Why does the Avanti brahmana say that the mind is the cause of our suffering and not we ourselves?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna.
Question. Why does the Avanti Brahman say that the mind is the cause of all suffering and not we ourselves? Answer. The Avanti Brahmana, in his Gita, Avanti Brahman Gita, which is the 23rd chapter of the 11th canto, describes how there are various factors which contribute to suffering.
But, he says these are only instrumental factors. So, for example, the devatas, the grahas, the people, even one’s own karma. These are not the root cause because ultimately, if you see, here he uses the word karma because he refers to karma to refer to material fruitive action.
Material fruitive action. Why do we engage in material fruitive action? Because we misidentify with matter and the material body. So, that means karma itself is not responsible because we have to look behind and see what causes us to do karma.
And then are we ourselves responsible? Is the atma responsible? The atma is entirely transcendental. The atma doesn’t undergo suffering. The atma doesn’t undergo pleasure in the sense of material pleasure and pain.
The atma is transcendentally situated. So then, what is the cause of suffering? So, he analyses over there that it is the mind that is the cause of suffering and Lord Krishna also confirms it towards the end of the chapter. He says that What is the only… What is it that causes sukha and dukkha? That is the delusion of the soul which is caused by the mind.
The mental confusion as it is translated over there. So, he describes that The supreme reason is the mind. So, sometimes when we blame ourselves for our sufferings that can also have an unhealthy effect because sometimes some people become say, they commit some mistake and they keep beating themselves up so much because of their mistake that they they become discouraged, disheartened, depressed and ultimately they become good for nothing.
So, that is not our purpose to make ourselves feel so guilty and so useless that we can’t become good for nothing. On the other hand, if we blame others also, that is also not very useful because then we try to evade responsibility. So, by recognizing that between us and the world, there is the mind and the mind is what creates the illusion because of which we identify with the body and then we get desires according to the body and that’s why we suffer.
So, mind is the cause of suffering in material existence that indicates that we have to control the mind and then he also says towards the end what will I do? I will control the mind by how? By worshiping the lotus feet of Lord Mukunda who is the giver of liberation. So, the idea of saying the mind is the cause of suffering is to recognize that the misidentification, the illusion because of which we undergo suffering is due to the mind and by this we acknowledge our own pure spiritual nature as souls, we acknowledge the peripheral nature of suffering and we also acknowledge our responsibility. If my suffering is due to the mind, that doesn’t mean that I helplessly accept, I helplessly submit to the mind, nor does it mean that I wash off responsibility.
I recognize that I am potentially pure, I have a nature to be blissful as Atma and I have the opportunity to revive that nature and to reclaim that happiness if I can avoid the influence by the mind. How do I avoid the influence by the mind? That is by practicing devotional service determinately and in fact Lord Krishna towards the end of the chapter says that Therefore in all the ways with intelligence control the mind and how do you do that? fix the mind on me and this is the essence of yoga so Krishna urges us to fix the mind on him and thereby control the mind using the intelligence so the purpose of Avanthi Brahmana’s analysis is to help us feel intellectually and analytically inspired to take shelter of Krishna and thereby counter the root cause of suffering which is the mind affected the mind induced misidentification of the soul with matter Thank you.