uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ

nātmānam avasādayet

ātmaiva hyātmano bandhur

ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ

 

When others hurt me and my mind rushes to judgment,

Help me meet its story with discernment.

May I seek those who challenge my mind’s spin,

And keep me from going into a tailspin.

(Bhagavad Gita 6.5)

My dear Lord, I often misunderstand others not only because I am fallible, but also because my mind is judgmental. My vulnerability to misunderstanding increases much more when someone hurts me—my mind jumps to negative conclusions about them.

O merciful Lord, when my mind starts narrating a story about how mean the other person must be to hurt me in this way and how I should just push them out of my life, let me not buy into that story. Let me remember that its story is often different from reality, sometimes even opposite to reality. When I trust my mind, believing that it is wise, I make myself unwise—delusionally, dangerously, disastrously unwise.

O indwelling guide, lead me to good guides who can challenge and counter my mind’s story, especially when it is impelling me to retaliate hurtfully. If my pride stops me from consulting such guides, let me contemplate that I am already consulting someone inside me who has misled me many times in the past. Since I can never be free from receiving my mind’s consultation, even when I neither seek it nor want it, why should I not be open to other, possibly more reliable, consultants?

O merciful Lord, please protect me from being misled by my mind—internally by granting intelligence and externally by granting guidance.

***

06.05 One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.