The Bhagavad Gita tells us that the mind becomes the best friend of a person who is successful in controlling it. But for a person who has failed to do so, it becomes his greatest enemy. In fact, the mind is our only enemy.
How to overcome the mind which bothers me? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is its nature. Do you know you are bigger than the mind? Wake up. Let the mind be there. Gurudev, how do I recognize my soul mate? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First you should recognize your soul and then your soul mate. You don’t know yourself, you don’t know who you are. You don’t know anything about yourself. You don’t know your mind; your own mind drives you crazy. One minute it wants something and the next minute it wants something else. The mind keeps changing its mind all the time, and it gets caught up. That is why in the Bhagavad Gita, there is a saying, 'Your own mind is responsible for your bondage and for your liberation,' there is nothing else. Your own mind, if it acts like your friend, it also acts like your enemy. If your mind is trained well through Sadhana (spiritual practices), it befriends you, and it helps you. Otherwise your own mind behaves like an enemy. Isn't this so true? It is so true! There are twelve constellations and nine planets according to Vedic astrology. It is said that when Jupiter transits in the eighth place from the time you are born, it has an impact on your mind. Similarly, when Saturn transits the eighth place, it makes your emotions go topsy-turvy. When Jupiter is in the eighth place, you lose all your wisdom. But that is only for eleven months, and in these eleven months, it is only for three months that it makes you so miserable. Unless and until you are in deep spiritual knowledge or enlightened, this will definitely affect your mind. But if you know, 'These are the three months that are going to be a little difficult on my mind and emotions', then you will not take decisions, or do thing in those months. Similarly, every two and a half days, the mood of the mind changes. If you are miserable, it won't exceed two and half days. There will be a break and then it may come again. Like this, the cosmos has an influence on the mind. What can protect you from this influence is satsang, meditation, chanting. All this is like putting on an armour. An arrow was coming, but you have an armor, so it didn't really hit you. So, singing and chanting 'Om Namah Shivaya' so many times makes an armour around you and protects you from being affected by all these crazy things. Where do the thoughts come from? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: This thought came to you just now? Where did this thought come from? It came in you, so why don’t you sit and see, where it is coming from? The moment you sit and think what is the origin of thought the mind goes blank. That indicates from where thoughts are coming. You are the source from where thoughts, ideas and emotions come – that inner space. It is like someone asking, 'Where do the clouds come from?' Clouds are just hovering in the sky. In the same way, in our inner sky, there are three akashas – one is the outer space, the second is the inner space where thoughts and emotion come, and there is the third space which is a witness. Where there is nothing, just bliss. How to get a faith that never shakes? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: If it is true faith, let it shake. Truth will never go, and if the faith is with the truth, let it shake. It will never get lost. In fact, you should doubt as much as possible. You can say, 'Don’t doubt', only when a thing is not a genuine thing. If it is genuine gold, I tell you, go on scratching as much as possible. But if it is just rolled in gold, or gold polish, then you say, 'Don’t scratch too much because it will disappear.' With true gold, any amount of scratching will not make it go away. Doubt is simply lack of energy. When you are high in energy, where is the doubt? Doubt comes when the energy is low. True faith is that which you shake a hundred times and it still stays on. That is true faith, and it will remain. Our scriptures also describe the story of Hiranyakasipu a powerful demoniac king in the Satya Yuga, who following the death of his brother Hiranyaksha, was overcome with envy for Lord Vishnu. He could not restrain his senses and overcome by arrogance, pride, and greed he did rigorous Tapasya to achieve powers so that he could defeat Lord Vishnu. He then committed great atrocities and troubled people. Eventually, he was killed by Lord Narasimha, a half-man, a half-lion avatar of Lord Vishnu. So again we see that when the mind is swayed by the senses, due to bewilderment, the intelligence fails and we commit sins. On the other hand, when the mind is re-strained, there could be wonders. Haridas Thakura an exalted Vaishnava saint could transform the heart of a fallen woman, simply by his exemplary behavior. Despite extreme temptations, he restrained his senses with a controlled mind, transformed her heart and she became a devotee. Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, bandhur ātmātmanas tasya yenātmaivātmanā jitaḥ anātmanas tu śatrutve vartetātmaiva śatru-vat For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. [Srimad Bhagavad Gita 6.6] K Rajaram IRS 5325 On Wed, 5 Mar 2025 at 04:49, Jambunathan Iyer <[email protected]> wrote: > *“A person can rise through the efforts of his own mind; he can also > degrade himself by his own mind. Because the mind is the friend and the > enemy of the self.”* > > > N Jambunathan Rengarajapuram-Kodambakkam-Chennai-Mob:9176159004 > > *" What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you > become by achieving your goals. If you want to live a happy life, tie it to > a goal, not to people or things "* > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. 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