Treating The Mind
In the Bhagavad Gita, Bhagwan Krishna makes a mention of the mind which when trained properly can function as a friend, and when not trained properly can turn out to be the biggest enemy. In one of the lectures on spirituality that I attended recently, the speaker talked about the same thing in more detail.
Let me illustrate with the help of the following example. More often than not in our daily lives, we do encounter several such instances when we feel burnt out and look for an excuse to ditch our surroundings and set off for the Himalayas. While at one go, that might sound really sumptuous, however, the wise people hold the opinion that once you get there, there’s no one to look after you and there if your mind isn’t trained properly, it can go absolutely berserk, resulting in you going crazy.
They stress the fact that even though you do run away from all your problems, yet you can’t run away from your mind, that might start acting weird. Then, how do you handle such a situation? By constant practice of some self-help perhaps, Like in my case, I can say that ever since I have tried to delve deeper into philosophical and spiritual practices, I have found huge benefits — well, to say that the feeling of being complete and happy is everlasting might be wrong, now that perhaps I am still a novice, but at some point, you do feel that you can take care of your problems.
Personally, if I have to say that after reading and listening to our scriptures and trying to understand the philosophy behind them, I can say that I feel better than ever and nothing seems problematic to me anymore. However, that comes with its own set of challenges. Remember, just a few while back I stated that this feeling of being complete and one isn’t a long-lasting one?
Yes, it happens to me also. I have, my own set of lows, and despite all the information accumulated on self-knowledge, the power of the self, the ever-powerful soul, I tend to slip by quite much and hold the opinion that the world or the worldly people are going to help me out or provide me with solutions, only to be misguided all over again.
Quite interestingly in my today’s lecture by Swami Sarvapriyananda on the Vedantasara, he mentioned that in order to accumulate all the new knowledge, we have to make space and let the old accumulations go. Perhaps that’s what is the need of the hour and we have got to hold onto that. That means I have to establish myself to turn more inwards and perhaps strive to live with that feeling.
How long you may ask? Swami Vivekananda says till that very time until even the minor organs of the body blazes forth with that divine knowledge.
