MMP Talks (25) : "Monks and the Inner Battle" - Keshava Maharaj Swami

[00:00:03] Thank you so much everyone. It's a real honor to be with you here today and thank you for that beautiful introduction.

[00:00:15] I think once they introduced the British Prime Minister and he said after an introduction like that, even I'm interested what I have to say.

[00:00:23] So very kind and yeah today we're going to be talking about the monks and the inner battle.

[00:00:30] And what we often do as monks is our career is to share spiritual wisdom with others.

[00:00:36] But before doing so, we always recite a prayer of gratitude in order to grasp any kind of wisdom or knowledge.

[00:00:46] We have to have an open heart as well as open ears.

[00:00:51] So you can join me by folding your hands and closing your eyes.

[00:00:56] And as I chant this Sanskrit prayer, you can just think of someone in your own mind's eye who you're very grateful to,

[00:01:05] who's taught you something and assisted you along your journey of life and offer a few moments of gratitude for what they've contributed to your journey.

[00:01:20] Om Gyanati Mirandhasya Gyananjana Shalakaaya

[00:01:30] Chakshurun Militam Yaena Tasmae Sri Gurave Namaha

[00:01:42] Om Gyanati Mirandhasya Gyananjana Shalakaaya

[00:01:52] Chakshurun Militam Yaena Tasmae Sri Gurave Namaha

[00:02:04] Om Gyanati Mirandhasya Gyananjana Shalakaaya

[00:02:14] Chakshurun Militam Yaena Tasmae Sri Gurave Namaha

[00:02:31] Thank you so much.

[00:02:33] People often ask me what is it that made me enter into monastic life.

[00:02:39] I was a pretty normal kid, I think.

[00:02:42] I grew up in the suburbs of London in Wembley and grew up in a, I guess you could say a semi-religious family.

[00:02:51] But I think the first thing which triggered my thoughts of life and deeper meaning

[00:02:58] was one day when I was at home watching Comic Relief, if any of you remember that program,

[00:03:04] where they do fundraising and part of the show would always be a clip

[00:03:09] where they would show some suffering part of the world,

[00:03:13] either kids who are starving or a natural disaster somewhere or some war-torn place in the world.

[00:03:21] There'd always be a clip of suffering in the world.

[00:03:25] And as a kid, I remember sitting in front of the TV and looking at this suffering on the screen

[00:03:32] and thinking there's something very unnatural about this.

[00:03:39] Suffering is the one thing that nobody wants,

[00:03:44] but the one thing that happens to everyone without exception.

[00:03:50] Why is it, I thought, that the one thing that nobody wants

[00:03:57] is the one thing that comes to everyone despite their resistance and despite their best efforts?

[00:04:05] As a 13-year-old, I began thinking about this and it began a search for me.

[00:04:13] I began reading different spiritual books. I read Islamic literature, Christian literature.

[00:04:19] And of course, because I had grown up in the Hindu background,

[00:04:23] I also read Vedic Sanskrit literature and particularly the Bhagavad Gita.

[00:04:29] At the age of 15, the Bhagavad Gita became my fascination

[00:04:34] and I began delving deeper and deeper into it.

[00:04:37] And I was thinking at that age what I would do with my life

[00:04:41] and how I would, what goals I would set for myself.

[00:04:47] And I remember one day coming into the monastery, into our temple,

[00:04:52] in the beautiful countryside of Hertfordshire, and I asked one of the monks,

[00:04:59] I don't know, I said, I don't know what I'm going to do in the future.

[00:05:03] And he said something which stayed with me till today.

[00:05:09] He said you have two choices.

[00:05:12] Either you can fill your life with things to show

[00:05:17] or you can fill your life with stories to tell.

[00:05:23] He said you can go for power, profit, possession, popularity, prestige.

[00:05:31] Or he said you can go for adventure, excitement, discovery, exploration, enlightenment.

[00:05:41] That was paradigm shifting for me because in my life only this side had ever been taught to me.

[00:05:49] That life was about power, position, popularity, possession, profit.

[00:05:57] And that a successful life was that.

[00:06:00] But here was someone opening up a whole new world of opportunity for me.

[00:06:07] And so that took me along the journey and after I graduated from university I went to India.

[00:06:13] And in India I found my spiritual calling and at the age of 21 I decided to become a monk.

[00:06:21] And 25 years later I continued that journey, still learning, still improving.

[00:06:27] Today we're talking about monks and the inner battle.

[00:06:32] All of us as we sit here in this moment, we're sitting with many others.

[00:06:39] But we're also sitting with our own inner thoughts.

