When children become infatuated with a toy, they throw a tantrum till they get it. But on getting it, they play with it for some time and then start demanding something else.
Our mind often behaves restlessly, like a child. The Bhagavad-gita (06.34) indicates that the mind is fickle (canchalam), but it’s also forceful (balavad), fanatical (dridham) and frenzied (pramathi), thereby making it far more dangerous. When it becomes infatuated with something, it goads us to get it and impels us to fight against the whole world.
Such bellicosity is seen in alcoholics when they sometimes attack their well-wishers who restrain them from drinking. After drinking, when they become sober, they aspire for a better life free from alcoholism. Unfortunately, that aspiration gets swept aside when the craving for alcohol returns.
We may not be addicts, but we too are driven by our mind. At its goading, we slave to get something, even fighting against the world to get it. However, if we do get it, we soon discover that it is nowhere as enjoyable as the mind had fantasized. And soon, our mind starts craving for something else, repeating the tiresome cycle of slaving, fighting and abandoning.
Gita wisdom explains what is truly worth striving for. Everything attractive manifests a spark of the all-attractiveness of the supreme spiritual reality, Krishna (Bhagavad-gita 10.41). Whatever we are longing for, we are ultimately longing for Krishna. Not knowing this transcendental truth, the mind makes us crave and slave for one worldly object after another after another, ad infinitum.
Rather than fighting for such objects, we can use that same willpower to connect with Krishna by practicing bhakti-yoga. Thus becoming purified, we can increasingly relish Krishna’s attractiveness and ultimately fulfill our longing for lasting happiness.
Think it over:
- What four qualities of the mind make it dangerous?
- How does the mind trap us in a tiresome cycle?
- Have you ever craved for something that turned out to be anti-climactic. What can you learn from that experience?
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You are transforming lifes.
Please keep doing it.
I dont have words to express my gratitude.
Thank you for your encouraging appreciation. Happy to be of service.
human mind is a very complex organ
Hare Krishna prabhuji
Your lectures and Q/A audios have transformed me immnesely.
I have been following your lectures for quite sometime now
Can u please guide me in a situation where in I’m moving on the path of bhakti, but on a certain issue i fail to get the support of my family?( I’m doing 16 rounds daily and the ⁴ regulations but unable to completely eliminate Onion and garlic frm food) I don’t want to offend my family on this as they are not very keen on giving up these diet changes
Plz guide me how can I not let this issue be a cause of dispute at home and I too can advance steadily in bhakti ?
Plz also let me know if in near future you have a class scheduled in new Delhi as I’m staying here and associated with sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi temple
Hare Krishna prabhuji
Have answered here:
https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2019/02/if-my-family-strongly-opposes-some-devotional-principles-such-as-eating-onion-garlic-what-should-i-do/