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Harih Om Tat Sat. Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
There is a portion in the eleventh Skanda of Sreemad Bhagavatam where Krishna is giving a long dialogue, having a long dialogue with Arjuna. The subject was Supreme Devotion, Supreme Wisdom and Supreme Liberation. Uddhava had to be sent away from Dwaraka even before Krishna dropped his body. Uddhava was not prepared to go, he was unable to. So, the instruction was to remove his inability and enrich him with ability to leave. He says,
Krishna is presenting again the proposition that mind is everything and you have to touch up your mind, make it the way you want. Some ten thoughts come up in the mind. Six of them are very good. Four, not good. Who displays the ten thoughts? The mind. Then who tells you that six are good and four are bad? The same mind. Now what should you do? You should act upon the mind’s advice. Four are bad and six are good. Therefore, the mind has informed me that four are bad. Do you want to be bad? Certainly not! Then keep them away. Dissuade them. Besides dissuading the mind, there is no other way to drop bad things. You cannot extract them with a pair of tongs. You cannot aspirate them physically.
The only way to redress undesirable elements in your mind will be to honestly and persistently say ‘I don’t want, I don’t want. My dear mind, drop it, drop it, drop it, drop it.’ This is the only way. This requires what? Time and effort. Whenever such undesirable thoughts come, you must not fail in dissuading them. Don’t be tired of the process. You may have to say 100 times, 200 times, 500 times, throughout your life. If the dissuasion is done, repeatedly after some time, the mind will be much, much freer and it will not produce so much of bad thoughts. And there will come a time when the mind will bring all memories which are necessary but neither you nor your mind will feel any strain about the undesirable thoughts. They will have no effect in you. You will not follow them. Then why should they come?
If a friend visits you, if you give him a warm reception and talk to him, you have your affectionate dialogue, then he will come there again. Suppose every time he comes, that warmth and reception are not there, he will come three or four times and stop coming. It is so simple as this. Please understand. The verse that I have quoted is important in this manner. We have to understand it. Our society is very much pāpa-puṇya ridden, ritual-ridden, devotion-ridden, temple-ridden, not ridden, laden, ritual-laden. It is full of rituals, very much influenced by rituals. So, he says,
Seven items he quotes. Dāna, something very noble. Sva-dharma, observing and practicing one’s own Dharma. Niyama and yama are regular disciplines that you have to observe. Srutham, learning. Tirthāni, visiting the holy places. Sad-vratāni, observing very good and noble, religious vows and practices. Sarve, Sarve, Sarve, all these, even more mano-nigraha-lakṣaṇāntāḥ. They have only one objective that of restraining, reforming, refining, purifying the mind. We are doing all kinds of religious and spiritual disciplines, only to improve our mind. And what is the improvement? Dissuading the undesirable thoughts and welcoming and acting upon the desirables.
If you are able to do it directly, using the mind and intelligence, every time when bad thoughts come, you dissuade them, then these media of different rituals, ceremonies etc. are not necessary, their purpose is achieved. So, all these are mano-nigraha-lakṣaṇāntāḥ, they have only one aim of restraining the mind.
Paro hi yogo manasaḥ samādhiḥ. The supreme yoga, that spiritual fruition or crowning glory is manasaḥ samādhiḥ. When you are able to have a sublimated, a regularized, disciplined mind, that is the supreme yoga, he says. See, it is very clearly said there. Now you should read it, or hear it, understand it and make a stranglehold of that statement.
It is in these aspects that individuals differ. One may read, or one may hear. ‘Ha Acha, Acha is it so? Is it so?’ Bus chala gaya. He has heard, but it is not acting on him. When you start applying it, applying it, applying it, I think, day by day, week by week, fortnight by fortnight, month by month, half year by half year, year by year, the effect will be more, more and more, and you will have a very light, peaceful and fulfilling mind. Make a note of this verse and spend enough time to absorb it.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
