While messaging someone through our phone, suppose we type ‘Hare Krishna.’ But the phone doesn’t recognize word ‘Hare’ and autocorrects it to ‘Hate.’ The autocorrected message ‘Hate Krishna’ ends up being horribly incorrect. If our phone is fast, then it may autocorrect fast too. And even before we notice what is happening, we may end up sending that incorrect message.

Our mind is like our inner phone. Just as the phone is a digital device for connecting with the world, the mind is a psychological device for us, spirit souls, to connect with the physical world. Just as our phone may have default settings that work against us, the mind too may have similarly self-sabotaging default settings.

When we feel stressed or distressed, we naturally seek relief. If we are spiritually inclined, we may intend to seek such relief by immersing ourselves in wisdom-literature. But if in the past we have sought relief by browsing sensual stuff on the net, then even if we turn towards our device for reading something spiritual, we will unconsciously open something sensual – and may end up wasting hours on it. And the stronger our past conditionings to surf such stuff, the faster our gravitation towards it, thereby sabotaging our good intentions.

To protect ourselves, we need to become conscientious, just as we would be when texting with a phone with dubious autocorrect settings. After typing something, we would double-check what has appeared on the screen and only then press ‘send.’ Similarly, when we are about to do something, we need to double-check whether that thing is really what we want to do – whether it is conducive to our deepest interests. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (06.05) urges us to take responsibility for our mind, engaging it in a way that doesn’t degrade us, but elevates us.

Think it over:

  • How is our mind like our inner phone?
  • How may our mind misdirect us?
  • How can we protect ourselves from the mind’s misdirections?

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