Whenever we don’t get something that our mind is infatuated with, we often find ourselves in a foul mood, where we devalue or even detest what we have got, even if it is of value. Suppose we crave for a particular delicacy, but if some other delicacy is on the menu. Even if what is available is delicious, it may taste like sawdust to us. Life will frequently not give us what we want. That’s why if we are not to live in constant dissatisfaction, we need to learn to use our intelligence to contemplate and appreciate what we do get. Such cultivation of satisfaction is, according to the Bhagavad Gita 17.16, a discipline of the mind. To summarize, even if we can’t get what we value, we can still value what we get.

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17.16 And satisfaction, simplicity, gravity, self-control and purification of one’s existence are the austerities of the mind.