SB 5.11.9 – The mind’s home territory is matter, so be patient in counterting its reluctance to contemplate spirit
Transcript
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Srimad Bhagavatam 5.11.9 So now, Jal Bharat is going into the technical details of how the mind functions.
ekādaśāṃ anaso hi vṛttayā So vṛtti is activities. The activities towards which one is naturally inclined is called vṛtti. ekādaśāṃ So there are eleven.
So what are these eleven things? ākūtayā pañcidhiyo bhimānahā So ākūtayā is the senses of action. dhīyā is the senses of perception. bhimānah is the false ego.
So the mind’s activities go over all these directions. The mind thinks of… mind ranges over these things. mātrāṇi karmāṇi purāṇi citāsāṃ So mātrāṇi refers to sense objects.
karmāṇi refers to the activities which you do with the working senses. Now purāṇi citāsāṃ And purā, the word purā refers to city. So like we have Jagannath Puri.
So it is the scope of action for the senses extends over various things. So it includes the body, the society, the country, etc. These are the areas in which the mind acts.
vadanti bhai kādaśa vidbhumi So vadanti, the wise people say that this is the bhumi over which the mind acts. So essentially the mind generally acts at the material level of reality. It does not act at the spiritual level by itself.
So it has to be consciously directed towards the spiritual level of reality and it does not think that to be its territory, its bhumi. The mind exists at the transitional level between matter and spirit. It is subtle matter.
It links the spirit with gross matter. So although it is a transition, but its vision is downwards, not upwards. And normally it thinks its bhumi to be interacting with the material energy and enjoying matter, not interacting with the spiritual energy and serving Krishna or thinking about Krishna.
That’s why the mind often has to be exercised and restrained and disciplined in order to focus it on Krishna when we try to practice Krishna consciousness. So certainly the default tendency of the mind right now is towards material things. But that default tendency can be changed.
And the practice of devotion service enables us to change the default tendency. But till the default tendency is changed, we have to work for steadily fighting against the default tendency. And when the mind will work in its home territory, we have to restrain it and regulate it within the limits of dharma and invent newer and newer means to reorient its natural working tendency from matter towards Krishna.
So within the material realm, we try to see how we can connect our thoughts with Krishna and we also try to focus our thoughts entirely on Krishna. And through both these methods, gradually the mind is elevated and re-educated so that it starts thinking about Krishna. And the process of mantra meditation is a time when we withdraw from matter so that we can think of spirit.
And the more we think about Krishna during this period, the more the Krishna element becomes more strong within us and then we can think about Krishna at other times also. Even when we are not directly in the realm of spirit, but the mind is thinking within the realm of matter, the Krishna connection is carried on and keeps us oriented spiritually at those times. Thank you.