A mind at rest is a temple of pure joy. Just as one daily cleans and sweeps every particle of dirt out of the home so should one clean sweep one’s mental home every day. The daily throwing out of the garbage is a must if you choose a fresh-smelling home. Generally, our mind is filled with the debris of disappointments guilts, and regrets. ‘Things past remedy should be past grief’. The mind precariously is dangling in mid-air on the hooks of imaginary fears and possible disasters. Tethered to unrealised dreams the mind’s freedom is tied to the peg of constant anxiety. The mind races on like a fast-paced car that has no steering wheel and no brakes, with me as the sole occupant! And to such an uncontrolled instrument you assign the task of gathering knowledge! The instrument is unreliable.
However, these disturbances are superficial. There is an ocean of peace hiding in us. Sorrows, anxieties, and depression are not external objects of harassment. Our ego hugs onto any form, object , situation or person to feel completeness which it is powerless to grant. We must recognise the true value of objects and situations in life. On deeper evaluation you will notice the undue importance we confer on them, enslaving our joys to their mercurial fancy! Amid this confusion and pain of constant change, the Bhagwad Geeta works like a handbook of practical instructions on the beauty and purpose of holistic living, teaching you the correct evaluation of things and beings and how they stand. This brings about an understanding and the skills of living joyfully to the hilt, and amid existential despair arises love and compassion from the peace that floods the soul. Revolutionise your relationship with the world. As T. S . Eliot writes in Ash Wednesday, with a beautiful pun on’ care’ :
“Teach us to care and not to care.”
Prarthana Saran, President Chinmaya Mission Delhi.
Email: prarthnasaran @gmail.com