Suppose we are traveling in a plane flying above beautiful natural scenery. A friend sitting next to us is watching a movie and is asking us to watch it too. We can watch the movie and miss the scenery, or we can get them to join us in relishing the scenery.

During our life-journey, our mind is like that distracting friend; it is often caught in its own stream of thoughts. Whereas the outer movie may be enjoyable, the mind’s movie, even if it starts off as titillating, ends up becoming boring or even distressing.

How can we stop watching the mind’s movie? By understanding that each moment can offer us far richer experiences if we learn to live it in spiritual consciousness. The Bhagavad-gita explains that we are souls, parts of the all-attractive supreme, Krishna. Everything attractive manifests just a spark of his splendor (10.41). Whatever things our mind is missing, those things can offer us at best a drop of pleasure. But Krishna can offer us an ocean of pleasure – he is more attractive than the most beautiful natural scenery. And we can connect with him by practicing bhakti-yoga and spiritualizing our whole life.

Consider the ordinary experience of drinking water. The Gita states that Krishna is the taste of water (07.08). By training our consciousness to appreciate this truth, we can relish how he is manifesting in this thirst-quenching, health-enhancing, life-sustaining activity. By similar training of consciousness, we can perceive our entire life as permeated with divine presence, for Krishna is the underlying thread of truth in everything (07.07).

When we thus strive to become conscious of Krishna, our mind will gradually stop craving and carping over things in its imaginary world, and we will increasingly relish his sublime presence.

Think it over:

  1. How does the mind distract us?
  2. How can we spiritualize our daily experiences?
  3. How can we relish Krishna’s presence constantly?

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