SB 11.23.59 – The more we realize the mind’s vital role in our life, the more we give meditation a vital role in our life

Transcript

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shloka 11 2359 the giver of happiness and distress is no one else other than Purushasya Atmavidramaha.
Purushasya is the living entity. The living entity is Atmavidramaha, self-delusion. So here if you look at the full context of the chapter, it’s about the mind and therefore it is mental confusion.
Atma can be said to refer to the mind over here, Atmavidramaha. And even if we say Atma refers to the soul, Atmavidramaha means the soul’s confusion about its own nature and that confusion is caused by the mind. It is the mind which causes, which causes the mind, sorry, the mind is the soul to misidentify with the body and thereby causes the suffering of the soul.
So what is the nature of the suffering? Because of this confusion caused by the mind, we perceive some people as friends, some as neutral and some as enemies and this, this is just one set of perceptions but like that based on the mind’s confusion, there is a whole gamut of emotions and illusions and confusion that result and Samsara is Tamasakritaha and thereby the whole little existence with all its ignorance, Tamasakritaha gets created. So here is a categorical statement by Krishna that actually there is no cause of our suffering apart from the mind and the mind and mind there is no other cause. So na anya, very categorical, there’s no other cause of our suffering apart from the mind.
Now there are real problems in this world and we need to deal with them but along with that we also have to recognize that dealing with them is not going to actually deal with them permanently. I have a disease, I take the medicine for the disease, I get cured but I am still in the material body which is prone to disease and there is going to be suffering which is going to come again and again and even when I take a disease and get cured, if my mind is still unhealthy, if the mind still has unhealthy attachments to material things and thereby the mind creates unhealthy illusions about what will make us happy, then the mind will still cause us suffering in various ways. The mind will cause us to lament while we fall sick, the mind will cause us to be paranoid.
Paranoid means excessively fearful and insecure, oh I will fall sick any moment, this may go wrong, that may go wrong and that way we will not be able to be materially peaceful even when our circumstances in our body are not giving any immediate trouble to us. So the whole gamut of sufferings that we experience, they are Atma Vibhrama, they are because of our misidentification with the body and the unhealthy attachments that come because of our mind that is confused about what is its true nature. So the more we become free from this confusion, the more we rise to a level where suffering does not touch us.
We rise to a level where with our steady connection with Krishna, we always stay happy, we always stay peaceful and joyful. So we spend a huge amount of time trying to set things right externally, but what about setting things right internally? Setting things right internally means making sure that our mind is in the right state, mind is not governed, ruled by unhealthy passions, unhealthy attachments. So that happens, that means the freedom of the mind from unhealthy passions will happen when we purify ourselves and the mantra meditation, the remembrance of Krishna is the most potent way to purify ourselves.
So after discussing all this while that how the mind is our enemy, what do we do? We can’t just throw away the mind, we can’t kill the mind, we have to live with the mind. So what we have to do is convert the mind from an enemy into a friend and that happens through purification. The more we become purified, just like dirty water doesn’t allow us to see what is below, but clear water allows us to see what is below.
So like that, the clear mind, the dirty mind does not allow us to see the below the material to the spiritual, but the clear mind helps us to see the spiritual reality, in fact see the supreme spiritual reality Krishna and rejoice in a loving relationship with him and well that’s why we need to give quality time and serious endeavor to set things right internally because that is foundational for our happiness. Just as if we had a job and we were in the risk of losing our job, we would be ready to work over time because we know this is important. So similarly when our mind starts going in the wrong directions, we need to know that the mind’s right disposition, the mind’s pure condition is foundational for all happiness and therefore we need to, if required, stretch ourselves.
That means be more serious about remembering Krishna, be more committed and not take it as equally or indifferently. When we realize that how vital role the mind plays in our happiness, then we will let meditation on Krishna’s holy names also play a vital role in our daily schedule. We will give it the quality time and endeavor and attention that it deserves and then we will get rich, richer returns, far richer than what we would get by doing the best performance in our job.
We’ll get far greater fulfillment, far lasting satisfaction and the supreme liberation, something which you can never get by doing the best performance in our work. If you put that just a similar performance or even a fraction of that quality performance in our meditation, you can get the supreme returns in life. Thank you.