Suppose we are driving and come across an intersection with many roads ahead. We need to choose the road that takes us to our destination. 

In our inner world, we are at such an intersection almost constantly, for we need to choose what we focus on at every moment. In our consciousness, many perceptions enter from external stimuli through our senses, and many recollections arise from past impressions in our mind. All these become the myriad options that compete for our attention. And they compete not just by presenting themselves as passive pathways for our consciousness to travel on, but also as active allurements that pull our consciousness toward them. Thus do many things pull us apart in our inner world. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (15.07) indicates that we struggle, being dragged here and there by our mind and senses. 

To do anything worthwhile, we need to focus our consciousness constructively, consistently, carefully. Our consciousness is like a flashlight. If its light is dissipated over a hundred things, we can’t see anything clearly. Similarly, if our consciousness gets dissipated by random perceptions and recollections, our life ends up distracted, dissipated, even dissolute. Why dissolute? Because if we are indiscriminate about what we dwell on, those objects of contemplation will eventually exert a gravitational pull strong enough to drag us down to degradation and depravity. That’s why we need to turn away from the many things that turn us away from the things important for us. 

We can best put ourselves together by putting ourselves with Krishna. He is the whole whose parts we are eternally. Because he is all-attractive, all-powerful and all-pure, focusing on him weakens the forces that pull us apart. 

When we thus put ourselves together, the resulting steady focus helps us become intelligently purposeful and meaningfully productive. 

 

Think it over:

  • In our inner world, how are we at an intersection at each moment?
  • If we let ourselves be pulled apart, what is the result?
  • How can we best put ourselves together?

 

***

15.07 The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.

To know more about this verse, please click on the image
Explanation of article:

Podcast:

Download by “right-click and save”