The mind sometimes makes us do self-defeating, short-sighted, stupid things. How? By making us headless.
The Bhagavad-gita (02.62) indicates that when the mind contemplates sense objects, it becomes infatuated by material desires. As its infatuation increases, it first tries to devour our memory and our intelligence – that is, our head.
Why is the head the mind’s favorite delicacy, its first dietary choice? Because the head is the watchdog that prevents it from devouring anything else such as our dignity, our morality or our spirituality; the head checks it from forcing us into self-destructive actions. If the mind succeeds in consuming the head, the road to fulfilling all its dietary fantasies becomes clear. When the head falls, we fall (02.63: buddhi naashaat pranashyati).
That’s why the infatuated mind becomes like a cannibalistic demon while attacking the head. At such times, it refuses to listen to any good advice; nothing can stop its marauding march. Nothing, that is, except Krishna. When we fervently chant his holy names and sincerely strive to remember him, we invoke his presence in our consciousness. Confronted with his omnipotence, the ravenous mind can do nothing except freeze in its predatory tracks. If we continue remembering Krishna steadily, the petrified mind is left with no alternative except to beat a timid retreat.
However, when the head is under threat, it may itself freeze and not think about calling out to Krishna for help. That’s why in normal non-threatening situations we need to so regularly and diligently call out his names that it becomes our reflex habit which requires no conscious decision-making. Then we will be able to save our head, thereby saving ourselves.
That’s why our daily chanting is not a casual ritual; it is survival training.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02 Text 63
“From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.”
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