Hinduism: An expensive toy

Rich grandparents of a two-year-old child wanted to buy him an expensive birthday gift. So they bought him a sophisticated electronic toy that worked with a remote. The remote had many colourful buttons for the various complicated functions that the toy could perform. When the gift was unwrapped, the parents were delighted, but the child looked askance. The parents demonstrated to the fascinated child how to work the thing. It moved about with coloured lights blinking and all kinds of sounds emanating from it. The child ran after the toy, but the parents stopped him.

They tried to teach him the remote. It was a dull black thing which the child quickly threw away and again picked up the toy that dazzled with multicoloured lights and sounds. Soon the parents got busy with guests, and the child was left alone with the toy. He fiddled with the remote till it worked no more, so he flung it across the room and Tiger, their dog ran and caught it in his jaws, while the child picked up the toy which had stopped moving, so he chucked it as well. The delicate toy burst open and died. We are that undeserving child whom the Lord has given a beautiful but sophisticated birthday gift, the Mind.

How many of us understand how to use it to serve us? Not able to understand the subtle yet powerful potential of our mind, we misuse it, and it makes us unhappy and depressed. The Gita has a verse which says that the mind alone can be our greatest friend if we use it wisely, else it can be our greatest enemy driving us to death and destruction by taking harmful decisions. The human mind is a gift of miraculous possibilities, let’s learn to use it well.

Prarthna Saran, President Chinmaya Mission Delhi.