[00:06:43] Perhaps the biggest battle in the world is not the battle with anything outside of ourselves.

[00:06:51] But it's the battle which occurs within us on a moment to moment basis.

[00:06:57] I'll share with you a beautiful verse from the ancient scriptures related to suffering.

[00:07:03] Because at the beginning of this talk I mentioned suffering.

[00:07:07] And someone who after his life reflected back and asked himself the question,

[00:07:14] why did I suffer in my life?

[00:07:17] And after thinking about it this was the mature conclusion he came to.

[00:07:22] And I'll say it in Sanskrit just so you get a little flavour of the language.

[00:07:28] Nayam janome sukha dukhahetur na devatatmaa grahakarma kaalah

[00:07:37] mana param kaaranamaa mananti samsara chakram parivarta yadiyat

[00:07:46] He said I looked back in my whole life and I asked myself why did I suffer?

[00:07:52] He said I thought I suffered because of other people.

[00:07:59] I was wrong.

[00:08:02] I thought I suffered because of astrology, the planets, the astrological configurations were against me.

[00:08:10] I was wrong.

[00:08:12] He said I thought I suffered maybe because of karma.

[00:08:18] He said I was wrong.

[00:08:23] He said I suffered maybe I thought because of time, because in time everyone suffers.

[00:08:31] He said I was wrong.

[00:08:40] He said the only one root cause of suffering in this world is my own mind.

[00:08:51] I suffered because of my own mindset and my mental state.

[00:08:56] He looked back in his life and he said if I had spent time working on the inner world

[00:09:06] then perhaps every other bit of chaos around me wouldn't have the same effect and impact on my consciousness.

[00:09:16] This is the great opportunity that everyone has in their life.

[00:09:22] 99.9% of the people in this world put the majority of their emphasis in life on the outside world,

[00:09:32] the external world, the surrounding environment.

[00:09:37] The spiritualists, they put the emphasis within on the inner world,

[00:09:44] the closer inner territory that we have to navigate.

[00:09:49] Today I'm going to share with you a little bit about what that inner battle is and how we can win that inner battle.

[00:09:57] Before I do that, I want to share a story with you.

[00:10:01] It's the story of a young individual who wanted to join a monastery and become a monk.

[00:10:08] He knocked on the door and the abbot opened the door and the young man said,

[00:10:13] I'm here, sign me up. I'd like to become a monk.

[00:10:18] The abbot said come in and sit down.

[00:10:21] So the young boy came in and the abbot sat him down.

[00:10:25] And the abbot said before you can join the monastery, you have to show us what you can do.

[00:10:31] So the abbot looked at him and he said, can you tell us one thing you're good at?

[00:10:37] So the young boy was thinking what will I share? Football, bar, not that good. Studies, not that good.

[00:10:45] He looked at the abbot and he said I'm good at playing chess.

[00:10:48] So the abbot said okay, so be it.

[00:10:52] So then he said let's go into the next room.

[00:10:56] He came into the next room and the abbot laid out a chess board.

[00:11:02] And he said to the young boy sit down.

[00:11:05] So the young boy sat at one end of the chess board.

[00:11:09] And then the abbot called in one of the elderly monks.

[00:11:13] And he had the other elderly monk sit at the other side of the chess board.

[00:11:18] The abbot looked at this young boy and he said now you're going to play this game of chess.

[00:11:26] And if you win, you join the monastery.

[00:11:31] And if you lose, you don't.

[00:11:34] So he thought fair enough.

[00:11:36] And just as they were about to start, the abbot said and one more thing.

[00:11:41] If you lose, your head gets chopped off.

[00:11:45] And if he loses and he pointed to the old monk, his head gets chopped off.

[00:11:52] In that moment, the young boy realised these stakes are higher than I imagined.

[00:11:58] But there's no turning back.

[00:12:01] So they began the chess game.

[00:12:04] And as they began the chess game, he began looking at the old monk.

[00:12:09] The old monk looked at the young boy and you know there was a few pearls of sweat dropping from their forehead.

[00:12:16] At one point in the game, the young boy realised I'm not doing well here.

[00:12:22] I really got to pull my socks up.

[00:12:24] This is really a matter of life and death.

[00:12:28] The gravity of what was going on was dawning on him.

[00:12:31] And as he was realising his life or death, he began really focusing his mind.

[00:12:37] He began really focusing his mind to just up his game.

[00:12:42] And as he did that, the whole game started changing.

[00:12:47] The old monk was losing pieces and the young boy was gaining the upper hand.

[00:12:52] And it came to the point where the young boy was clearly heading towards victory.

