Let us try and find out the answer to the question with which we ended the last post- “What is the single most factor which has drawn us so far away from Him?”
There is a sanskrit saying, “Mana eva manushyanam karanam bandha mokshayoho.” “As the mind, so the man; bondage or liberation are in your own mind.” If you feel bound, you are bound. If you feel liberated, you are liberated. Things outside neither bind nor liberate you; only your attitude toward them does…. There’s nothing wrong with the world. You can make it a heaven or a hell according to your approach. That is why the entire Yoga is based on chitta vritti nirodhah (restraint of the mind-stuff). If you control your mind, you have controlled everything. Then there is nothing in the world to bind you.”
(The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali. From the second sutra, translated by Sri Swami Satchidananda)
Dear ones,
God bestowed this one faculty MIND to us and with the mind we are born and with this most powerful mind, we can either exist as God man or live a wretched life of an Animal man!!. I say animal man because, it is only the human being who has the power of discrimination/ viveka bestowed by God on him and when he stops using this discrimination and fails to discriminate between the right and wrong, he stoops down to the level of animal, which is not graced with this discriminative faculty by God!!
Swami has often repeated this quote. Body is a lock; mind is the key. If you turn the key to the right, it is locked. If you turn the key to the left, it is unlocked. We don’t have two keys; we have only one – the mind. The same key locks and unlocks. The difference is only in the direction in which we turn the key. The body is the lock; the mind is the key. If the mind is turned towards God, it experiences liberation -- unlocked. When the mind is turned towards the world, it is in bondage. Turning the key clockwise is the same as turning the mind towards the world -- bondage. Unlocking -- turning the key anti-clockwise -- is turning the mind towards God, which means liberation. Towards the world? bondage; towards God - liberation. So only in the turning lies the difference. One way leads to bondage, while the other turning leads to liberation.
So, instead of pursuing any spiritual practice-Bhajan, Puja, ritual, mediation etc. just because we are in a group where others are pursuing this or because our parents have told us to take up this etc., we should understand and realize that what we call as spiritual sadhana is for one and only grand purpose – “ HOME COMING” or “ TO RETRACE FROM ANIMAL MAN TO REACH AND EXIST AS GOD MAN” or “ TO RESPOND TO SAI’S CALL TO US TO RETURN TO HIM AND EXIST AS HIM” or “ TO DO AWAY WITH ALL OUR QUALITIES DUE TO WHICH WE ARE EXISTING AS WE (EGO) SO THAT WE EXIST AS HIM( GOD)!!
Only when this Grand purpose is taken in, absorobed and realized, any spiritual sadhana, which suits our mental make up, can be taken up on our own, with motivation and dedication!
We hear elders advising us on mind control, restraint of mind, do this, don’t do this etc.
MIND CANNOT BE CONTROLLED
Let us be clear today. Mind cannot be controlled. The more we want to control the mind, the more uncontrollable will it be. It's just like a child. When a child makes mischief, if you beat the child, he will be more mischievous. If you scold the child, he will be more mischievous. So punishing or scolding is not the way to correct a child. However, we can divert the attention of the child. We are not supposed to beat; we are not supposed to scold; we only need to divert the child's attention. Then he cannot be mischievous any longer.
TRAINING AND TAMING THE MIND
Mind is a mad monkey, as Bhagawan has said. The very same mad monkey, when it is trained, will be perfect. It will also help you earn some money. In a circus, a large elephant is made to sit on a three-legged stool. A snake is trained to dance to the melody of the snake charmer. When a snake can be tamed, when an elephant or lion can be trained, why not the human mind? Is my mind worse than a snake? Is my mind worse than an elephant? It is a matter of shame. I am not going to accept that my mind is more poisonous than a snake.
UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF MIND
So, we have to understand the nature of the mind. It is such a soft, delicate, sensitive, receptive, responsive, tender gift of God. We have not manufactured mind in any company or any factory. We are not here to kill it. Our job is only to tame it, to train it, to direct it, to guide it. The very same mind, when it is trained, will become your best friend. Untrained or made an enemy, the mind will become a devil; it will inflict itself upon you. The mind is a devil if it is not treated in a friendly way. Depression and frustration are a sort of a reaction when we ill-treat the mind.
We have so far, for several births, used our mind to inflate our ego and have thus taken up so many actions to satisfy our ego and such actions have added more and more karmas and thus we seem to have been caught up in this vicious circle of EGO---- ACTIONS---- KARMA---- EFFECTS OF KARMA OR FATE IN OUR NEXT BIRTH--- MORE ACTIONS --- MORE KARMA and so on!!
This cycle has to be broken.
Same mind which has drawn us away from God has to be befriended, its power to be realized and it has to be channelized and not restricted, towards Good actions or Godly actions which we often term as SPIRITUAL SADHANA.
Before getting more into this topic SPIRITUAL SADHANA, it is worth while to devote some time and understand “ The purpose for which God has created us”.
This question assumes most importance because, a sincere reader after reading all the previous posts and today’s post may come up with a question “ If man, born as pure as God, has to forget God, get far away from God, waste several births in his stupid existence as animal man and then take up all efforts, sadhana to reach to the point from where he started, then why God created man at all????
Duniya banana wale, kya tere man mein samayi, kahe ko duniya banayi??????
Love