Your Mind Is Your Best Friend And Your Worst Enemy
In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, 'Oh Arjuna, your mind is your greatest friend, and your greatest enemy." Your mind uplifts you, and your mind puts you down. There is no other enemy outside.
When you have a say over your mind, when you have trained it well to listen to you, and when it is disciplined, it helps you grow and becomes your greatest friend. When the mind is steeped in wrong habits and patterns, it begins to destroy you. And the same mind, when under your control, can uplift your life.
When the mind is your enemy, it ties you down to your past impressions and experiences. It does not let you see things with a fresh, new perspective. This is because everything we perceive is through the mind; even knowledge is perceived through the mind. When the mind is your enemy, it makes you judgmental, brings misery, stiffness, and unhappiness. When the mind is your friend, it brings happiness, freedom, and liberation.
Everyone has some control over their minds. To the extent you have a say over it, to that extent your mind is your friend.
When you are unaware of the tricks the mind plays on you, then life becomes miserable. This is because you have based a big part of your life on what goes on in your mind. When you recognise that all these judgments and holding on to concepts about yourself and others are a creation of your mind, you realise the mess created by it in your life.
Whenever you think, things should be this way or that, it indicates the mind is coming into play, which is all part of the ever-changing material world. This is when you need to focus on that non-changing, abstract, invisible energy or power. When you bring attention to it, you are no longer caught in the grip of the mind.
Just look back at your mind and see what drama and pain it has caused. When you do that, when you become a witness (sakshi-bhava), it is no longer painful; it becomes entertainment. The mind is like a multi-channel television running soap operas, comedy shows, suspense thrillers, and drama in your life.
This is the reason why all the great saints and poets have been intrigued by their minds. 'Oh, my dear mind, how fascinating you are! Why do you get caught up in such trivial things? Why don't you recognize that which is so magnanimous and so beautiful?"
How can you make your mind your greatest ally? The secret to handling your mind is just to let it be! If you try to get rid of the mind, it becomes a stubborn monster. If you just let the mind be, it disappears. Just forcing affirmative thoughts on oneself is not enough to handle the mind, because on the level of the mind, what you resist, persists.
This is where knowing a little bit about the breath can help you manage this monkey mind. Breathing techniques like Sudarshan Kriya and pranayamas steady your life force and, consequently, the mind. As the life force rises in the body, one begins to feel a transformation in the mind and not as a forced mental exercise but as a direct experience. One starts to become happier, more creative, and in command of their mind and emotions.
So, the mind can either be your greatest ally or your greatest enemy. You have the free will to decide what to make of your mind!
The author is a humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher and an ambassador of peace. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
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