Thus Spake The Lord

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Thus Spake The Lord

 

 

 

The body is described in the Upanishads as a chariot, the rein is the mind, the senses are the horses, the intellect is the charioteer and the Aathma, the Lord, is seated inside.

 

The mind is like the rein for restraining the horses (senses). Mind is a cauldron of sankalpas and vikalpas (resolves and indecisions). It is a conglomeration of thoughts of various kinds. Sometimes when the thoughts become exciting, it gets upset and throws itself into grief. But in truth, it is just a bundle of imaginings. Just as the many threads woven together make up the cloth, so also many thoughts make the mind. No thought, no mind either. A pure mind is the one with good thoughts or God-thoughts. We have to eschew all bad ideas and bad thoughts and harbor only good thoughts. You should exercise your intelligence and discriminate which thoughts are good and which, bad.

 

The mind is also referred to as self, the pseudo-self. In truth, it is maaya (Once appearance). Everyone says, "I am mentally worried. My mind is troubling me much." But has any one seen this mind? No one knows what the mind is, but they suffer from the mind, from its illusory existence. The worry which you suffer is your own creation. Fear too is self-created. When we imagine the mind is there, it shows up. Deny it or enquire into it, it vanishes totally. Instead of enquiring, we give the mind undue prominence and allow it to ride over us and subject ourselves to suffering.

 

On one occasion, someone came to Shri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa and wailed, "My mind is troubling and torturing me". Ramakrishna gave a very witty reply: "Oh, is your mind giving you so much trouble? Catch hold of it and bring it to me. I will punish it". Ramakrishna wanted to stress only that the mind is but his imagination. It is our desires alone that create the phantom of the mind. If desires are subdued, the mind vanishes.

 

 

 

Reference: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. XV, Chapter 8.