Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12

Catch the current of emotion – don’t be caught by it by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12

In an ocean, there are often multiple currents moving in different directions. To give a somewhat simple example for a complex phenomenon, in the Indian Ocean, there may be a current that moves from India towards Australia and another current that moves from Australia towards India.

Suppose a boat wants to move from India towards Australia. To move thus, the boat needs to catch the current moving in that direction. Otherwise, if it gets caught in the opposite current, then the boat will find even staying in its position difficult, what to speak of progressing.

Similarly, in our consciousness there are different currents of emotions that move in different directions. Broadly speaking, some currents move away from Maya towards Krishna and some away from Krishna towards Maya. If we want to progress towards Krishna, then we need to catch the devotional current that moves towards Krishna – and not be caught by the anti-devotional current that takes us away from him.

The anti-devotional currents in our consciousness correspond to our material attachments. When we let our thoughts dwell on those objects, we place ourselves in the current of emotions that propel us towards them.

The devotional currents in our consciousness correspond to our spiritual attachments, the manifestations of Krishna we are attracted to. The Bhagavad-gita (12.09) assures us that the more we strive to fix our mind on Krishna, the more our attraction to him will increase and the more our desire for attaining him will increase too, thereby propelling us towards him.

Thus, though our material attachments may presently make spiritual progress difficult, we can gain hope by knowing that this difficulty will decrease as we habituate ourselves to fixing our consciousness on Krishna and thereby find the current of emotion assisting, not opposing, us in our spiritual progress.