You know when you decide to do something but for some reason you always just get side tracked. Then you fight it and sometimes you succeed. Then again there are times where you really didn't want to do it but some invisible force just made you do it.
Or is it just me?
The ancient Yoga Texts very easily expose the culprit. It's our mind that has us under its thumb, so to speak. The mind is a tricky monster. It can love you or leave you repeatedly within in a moment. It always comes back to haunt you. How do you defeat it?
With the sword of knowledge we can easily cut the ropes that bind us to constantly have to go through the embarrassment of chasing happiness and running away from distress. The Yoga Texts explain how the mind works so that it's easier for us to overcome its wickedness and transform it into our friend.
Here's an analogy to help understand the position of the mind. The Yoga Texts describe that we, the spirit soul, are like a driver and the body is our chariot. The driver of the chariot is our intelligence. The horses represent our five senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) and the mind is the reins.
The senses are the horses, the mind the reins, the intelligence the driver and the spirit soul is the passenger seated on the chariot representing the body.
Just as our senses are like instruments or tools we use in our everyday lives similarly the mind is also another instrument. The Yoga Texts explain that the mind is the sixth sense. It is like the master of the senses. If you have a good control over your mind then you have got good control of your senses. In other words we are not our minds. So we can breathe easy knowing that the urges, invisible forces and thoughts that pop up and push us around are not us. With some intelligence we can easily defend ourselves from the turbulent mind and prevent it from wreaking havoc in our lives.
We are not the mind and we are not our intelligence. As spirit souls we have the ability to use the facilities of the intelligence, mind and senses to carry out our desired actions. However it's not enough to just parry the attacks of the mind. We need to defeat and subdue it to such an extent it becomes our best friend and no longer bullies into doing things outside of our best interests.
How do we subdue the mind? It's done very easily through the mantra meditation process. The yoga postures and breathing as well as developing a philosophical conviction are some other methods that can subdue the mind. The only thing is that it's not that easy to succeed on those paths.
Kirtan a form of mantra meditation but with musical instruments
By mantra meditation we don't try to attack the mind. Rather the process it to go beyond the mind. By carefully focusing on the sound vibration allows us to ignore the mind and also come in contact with Krishna the reservoir of pleasure.
Here's the Maha mantra:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Repeat it loudly and clearly hearing each word carefully. Whenever we practice mantra meditation we immediately experience a higher taste that allows us to let go of our lower tendencies, which the mind seems to use against us.
Then instead of going the wrong way our mind will help guide us back on track.
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