DARSHAN TALK, September 4, 2010

Swami Vishwananda: Our Mind

Jai Gurudev! Our mind is one subject that I like to talk about. First of all, what do we understand of the mind? Mind is: thought, experience, limitation, judgment, boring, worries. All these are qualities of the mind, but yet, not the mind itself. The mind is very quick in creating different realities and different qualities. Judgment is the first quality with which the mind is very good. Experience comes afterwards, because throughout the judgment and throughout the worries, you are experiencing everything. So, the greatest quality of the mind is judgment, and from judgment comes other qualities like criticising, the pride and the ego. All these are qualities of judgment.

Continuously our mind is in a judging state. We analyze ourself; I didn't say when we judge ourself. But what happens when we say we analyze ourself? Automatically, you look at all your bad things, all your negativity. You never look at your positivity. You say this is good, let me put it in a corner. But the negativity—Wow!— you will analyze it from different angles and from different facets, and then you will feel sorry for yourself. And this is a quality of the mind, because you are not judging others, you are judging yourself. This is what Christ said! The judgment you see in others, actually in a little bit, is in yourself. That's why you can't accept this in others. Why should that person have it? I don't have it. You know this, because you would like to have everything, and you would like that the neighbor doesn't have anything. This is the quality of the mind.

You know these three little monkeys—one each that is covering the ears, the mouth and the eyes. These three senses are very needed to control the mind. We get influenced by what we see. We get influenced by what we hear. We get influenced by what we talk. For example, if there is gossip and somebody is talking something nicely, people say it's boring, lets put it aside, nobody wants to hear it. But when there is gossip, everybody would like to put in their bits and pieces, because these bits and peices are not outside of you, they are inside of you. When you try to spice the gossip, actually you are expressing yourself. Actually, a clever person will analyze themselves and say, ''Hey wait, what am I doing here?'' But the mind works differently. Like the monkeys showed that you should not see, you should not hear, you should not speak evil, but that's what man does most of the time, because this creates sensation inside.

Take the newspapers, take the media everywhere, what does this create? It creates just sensation. Did you ever see anything good in newspapers? The first page of it is filled with rubbish. And why? Everday it's the same thing, because your mind perceives it, and you see only this negativity, and the mind is attracted to this negativity. And later on when you see your life not progressing, not advancing, then you ask yourself, Why? You say I am the good one and the rest are the bad ones. You don't see that by analyzing what you put inside of you, it is very important also, and not just what you put inside, but how you work with it inside of you.

Krishna said, ''If the mind dwells on a certain object in the outside, one becomes similar to that object. I will not say that if your mind dwells on a pumpkin, you will become like a pumpkin, but you will have similar qualities. You will be lazy, and you'll be heavy. You develop certain qualities. So that's why it's said to let the mind dwell on the Divine; let the mind be positive. Of course one will say, well, it's easy to say, but difficult to do! But, actually, it is not difficult if you train yourself to think positive and be aware at each moment whether this is a judgment, or is this a criticism? You then analyze it not outside of you, but on yourself, and you'll be able to train your mind.

It's very easy just to speak it out, isn't it? As the tongue doesn't have any bones, it's difficult to control. But with training, with practice, and with determination, if you really want, you can change things. Otherwise, like the monkeys, you'll become the same. That's why the monkey showed—don't do this thing, don't become like me. Otherwise, there will be no difference between you and me. This is where affirmation comes in, because if you want to be positive, if you want to achieve a life of a human being and finally attain the Divine, you have to act as a human being, you have to think like a human being. I will not say animal, because animals don't think like that.

Continued tomorrow: September 9, 2010. . .