the abode of the mind- beyond worldly desires

Saints have blessed this world in every age. Whatever be their country or religion, their message has always been one: to discover God and to seek release from the karmic - cycle of births and deaths. They did not teach with an intent to lay the foundations of new religions, creeds and sects. Creeds and sects breed fervourous passions and fanatical loyalties which invariably lead to quarrels and conflicts, while the essence of the teaching of all saints is love and harmony among the people of the world. While a saint is alive, we listen to his words. But we do not pay heed to them. As soon as he leaves the world, we turn; we turn to rites and rituals and thus completely forget the purpose of his tenets. We begin ones to manipulate his lofty teachings and the truth of his experiences into sects that serve our own ulterior motives, thereby sowing the seeds of discord and disharmony. We do this for selfish reasons and justify them in the name of national honor or prestige of traditional religion. What greater injustice could we do to these great saviours than to misinterpret and narrow down their teachings and freeze them into sects that are based on partial or incorrect versions of their teachings?

All saints tell us that nothing that we see in this world has come into being on itself. Their must be some creator. This creator is the one lord; we remember him with love and devotion by means of a thousands names. He is the supreme object of our search and our spiritual yearning. An electric bulb, however luminescent it may be, can’t light up the room if it is covered with over a dozen layers of thick black cloth. In spite of its light, the room it is in will be in utter darkness. But as we begin to remove the covers, the room will grow brighter and on removal of the last layer it will become brightly lit. The same way our soul begins to leave the company of the mind and to shed its covers, it begins to know itself. That is why it is said that self- realization is essential before god-realization. All our efforts, all our strengths and all techniques we use are directed towards subjugating the mind and withdrawing it to its source at the top of the spiritual region. Every religion has the same aim and lays an equal emphasis on subduing the mind. We try a thousand ways to control the mind. We turn for help to the recital of holy books, to penances, to worship and bathing in the holy rivers, reading scriptures and religious books, giving charity and burning sacred fires. We even leave our homes and go into solitude of forests; we sometimes hide ourselves in mountain caves. Through discipline we try to detach our mind from the desire inducing objects of the world, but because our thoughts do not become attached to something superior, something beyond, our mind reacts and rebounds and comes back into the world with as much strength and cunning as ever. To control our mind with force is like putting a viper in a basket. As long as the basket remains tightly closed, we remain safe from the venom of the viper; but the moment it escapes, it will again bite. Merely putting a viper in the basket cannot free you from fear. There still lays a danger to risk our lives. If instead we catch hold of the viper and remove the poisonous fangs, it will become harmless. Controlling the mind by strict discipline is like covering a live charcoal with ashes; apparently the fire is dead, but when a gust of wind blows, the ashes are scattered and the fire comes alive ones more. In the same way, when the storms of passions arise, the mind goes out of control and runs into impetuous actions with reinforced vigor. Forcible control of the mind may be liked by the police, so as long as the criminal is in the custody we are safe from his misdeeds. But as soon as he gets released, he gets back to his wicked ways. On the other hand if we manage to reform the criminal through persuasion and thereby make him a good human being, we would be set free from his evil deeds forever.

We generally say that the mind is fond of variety. It tries to constantly change when we see or eat the same thing. If we look back at our lives, we find that in our childhood we dearly loved our parents then come siblings, then friends and the cycle went on n still is . So unless the mind gets something higher than worldly love, it will never be ready under any circumstances to give up the pleasures of the world. There is only one way to subdue the mind and that is to give the sweet enchanting taste of the name of god. The sweetness and the magnetic pull of word will remove all its attachments.