YAKSHA PRASHNAM – SATHSANG PART 5

By Chitra Devraj

Imagine the naughtiest monkey that is also drunk and gets stung by a scorpion! We can imagine how restless it would be! The mind is even worse than that.WHAT IS FLEETER THAN THE WIND? WHAT IS MORE NUMEROUS THAN GRASS?

THE MIND IS FLEETER THAN THE WIND. THE THOUGHTS THAT ARISE IN THE MIND OF MAN ARE MORE NUMEROUS THAN GRASS. (The mind is very subtle which we cannot locate as we locate our other sense organs in our body. It is everywhere inside the body and also outside the body. If I am in Sharjah, the one thought about my mother is enough for my mind to take off from here to India. It just flies from one thought to another thought. If we watch our conversation also, most of the times the starting point and ending point are not connected. When we look at the Badam sweet in a supermarket, the next thought that comes to our mind is ‘when I had the Badam sweet last time’, where and who made it, and the thoughts regarding that person and place take over us.



Ramana Maharishi always compares the mind to a monkey because it is so naughty and restless. Imagine the naughtiest monkey that is also drunk and gets stung by a scorpion! We can imagine how restless it would be! The mind is even worse than that.

The best time to watch our mind is when we meditate. At other times we are not aware of what our mind is doing. If we start noting down the thoughts which comes to our mind in solitude, we will see that they are totally unconnected, illogical, irresponsible and unrelated. Each movement of the body leads to so many thoughts and the mind is the bundle of thoughts. No two thoughts are responsible for the others existence or disappearance. Like the wind which carries sweet fragrance of the flower when it crosses the garden and a foul smell when it crosses ditches, the mind carries positive and negative thoughts according to the places we move around in the day.

There is no need for a seed for the grass to grow. Likewise the flow of thoughts is the nature of mind which grows in plenty every second.

Arjuna says to Krishna in the 6th chapter of Gita – ‘the mind is fickle, turbulent, powerful and unyielding. To control it, I think, is as difficult as controlling the wind itself’. How many resolutions we have taken in our lives?! How many we have truly followed it?!!! The mind is so powerful that it just drags us along in its direction like that of wind.

We feel so blissful during sleep. Then the mind is not at work. It is possible to attain that stillness of mind even while we are awake – if we can learn to control the mind and think only what we want to think. The innumerable thoughts are because we don’t filter anything which comes our way. We are like mobile dustbins with infinite capacity carrying all kinds of thoughts – be it ours or others. Reiki principle says that as we clean our dustbins every day, we need to clean up the thoughts for that day.

Guruji often says to end the day with this sloka - ‘kaayena vaacha manasindriyair…’’- whatever I have done with this body, mind and senses, I offer it at your feet Narayana! When we offer everything at the feet of the Lord, we go empty mind to sleep and the next day is a fresh day, the Prasad of the Lord.

In Thirupaavai, Andal places the responsibility on the Lord Himself, knowing the nature of mind as unsteady like that of wind, to remove all desires from our mind. The desires make us dance, run here and there in life. If we look into our past life, we know this statement is true. The Lord creates vairagya in the mind of one who surrenders and makes him completely engrossed in His thoughts. Controlling the mind is an important spiritual sadhana. Otherwise all good we got from satsangh and scriptures will be blown away by our desires and undisciplined life.

When Arjuna said that it is difficult to control the mind, Lord too accepted that statement. But Lord said that it is possible with ABHYAASA (PRACTICE) AND VAIRAGYA (DISPASSION).

WHAT IS THE HIGHEST REFUGE OF VIRTUE?

LIBERALITY IS THE HIGHEST REFUGE OF VIRTUE. (This answer reflects one of the most important facets of Hinduism, which is acceptance of and tolerance towards other view points. The piece of gold has all the qualities of the bar of gold. All moving and unmoving are born from only one source, the Lord. The last part of the Sathyanarayana Katha tells us how we should behave with respect to other people’s puja, worship and religion. In that story, the king refused to take the Prasad which the cowherd boys offered to him because of his pride. Acceptance is the great quality of a bhaktha. The wise avoid arguments as it is an action of ego. By accepting we grow and not by rejecting. The more one accepts, he grows wider in heart. If our own child stamps our feet, how would we take it!!!!! Similarly other views may be wrong as per our scriptures but bearing it and accepting them as a part of us make one dear to Lord. How our Guru accept us with all our faults! That compassion alone makes one love the Lord as Guru Himself is the prathyaksha Daivam. It is the virtue by itself. Tolerance without accepting will increase the feeling of anger and many negative feelings. They both go hand in hand with each other. Love is the only common language and others are only external practices.

Vidura explains this liberality in beautiful words in the conversation with Dhrithrashtra. Observing true religion, one should learn to regard both the agreeable and the disagreeable like his own self. One should not return the slanders or reproaches of others. Strange to say, when a silent man suffers these reproaches, it is the slanderer that is consumed and the virtues, if any, of the slanderer find a home in the other man.).

WHAT IS THE HIGHEST REFUGE OF FAME?

