‘Rule your mind or else it will rule you…’

Swami ji said…

The mind is fickle, clever , smart and capricious – switching from one thought to another – changing shades of a thought from white to black , at its will – while throughout , it appears to sit back and mock us – watching us react and respond the way it wants us to – as it knows very well that it has complete control over us. And, this could exactly be the case with most of us ! We respond to our mind in exactly the same way that it expects us to. We are so used to being subservient to its commands – that we obey and follow them blindly, at times, without resisting and questioning it.

If any one is to be blamed for the crisis in which we find ourselves – it is us. So, what choice do we have? Either we let the mind control us and keep us adrift ; in an auto pilot state of a constant wanderer or we make determined efforts to rule our mind, harness its positive energy and remain focused on our goal.

The problem is that there are no structured lessons or tutorials that can teach us the skill of controlling our mind.But, a few practices can help us in controlling our thoughts and emotions. Remember the saying – ‘Change the way you look at things and the things you look at – change’. We will most certainly have to curtail the freedom that we have given our mind to dictate everything that we think and do. We have anointed ‘it’ as our ruler and it rules over us – unopposed and masterfully ; and we like slaves – do as it directs us to do. Why don’t we apply the rule of checks and weights to our mind ? Cross check what it is thinking. Weigh the depth of the words – the quality of thoughts – that it is feeding into our inner being – the negativity of which – we, very often , try to hide beneath a false robust exterior.

We know that a change in our inner being will demand us to control our mind – the thoughts that rise in it. It is upto us to exercise that control and make it happen …’अपवित्र विचार जैसे ही दिमाग मे आने लगते हैं, उनको वहीं पर रोक दो। लोगो की निन्दा करने के लिए जैसे ही शब्द दिमाग मे बनने लगते हैं, अपने – आप को टोको और उनकी अच्छाई पर ध्यान केन्द्रित करो…कोशिश करना बहुत जरूरी है।नफरत ki bhavnaon को नकारो और sab ke liye प्रेम ki bhavna rakho …’ We will certainly succeed, if, we begin to train the mind to ‘listen’ to us , rather than being ‘heard’ by us – and, the ensuing results – positive and constructive – would be there for all to see.

Meditation is a time tested method to help us control our mind and prevent random thoughts from popping in it – as and when they want to.Meditation helps us in exploring our destination. It is not that the mind is devoid of thoughts during meditation ; rather, we are able to venture into the workings of our mind ; our emotions – love, hate, desires and understand how the whole mechanism works. While meditating we are not attempting to achieve only a state of eternal calm , but , rather , we are aiming to pay attention to the present divine moment – without judgment – with a clear ‘mind’ – which knows – ‘who’ rules over it finally.