. They force me to do something. Scold for bad habits. Although I understand perfectly well that in fact they are all figments of my imagination. It's just that it's somehow easier with them. I don't know if it's normal to have imaginary friends at that age. But I need them, otherwise I'll just go crazy. I don’t even know what to do about it((Psychologists and psychotherapists infuriate me. Because they try to play the role of “good friends,” although it is clearly visible from them that they only care about the next amount from your wallet. And a lot of time is spent on all these dreams, and strength too. Even now, when I write this message, I feel like talking to one of my so-called “friends”.