[00:12:59] And as he was heading towards victory, in one moment he looked at the old monk opposite him.

[00:13:07] And what dawned in his mind was that this old monk is going to die.

[00:13:13] He's not just going to lose the chess game, he's going to lose his life.

[00:13:17] This young boy looked at this old monk and said he's lived his whole life selflessly.

[00:13:25] He's lived his whole life in sacrifice.

[00:13:28] He's lived his whole life in service to divinity and the world.

[00:13:33] And now he's going to die.

[00:13:36] And in that moment, the young boy, he made a decision.

[00:13:42] And he made a decision to start playing the wrong moves.

[00:13:47] Gradually the game turned around and it got to the point where the old monk was about to win the game.

[00:13:54] And it got to the point where the old monk was about to move the piece to checkmate the boy.

[00:14:01] And in the corner of his eye, as the old monk was about to make that move, he saw the abbot raising his sword.

[00:14:11] And as the old man, the old monk was about to make the move to checkmate him,

[00:14:19] the abbot came down and he brought his sword down.

[00:14:23] But instead of hitting any of them, he brought his sword down and he smashed the chessboard.

[00:14:30] So they were both shocked, relieved that it wasn't their head.

[00:14:38] The abbot told the old monk to leave the room.

[00:14:43] The abbot took the chair opposite the young boy and he said, congratulations.

[00:14:49] You're qualified to enter the monastery.

[00:14:54] And the young boy said, what was the qualification?

[00:14:58] The abbot said to join the monastery and be a monk.

[00:15:03] You have to learn concentration, but you also have to learn compassion.

[00:15:11] In the beginning when you were playing and you started upping your game,

[00:15:15] realizing that this is life or death, in that moment you learned concentration.

[00:15:21] And later on in the game, when you realize that more important than victory are your own values,

[00:15:30] then you learn compassion.

[00:15:33] And because you've learned concentration and compassion,

[00:15:38] you're qualified to be a monk, you're qualified for all success in your life.

[00:15:44] It's a very, very beautiful story.

[00:15:48] If we want to be successful in our life, we need a strong mind,

[00:15:55] but simultaneously a soft heart.

[00:16:00] People think that it's one or the other.

[00:16:03] In reality, most people in the world are struggling with both.

[00:16:07] We struggle with having a strong mind.

[00:16:10] Our mind is perpetually magnifying the irrelevant, minimizing what we should be appreciating.

[00:16:18] The distracted mind is constantly inventing stories which take us on a tangent.

[00:16:26] The mind is negative.

[00:16:28] The mind finds faults in others.

[00:16:31] And basically the mind is not able to focus and concentrate on one thing.

[00:16:37] They say, in the beginning we were nowhere, then we came somewhere.

[00:16:44] Through technology we're everywhere, and now we're constantly elsewhere,

[00:16:51] and therefore practically we're nowhere again.

[00:16:55] Perhaps that's the cycle of life.

[00:16:57] Our mind has become so hijacked in different ways that we're everywhere,

[00:17:03] but constantly elsewhere and therefore really nowhere.

[00:17:07] In the world today people don't know how to navigate their mind space,

[00:17:12] how to have that strong mind, that focus and that concentration.

[00:17:18] But simultaneously people in the world don't know how to have a soft heart.

[00:17:24] People don't know how to emotionally connect with others.

[00:17:28] People haven't learned that beauty of unleashing the spirit of sacrifice

[00:17:33] and selflessness and service mood that is inherent within each one of us.

[00:17:40] Nowadays people are more connected than ever before,

[00:17:45] but perhaps they're further apart than ever before.

[00:17:50] Woody Allen, he said, me and my wife, we drive in different cars,

[00:17:55] we have different friends, we eat at different times and we have different jobs.

[00:18:01] We're doing everything we can to keep our relationship together.

[00:18:06] Nowadays people can't live together, people don't know how to love,

[00:18:11] people have lost their softness of heart and therefore we're very impersonal,

[00:18:16] we're very impulsive, we're often very harsh with others

[00:18:20] and harsh with the environment around us.

[00:18:23] The young monk learned that the art of life is to have a strong mind

[00:18:31] and to have a soft heart.

[00:18:35] It's to be disciplined but devotional.

[00:18:40] It's to be as courageous as a soldier, but as loving as a mother.

[00:18:46] And when you learn both of those aspects side by side, then anything is possible.

[00:18:54] The Bhagavad Gita is a beautiful book because the Bhagavad Gita is a manual

[00:18:59] which helps you to learn how to develop this strong mind and this soft heart.

[00:19:07] This ancient conversation took place 5000 years ago on a battlefield.

