A phantom called mind

I was awakened this morning by a very joyous song, sung with gay abandon by a construction labourer. It made me question as to what was he so happy about? What was it that he had and I possessed not? It was a happy mind! Man refuses to see the beauty, the health, the fullness of his life. Life gifts him, wealth, fame, power, family, love, a luxurious home, and the health to enjoy it all, but he finds something to whine about every day. Challenges come to all. Even Shri Ram and Shrikrishna as avatars faced unfair situations, wars, and threats to life, but they demonstrated an amazing equipoise, unconditional happiness in all situations.
The game of life is not won by holding good cards, but by playing what you hold with skill and intelligence.
The quality of your life is nothing but the quality of your mind. The mind flits about. It exists and it exists not. That which rises and sets and continuously changes cannot be real. The world is just the thought of the world. No thought, no world!THINK! The mind appears, dances, darts back and forth, and even disappears taking along with it its world! How can ‘our world’, dependent on an unreal entity, be real? Then how real are the ghosts and phantoms and the cries for help that the mind creates? The degree of reality that you give the mind is the degree of suffering it can give. What is it that sees the rise and fall of the mind? Surely not the mind itself! The seer cannot be the seen! Who sees the mind’s dance? That permanent Awareness am I. This pure consciousness ‘knows’ the mind’s appearance and then disappearance in deep sleep. It also ‘knows’ when memory is absent. Who knows? The pure consciousness. Abide in that.
Prarthna Saran, President Chinmaya Mission Delhi.
Email: prarthnasaran@gmail.com