We like our job one day and detest it the next day; we feel excited about our devotional activities sometimes and bored at other times.
Why does our mind oscillate like this?
Because it has learnt from experience that the charm of worldly objects doesn’t last for long.
This lesson can help us realize that no material object can ever offer us lasting satisfaction. However, the mind evades this realization by imagining that the past worldly objects were not enjoyable because something was wrong in the practical details. “I don’t like my job because my boss is lousy.” Due to this blunder of judgment, the mind keeps us entrapped at the material level with the futile hope that we will become happy if we just get the next worldly object alluring us from round the corner.
More damagingly, the mind doesn’t let us stay fixed when we do contact the one object that can offer lasting satisfaction: Krishna. He is eternal and eternally enchanting. Yet due to its default oscillatory habit, the mind imagines that the charm of Krishna will also not last long. So it starts looking for something externally new in devotional service without going deep into the remembrance of Krishna. The mind thus causes us to look here and there and everywhere –except straight towards Krishna. No wonder that we frequently trip on our devotional path, and thereby suffer unnecessary slips and falls.
If we strengthen our intelligence by deep deliberation on the nature of the mind, then the Bhagavad-gita (03.43) assures us that we won’t fall for its traps and trips.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03 Text 43
“Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to the material senses, mind and intelligence, O mighty-armed Arjuna, one should steady the mind by deliberate spiritual intelligence [Krishna consciousness] and thus – by spiritual strength – conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust.”
Leave A Comment