Man Dhaaryu Mookvu - Mind Control and Marshmallow

When you were four years old, would you have been able to wait fifteen minutes with a marshmallow staring you in the face for the chance to get another one? This was a classic experiment conducted in late sixties by Walter Mischel a Standford psychology professor. The same experiment was recreated in the video below.

Buckets or Bricks

The classic free throw shot play an integral and important role in the beloved game of basketball. So many movies and shows have all centered pivotal scenes around the mere shot a player takes when he's fouled, but how do we think the one to the left would pan out?

Yep, we ask because there's a clear distraction in this guys' face.

That's what a vishay does - our senses lock onto it like an aircraft missile on a bogey fighter.

Obviously with satsang, some vishays can help us build greater rapport with the Satpurush while others work quite the opposite.

We only hope Mr. Parker (and yes we know that's his wife) got that bit. At this point, it's either buckets or bricks for him.

That's a Rap

In this week's presentation, one aspect of panchvishays that we're tasked with explaining is how powerful their influence truly is.

We feel that this point is better illustrated than explained, so show the following video of how one Southwest steward decided to switch things up.



Or this one.




We all have flown before so we know what he is going to say, but the fact that the audience (and we) won't be able to direct their attention elsewhere stands testament to the power of vishays. In this case the steward only engages two vishays: sound (he is talking/singing) and touch (he wants everyone to clap). Notice also that many people cannot even see him so no sights. When all five vishays come at us, kiss self-control goodbye. Panch vishays can be engaged in any activity - good or bad. In this case it is good that everyone reminds themselves of the emergency procedure. However it would be even better if we can engage the panch vishay on Bhagwan and the Satupurush.

With respect to the presentation, Tulsidas could not have been anymore correct. Try using this as an unexpected start to this weeks talk.

How Long is a Football Field?

With the Superbowl racing up and the fate of the mighty match-up between the Saints and Colts hanging in the air, football fever is high, which is why it may seem silly to ask,

"How long is a football field?"

Duh, 100 yards, but is it?

In fact, our perception of distance can be distorted by none other than desires for the panchvishays as evidenced by a study conducted at Cornell University.

In the new study, 90 undergraduates were made to sit at a table across from a full bottle of water. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to the "thirsty" condition, and given a serving of pretzels to eat. The rest were placed in the "quenched" condition, and told that they could drink as much of the water as they wanted. Both groups were asked to indicate how long it had been since they last had a drink, how thirsty they were and how appealing the bottle of water was. Finally, they were shown a 1-inch line as a reference, and asked to estimate the distance between their own position and the water bottle.

Here's the kicker.

The participants who had been given pretzels to eat during the experiment reported feeling thirstier than those who drank the water, as would be expected. They also rated the bottle of water as being more desirable, and estimated the distance between themselves and the bottle to be smaller than did the quenched participants. Their state of thirst had influenced their perception of distance, such that the water bottle was perceived to be closer than it actually was. 

Bottom line: Their thirst distorted their perception; the thirsty thought they were closer to the water than they actually were!


In spirituality, we see the same effect. The more we indulge in panchvishays, the farther we begin to perceive ourselves from Satsang and the Satpurush. What began as a small indulgence results in a downhill decline.


Controlling desires proves key to avoiding this disastrous outcome.

So try this example out Sunday, and see how far it goes in explaining this abstract topic.