[00:19:13] The battlefield is a very, very relevant scene

[00:19:18] because when you're on a battlefield there's an immediate pressure that you have to deal with

[00:19:26] but there are ultimate consequences that you're thinking about.

[00:19:33] On the battlefield you have to know what to do now

[00:19:38] but on the battlefield you're also thinking about what lies beyond

[00:19:42] because death is staring you in the face.

[00:19:45] And so in this beautiful book, the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna teaches Arjun how to deal with the intensity of the moment

[00:19:54] but how to also know the ultimate journey that he's on beyond this life, beyond this world, beyond this chapter.

[00:20:03] And what Krishna teaches Arjun in the Bhagavad Gita is how to have a strong mind and how to have a soft heart.

[00:20:12] With regards to the mind, Krishna teaches Arjun that we have to learn to disconnect from the mind.

[00:20:20] Arjun says to Krishna that to control the mind is more difficult than controlling the wind.

[00:20:28] And so Krishna explains to Arjun the first step in controlling your mind is to understand that you're not your mind.

[00:20:37] You're not those thoughts, you're not those emotions, you're not those desires,

[00:20:43] you're not that negative inner critic which tells you you can't do it

[00:20:48] but rather those are just the stream of thoughts which are travelling through your consciousness.

[00:20:55] Krishna tells Arjun don't identify with the mind but rather identify the mind.

[00:21:03] And the first beautiful insight is that if you want to have a strong mind

[00:21:11] the first thing you have to learn to do is disconnect, disassociate and distance yourself from your own mind

[00:21:20] and rather than identifying with it become an observer.

[00:21:25] Understand that the mind is a tool, that the mind is like a browser

[00:21:31] which is allowing you to surf different ways of approaching the world.

[00:21:37] In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna goes on to explain how simply having a strong mind won't allow you to reach your ultimate potential.

[00:21:46] We also must have a soft heart.

[00:21:50] And a soft heart means a heart which is overflowing with love, with compassion, with kindness, with sensitivity.

[00:22:00] And in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna introduces a practice called Bhakti Yoga.

[00:22:06] Yoga means the art of how to connect with divinity and bhakti means the art of love and devotion.

[00:22:14] So Bhakti Yoga literally means the yoga of love.

[00:22:20] One of the reasons why in the world we're living today love is such a frustrated emotion

[00:22:28] is because people don't know how to love in the deepest way.

[00:22:33] What Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita is that when we direct our loving propensity towards divinity

[00:22:40] then it's like a laser beam which is directed into a diamond.

[00:22:47] And when that laser beam is directed into the diamond, then that light is diffused in all directions.

[00:22:56] So when we awaken a loving connection with divinity

[00:23:01] then we learn to see that divinity in everyone and everything in the world.

[00:23:07] And when we see that loving divinity within everything and everyone in the world

[00:23:13] we're automatically kind, compassionate, considerate and orientated in a mood of service towards everything around us.

[00:23:24] And in that our heart softens and our heart is infused with beautiful relationships.

[00:23:32] So this art of how to connect with everyone through connecting with divinity is taught by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.

[00:23:45] And so as monks these are the two things we meditate on every single day.

[00:23:51] Have a strong mind but also have a soft heart.

[00:23:57] And taking some time every day to go into our inner space, to disconnect from the world

[00:24:05] and to contemplate these higher realities is something that everyone can do.

[00:24:13] What we share with people today is that everyone should become a member of the 5am club.

[00:24:21] Because before the world is moving, before the messages are coming into the phone and the notifications are showing up

[00:24:30] before any of the chaos of this complex world begins to bombard us

[00:24:37] we have to have dealt with the inner world.

[00:24:41] And when we've uplifted our inner world then we become much more equipped to deal with this external world.

[00:24:50] And so being a monk is not just an activity of some people, a few unique people who take up that path.

[00:25:00] Everyone has an inner monk within them.

[00:25:04] Everyone has the monk mindset that they can incorporate into their daily functioning.

[00:25:12] And if we do take advantage of these ancient teachings and develop that monk mindset

[00:25:19] then we can have the strong mind and the soft heart which allows us to then go on this journey of life

[00:25:27] and achieve what we're really trying to achieve.

[00:25:30] And remember the greatest achievement is not just to fill your life with things to show

[00:25:38] but to fill your life with stories to tell.

[00:25:43] Because your life ultimately and the quality of it is determined by the adventure, the excitement, the education, the exploration

[00:25:55] the discovery and the ultimate enlightenment of understanding who I am and why I'm here.

[00:26:03] Thank you very much.

[00:26:19] www.mooji.org