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The grapes are too sour

A spiritual discourse on the nature and purification of the mind.

"The mind is that principle which takes information from the conscious to the subconscious and from the subconscious back to the conscious."

"One negative thought is harmful to your spirituality, to your purity—for spirituality means pure, and pure means clean."

The speaker explains the mind's function in processing sensory impressions into latent desires (vāsanās) and how unfulfilled desires lead to negative thoughts and behaviors. Using analogies like the fable of the sour grapes and a drop of lemon spoiling milk, he emphasizes the corrosive power of negativity and the necessity of good company (satsaṅg) for mental purity.

Recording location: Australia, Sydney, Australian Tour

The mind is a peculiar function within our body. It is the principle that takes information from our conscious mind, or from our awakened intellect, via the five senses: ears, eyes, nose, tongue, and skin for touch. What we experience from the world goes into the subconscious. This is called an impression (saṃskāra). In the subconscious, it is processed and becomes vāsanā—a latent desire or tendency. The mind then brings these vāsanās out again into consciousness, and the intellect gives its judgment: this is a desire to read a book, a desire to drink water, a desire to eat, a desire to do this or that. Thus, our mind is that principle which takes information from the conscious to the subconscious and from the subconscious back to the conscious. When you cannot fulfill your desires, you become negative. Then you feel jealousy. Then you criticize. Then you speak badly because your desires and expectations were not met. It is like the fox who said, "The grapes are too sour." Why? Because the grapes were too high for him to reach. I once thought foxes didn't eat grapes. But this year I saw a beautiful documentary film from Hungary, where there are many foxes and many grape fields. I saw the foxes eating grapes, standing on two legs, sitting and plucking them one by one. Then I came to know, yes, foxes do like grapes. But when the grapes were too high, the fox said, "Don't eat the grapes because they are too sour," or claimed there were only a few left. He told others not to eat them, calling them sour, while he went to eat them himself. Often, our problem is this: we focus and imagine things, and when reality does not match our wish, we declare it bad and negative. In modern psychology, it is said that negative thinking means poisoning thyself. One negative thought is harmful to your spirituality, to your purity—for spirituality means pure, and pure means clean. You have pure devotion (bhakti), pure thinking, pure relations. But one negative, blackmailing thought comes to your mind, and you awaken a sleeping cobra, which then becomes dangerous. It is like having one liter of milk and putting one drop of lemon juice inside; it will spoil the whole milk. Therefore, protect thyself from such infections. There is mental infection and there is physical infection. This is why one must go to satsaṅg (good company) and never go to or engage in kuṣaṅga (bad company). Keep away from this. Mental purification is essential: what you think, like that will be your world. Jai Siddharasti, Vaisisrasti: what you want to see, like that you will see. You see one statue made out of stone. Recording location: Australia, Sydney, Australian Tour

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt, what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

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