The mind tells the most stories during chanting – how to counter?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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so the mind starts telling its story the most during chanting yes, so what to do at that time yeah the main reason is the mind is like a child and the child children need entertainment they can’t just sit peacefully if something serious is going on the child soon gets bored, I want to do something exciting so chanting is a serious activity so the mind gets bored with it and the mind starts thinking, come on what about this, what about that, what about that the mind starts exploring this, exploring that and when that happens wherever, whenever the mind wanders bring it back under the control of yourself, what this means is Krishna is not setting an unrealistic standard for us Krishna is not saying you should not let your mind wander, Krishna is saying your mind will wander, and we consider this context in the Bhagavad Gita 6.26 this is the context of yogis who have gone out to the forest, 6.11 in the Bhagavad Gita is talking about those who go into the jungle and sit in yogic meditation even for them the mind will wander so Krishna is telling Krishna is not giving us an unrealistic standard that don’t let your mind wander Krishna says if the mind wanders, bring the mind back so the best way to practically deal with the mind is like treating it like a child you know the child the mother will tell the child to study the mother knows if I tell the child to study and go away for 3 hours and if I come back the child will not be studying so after 10 minutes the child will turn on a phone and read something, turn on the TV or do this, do that the mind knows, the mother knows I have to periodically keep coming back and watching the child the child goes off, now the mother just get the child back so like that the mind will wander, you have to just get it back so when you find out, that’s why periodically even when you are chanting you know that 2 hours can become like a uninterrupted horror movie so that’s why even within the 2 hours having some kind of break to reorient ourselves it might be that after one round I may have some picture of the deities in front of me and I recite some words to pray for them pray to them or I just recite some words from the shastra or I just, if I heard some important, some nice quote about chanting, quote about I just remind myself of it so basically periodically creating a break which forces us to become conscious ideally is that the 16 rounds are completely absorbing Krishna but unfortunately quite often the 16 rounds are completely absorbing Maya sometimes it happens the beads are moving, beads are moving, beads are moving and then you realize oh, what was I doing 16 rounds sometimes so it is best to be completely absorbed in Krishna, but if you can’t be completely absorbed in Krishna, it is better to have periodic breaks which force us to become aware of what we are doing oh, I should not be doing this let me come back so that way we can interrupt the story the mind is telling us that’s one thing practically with respect to this second thing is that the mind is restless but it is not, it is usually not unpredictably restless that means the ways the mind distracts us are usually predictable we have certain attachments, it may be money, it may be our family it may be our job, whatever the mind has some predictable things which it worries about each day might have one or two new things to worry about, but overall it is predictable so then we can intellectually plan ok, you know this is I have this problem in my job, what will happen about this what will happen about that if that is what generally comes to us then we can write down if this goes wrong, I will do this if this goes wrong, I will do this and then write it down and keep it so man we don’t have to consciously read it, but if the mind starts worrying too much at that time just stop the chanting go through it, read it at that time you don’t have to make it a habit but what happens when the mind is wandering at that time it doesn’t make the intelligence work so if the intelligence has done the work before and we keep that ready, then oh yeah, I don’t have to worry about this so that way if we have some standard worries not necessarily during chanting but may be during the course of the day or may be the previous night before sleeping just read this, you know, ok these are the things which I have done to deal with this issue these are the things which I have done to deal with this issue now let me focus on Krishna and ultimately ultimately we need to put our faith in Krishna there is a Hindi poet Vaishnav poet has said he is speaking on behalf of Krishna Krishna says tumhara mann mere naam mein toh main tumhare kaam nahin if you chant my name, I will give you the intelligence that you can work well whatever work it is tumhara mann tumhare kaam mein toh main mere dhaam mein if you are thinking about your work while chanting ok, you don’t need me, I will be in my own so if you understand that actually there are in this situation there are things which are in my control there are things which are not in my control and I am worrying about this may go wrong that may go wrong if I understand that what is not in my control is in Krishna’s control and it is that Krishna to whom I am praying right now then that will help us whatever comes Krishna will help me to deal with it right now let me connect with Krishna is it answering the question?