English
21 April 2024
How to control the mind
Speaker: HG Harikirtan prabhu
It's a great opportunity to serve all of you. Today’s topic is Mind. Still mind troubles us. So when we chant and join zoom daily with Guru Maharaj, who is our trainer and he teaches us the do’s and dont’s of chanting and in that way control our mind.
Srila Prabhupada says the best way to control our mind is to engage it in Krsna consciousness. It's our great fortune because we are practicing Bhakti yoga. Srila Prabhupada calls it devotional service, by this we can always remember the Lord.
mana eva manushyanam
karanam bandha-mokshayoh
bandhaya visayasango
muktyai nirvisayam manah (Amrita-bindu Upanishad 2)
Translation: For man, mind is the cause of bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. Mind absorbed in sense objects is the cause of bondage, and mind detached from the sense objects is the cause of liberation.
uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ
nātmānam avasādayet
ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur
ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ (BG 6.5)
Translation: 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.
As much as we did sense gratification, we got entangled more and more.
ye hi saṁsparśa-jā bhogā
duḥkha-yonaya eva te
ādy-antavantaḥ kaunteya
na teṣu ramate budhaḥ (BG 5.22)
Translation: An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kuntī, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them.
It's very important to understand that we are struggling with this mind. If we do sort analysis of our opponent then we can win over our opponent.
And our biggest opponent is the mind. You all are devotees when alarm rings we snooze it then after some time, it rings again we snooze it, if I do it 3 times then the mind gets the idea. It is throwing googly to us and we are clean bolt. Then if this mind keeps throwing us googly then can we hit 6s and 4s on it.
So we need to hit back the mind on its first shot. So it will not trouble us again. One devotee in temple used to chant daily, I asked him the reason he said that I can chant nicely in the morning without getting affected by the googlies of the mind so I can hit 6s on the first googly of mind.
You must have heard about Avanti brahman, he was very miser. His wife and children left him, the people troubled him a lot then he became self realized.
dvija uvāca
nāyaṁ jano me sukha-duḥkha-hetur
na devatātmā graha-karma-kālāḥ
manaḥ paraṁ kāraṇam āmananti
saṁsāra-cakraṁ parivartayed yat (SB 11.23.42)
Translation: The brāhmaṇa said: These people are not the cause of my happiness and distress. Neither are the demigods, my own body, the planets, my past work, or time. Rather, it is the mind alone that causes happiness and distress and perpetuates the rotation of material life.
We keep thinking that the people are the reason of our sadness, but our mind is the only culprit.
yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ
tyajaty ante kalevaram
taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya
sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ (BG 8.6)
Translation: Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.
That's the reason we are celebrating our birthdays again and again. Birthdays are the indication that we failed in the exam.
mano guṇān vai sṛjate balīyas
tataś ca karmāṇi vilakṣaṇāni
śuklāni kṛṣṇāny atha lohitāni
tebhyaḥ sa-varṇāḥ sṛtayo bhavanti (SB 11.23.43)
Translation: The powerful mind actuates the functions of the material modes, from which evolve the different kinds of material activities in the modes of goodness, ignorance and passion. From the activities in each of these modes develop the corresponding statuses of life.
Mind can create hell into heaven or heaven into hell.
uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ
nātmānam avasādayet
ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur
ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ (BG 6.5)
Translation: 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.
Once a man was sitting with his friends and his wife came and started shouting at him, but he was calm. Then the wife thought he was not affected so she brought a bucket of water and threw at him. The husband was still calm, so he made hell into heaven and another example of a girl who could not get good marks in the exam so she committed suicide.
So mind can be our best friend or enemy. If we control our mind then we come very close to the Lord.
mayy eva mana ādhatsva
mayi buddhiṁ niveśaya
nivasiṣyasi mayy eva
ata ūrdhvaṁ na saṁśayaḥ (BG 12.8)
Translation: Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt.
Our devotee in Mumbai, Anandavrindavan prabhu invested and he took the shelter of Bhakti Rasamrita Maharaja and he could deal with the matter. So any issue in life like marriage of children or any health problem he took the shelter of a higher authority and definitely he could take the right decision. He is counting on the will of senior vaishnavas.
So in our life, we face many problems like I took care of my two daughters alone. My wife had left this world and then one day they will also leave us. Then who will stay with me. We start crying and fell disturbed so this opponent our mind is trying to trouble us. So I sat in room and started dialogue with the mind, this needs strong convection with our spiritual master, this mind is taking our test.
The mind is playing tag of war with us. Immediately I started thinking oh my Gurudev is with me, I have to serve him. My daughters were given to me and I’m just a care taker so they have to fly now.
And by Gurudev’s mercy in 15 minutes, I could come out of the situation. We need to win over our mind and again we can be stable. We also face problems during the exams of children. The children become negative.
Once my daughter had final exam and she started crying in the night and was saying, I cannot give tomorrows exam, I can't study. Then I consoled her and gave her water. I asked her, did you face such situation in life. She said, yes papa during my intermediate exams and that time also I gave the exam and passed. So this mind is playing with you. Win over it, believe me you will come out of the exam hall smiling. This ten minutes of positive counselling changed the situation.
Mind says you are useless just leave this body. Life is useless. Such situations come in life but we have to overcome such situations by the mercy of spiritual master and our sadhana. We cant find the solutions.
Once sector 18 project was going on and I was coming from Jammu in flight. I could see the big buildings. This is the matter of altitude but attitude comes. Sometimes because of envy and jealousy we give the chance to our mind to take over us. We should understand that this is our mind and control it.
Hare Krsna.