GIFT IS THE HIGHEST REFUGE OF FAME(One of the eight things which glorifies a man is gift given with discrimination. Vidura tells that sacrifice, study, asceticism, GIFT, truth, forgiveness, mercy and contentment are eight different paths of righteousness. He also added that the first four of these may be practiced from motives of pride but the later four can exist only in them who are truly great. Gifts should be given out of compassion to the right person and not out of pride. If given with the big ego, then it cannot be taken as a righteous action. In the book ‘don’t sweat the small stuff and it is all small stuff’, the author asks every one of us to give something to the needy and not to tell others about it. He promises that it gives us more happiness than sharing it with others. Our Guruji painted and renovated a school in Manipal and the school wanted him to be the chief guest for the opening ceremony. But he didn’t go for the function. Anything we give without expecting anything in return is only the great action. That brings fame. The other kind of fame which comes by big advertisements is temporary.

The greatest giver we remember even today is Karna. The proverb ‘be like Parjanya in giving’ was changed to ‘be like Karna in giving’, because of his sacrifice of Kavacha and Kundala which was his very life. He had never said ‘no’ to anyone in his life. He sacrificed his own life for the sake of his dharma.

Gifts cannot be rated as higher or lower. The giving by itself is a great virtue. Gift can be anything but the highest gift is the knowledge. Through this knowledge alone one performs righteous action. In present days also we give gifts. We wait for the cameraman to focus on us and with a great show we give. What is given without any expectation be it return gift or name or fame, is the real gift. But very rarely people know the true meaning of gift.

When Karna gave the Kavacha and Kundala, Indra spoke great words of praise. ‘Whether you win the war or lose it is a minor matter. You have won everlasting fame. You will be remembered by posterity as the greatest giver. You will be known in the world of men as the man who could defy fate and carve a name for himself in the scrolls of time. It is not given to everyone to be a personage like you, who will be remembered for ever and forever’.

WHAT IS THE HIGHEST REFUGE OF HEAVEN?

TRUTH IS THE HIGHEST REFUGE OF HEAVEN. (Truth is the duty of every human being. It is an eternal duty. Truth is the highest refuge of heaven. Truth is the greatest penance. Truth is the highest yoga and truth is the Eternal Brahman. It is the sacrifice which is greater than all other sacrifices. All the three worlds rest on Truth and nothing else. Truth is immutable, eternal and unchangeable. Pitamaha Bheeshma explains to Yudishthira that the Truth is of thirteen kinds namely impartiality, self-control, forgiveness, modesty, endurance, goodness, renunciation, contemplation, dignity, fortitude, compassion and abstinence from injury. When we hear the word Truth two wise people come to our minds. Harichandra and Mahatma Gandhi performed the tapas of truth. They faced lots of difficulties in their lives but never missed to practice. Our Guru is leading all of us with this virtue).

WHAT IS THE HIGHEST REFUGE OF HAPPINESS?

GOOD BEHAVIOUR IS THE HIGHEST REFUGE OF HAPPINESS (Swami Chinmayananda writes in a letter to children that the quality of our behavior will depend upon the respect that we have got for the association, the institution to which we belong – may be caste, creed, religion, a nation or community. For this sense of belonging, one must know who their parents are and what they have done. Do they deserve my respect? Have they made any sacrifice for me? If we don’t know that, then I am an orphan. If we don’t know our father and have no respect for the mother, we will feel lonely in the world and feel unhappy. We have no moral values to compare whether what he is doing is morally right or wrong.

Character in good part is conduct. We behave as we are. We cannot behave better for any length of time unless we are better. Our scriptures have given great guidelines about how our conduct, behavior should be. This is complete self effort. Nobody forced Harichandra to speak truth, Yudishthira to stand on Dharma, Draupadi to forgive Ashvattaama. It comes out of reasoning between the true and the untrue. One concentrates on love and tenacity on truth. These people still stand in our hearts because of their great qualities and because of their delicate fragrance of the blossomed flower. It is what spontaneously emanates from within the person who has done this home work for bringing himself up, under no outer compulsion, but by propulsion of his own self-chosen ideals of his life.

Good behavior towards others begets good behavior from others. It creates an atmosphere of congeniality in which happiness thrives. Good behavior includes all the good qualities mentioned above by Yudishthira like truth, kindness, being humble, polite, liberality, gift, sacrifice, etc. We can see the Pandavas behaving good in all circumstances which has come as a result of the support and strength of the great mother Kunti and guidance from great saints. Good behavior settles in a man by obeying parents, elders, Guru and to the inner self.

Yudhistira is a personification of dharma. But when Krishna asked Beeshma to instruct Yudishtira about the ways of ruling the kingdom, Yudishtira remained a humble student. A man with a good behavior remain humble learners all through their lives and keep their minds open to all authentic teachings, no matter whence they come.

It is the ego which is the cause of the bad behavior. As Bhagavad Gita says, attachment leads to desire, unfulfilled desire leads to anger, anger leads to delusion, delusion leads to buddhi naasham, buddhi nasham leads to loss of memory and loss of memory leads to one’s destruction of life itself. Even the person may be rich, has great name and fame but feel unhappy as long as his actions are driven by ego.

CONCLUSION:

To control the mind, we need to live a life of discipline. We have around us great people, who are living with the golden values and every moment of life is a tapas for them not to move an inch from these values. This is what the Lord says as practice which controls the mind not to wave here and there. To have this we need to leave certain things of the world. Like to attend sathsang, we need to leave the weekend parties.

Let us lovingly develop the qualities of truth, compassion, sacrifice etc (Gita mentions these qualities in chapter 16 as divine qualities) into our day to day life. Our Guruji always used to say that if we take efforts to develop one of these qualities, the other qualities automatically step into us.

Let us practice here and now. Let us not wait for a new year to begin or any other auspicious day.

HARI OM!