This mind of yours if it is controlled it will become your best friend. Lift yourself by the power of your mind, do not degrade yourself. The mind is a place of its own and in itself can make heaven out of hell and hell out of heaven.
These were the words of John Milton a western philosopher and how true they are. We may possess money fame and power yet if we have not learned to master our mind, we will not experience the happiness and fulfillment that we are searching for. In our life consider the example of one of the richest persons in history Howard Hughes, he had so much of wealth amongst his many businesses he became a film producer in Hollywood and developed a reputation for being a playboy, who went out with many famous heroines.
However by the age of 45 his phobia for germ became an obsession while he felt he was free of germs. He always feared being attacked by them from the outside, his servants had elaborate rituals they had to follow like washing their hands multiple times and covering them with paper tissues, when they served him food he himself washed his hands until he literally bled and he would cover his feet in tissue bags.
If he came to know that any of his servants had fallen sick he would get his whole wardrobe burnt to free himself from the possibility of germs. He became a recluse and practically met nobody apart from his closest aids. The last two decades of his life he spent staying in hotels in the Bahamas, Nicaragua, Mexico, Canada, England and the Vegas.
Finally when he died at the age of 70 he had practically imprisoned himself from the world physically and mentally. He was incarcerated in his own dungeon here was someone who possessed so much of fame money and power and yet he was miserable not for lack of external opulence but merely because he had not learned how to master his own thoughts and inner machinery.
On the other hand let me give you an example of somebody else who had practically nothing and yet is leading such a rich existence this lady's name is Sindhutai. She was born in a poor region of Maharashtra in the district of Varadha. When she was six years old she used to take her family's buffaloes for grazing and while the buffaloes were immersed in the lake Sindhu she would go to school and get beaten up by her teachers for coming late.
When she returned to get the buffaloes the neighboring farmers would beat her because the buffaloes had gone into their field.When she was merely 10 years old her poor parents married her off to a 21 year old. She had three children from that husband. When she was expecting for the fourth time she got involved as an activist the local mafia were using the women to lift cow dung, it was like the cow dung mafia. She informed of these activities to the collector and the collector when he took action the mafia got annoyed, so they incited the husband telling him that sindhu had an affair with one of them.
Now the husband became so annoyed he beat his wife and then thinking her to be dead he threw her into the cow shed, there cow protected her and she delivered her fourth child. She cut the umbilical cord with a stone & took the baby to her parents home. They refused to take her now she knew, she could not return, she wanted to commit suicide. She was about to throw herself on the railway track, when she heard the veiling of an old hungry man she went to provide him solace and food and then realized that if she can help others. She can find meaning and purpose in her life.
To stay away from molestation she was residing in graveyard and she was taking grain and cooking it on the funeral pyres that were lit there. Once again she was about to commit suicide but seeing the homeless hungry children on the footpaths she decided to take care of a few of them and started begging to sustain them. Slowly her efforts grew larger and she created an orphanage and became known as the mother of the orphans. In order to ensure no bias towards her own child she gave that child away in an orphanage.
Now people came to know of her wonderful efforts and they started supporting her. Until she raised more and more children many of them became graduates, post graduates and even phd's her own children came to know and they helped in her efforts. She says the most amazing moment was when her husband regretted and he came to her broken and dilapidated for shelter very lovingly like a mother. She offered him shelter and she says he is my naughtiest child. This Sindhutai Sapkal the mother of the orphans is a blazing example of someone who externally was facing such hardships but lifted her own thoughts, enriched her own mind to lead such a wonderful life.
That's why i say there's a huge difference between the quality of your living and the quality of your life. The quality of your living is determined by the external opulence. the quality of your life is determined by your inner thoughts. Our vedic scriptures have repeatedly emphasized the importance of the mind. Two thousand years ago guru shankara acharya - the first original jagat guru in indian history. He said jagadjit in his prashnavali, he is asking the question - who shall conquer the world? and the answer he provides himself that person who has conquered his or her own mind.
Two thousand years after Shankaracharya - the fifth original jagat guru in Indian history and jagat guru tanmai gurudev(jagad guru shri kripaluji maharaj), he stated - he says look whatever spiritual practice you engage in do ensure that you are purifying your mind because bondage and liberation will both be determined by the state of your mind.
There are those who have learned to master their mind very easily, any negative thoughts or emotions that enter they reject them as unproductive and worthless and they choose to delve on parts that are beneficial, that are uplifting and sublime. They tap into the inner inspiration to lead enriched lives.
On the other hand are those who are slaves of their mind, they don't realize the gap between the environment and their mind because they have never thought of controlling it and hence they feel victimized by the circumstances the situations outside the behaviors of others.
Consequently they ride the roller coaster of their emotions. God has given us all many resources to lead the life we choose to the primary amongst these is the inner machinery called - the mind.How many people listening to this video are blind, most of us have these two eyes each fitted with 120 million receptors with the help of which we can relish the beauty of the sunset at the beach the grace of the eagle in flight the glory of the mountains and the valleys in the Himalayas.
We all have ears by which you are hearing this lecture.Each ear is fitted with about 30000 cubes with the help of which you can hear sound right from 20 hertz to 20000 hertz and you can relish the mirk of children and laughter the rustling of the leaves by the wind and the chirping of the birds.
All of us have got this body with 630 muscles and 205 bones this muscular skeletal system of ours is reinforced. We have 5 million pain sensors that inform us if something is going wrong. We have got 500 000 touch sensors that let us know if an insect is climbing up. The back our brain has got a hundred billion neurons this tremendous machinery that we have.
What is missing our inability to control the inner machinery called the Mind. That is why in the bhagavad-gita lord krishna said - under this mind of yours if it is controlled, it will become your best friend but if it is uncontrolled, it will be your worst enemy. So Arjuna shri Krishna says lift yourself by the power of your mind do not degrade yourself.
In this 21 day series we are going to consider the functioning of this mind,what are the afflictions that affect it and what are the tools and techniques for purifying it and uplifting it to make it our single most powerful resource in our life. I am looking ahead to the remaining 20 episodes of this challenge. I hope to meet you in each and every one of them, now, I, you.
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