Hare Krishna all,
PAMHO,
AGTSP!
I work at a remote place in foreign country where there is no association of devotees, perhaps no devotees. Sometimes devotee friends visit me for few days, but as soon as they leave I am all alone fighting with Maya. There is lot of sense enjoyment freely available in and around the city. I don't go to places of sense enjoyment but when I go for some shopping I have to pass by these places and it becomes really difficult to control my senses. Sometimes I cry out unable to control my desires. When I return home my mind is out of control, I have mixed feeling of guilt, regret and pride. Guilty because my mind was hankering for fulfilment of these desires, Feeling of 'regret' as I left the opportunity to enjoy and 'Pride' as I feel I successfully came out of Mayas trap. Literally my brain and body heats up and I quickly take my chanting bag and start chanting even though my mind is still wandering at those places. unfortunately,even after chanting my mind don't become cool and peaceful. Dear devotees, Please suggest few tips to control my mind and concentrate on chanting even under agitating circumstances. I fear that I may loose this battle with Maya. Thank you.
Yours Humble Servant
Aakash
Replies
Hare Krishna Prabhu,
First thing, train yourself to believe in the following FACT.
Your Physical body, Senses, Mind, Intellect and False Ego(The "I" feeling), THE SOUL. Out of these entities, YOU are not the physical body, not the senses, not the mind , not the intellect(higher mind) and not even the "I" feeling. You are The SOUL. The one beyond all these entities. The nature of your mind is to divide things and look at them and the nature of your senses is to move outside and enjoy the world.
So, now, it is easy to read this but do you really believe(apply) this FACT? When you believe that you are the SOUL, your Awareness/consciousness shifts to The SOUL. It doesn't remain at the mind level, which is your current situation. Therefore, there will be a gap/distance created between YOU(the SOUL) and your mind so that YOU can OBSERVE your mind and its doings under all situations. If you have achieved this shift in consciousness(through constant contemplation/rememberance of the FACT mentioned above), then in due course, your senses and mind doesn't move out. They cease to crave for the outer world. Because, the happiness which you get from BEING your true self, The SOUL, is immeasurable when compared to what you get from the outer world.
So, the question is, can you do sadhana(practice) on this FACT? All you have to do is make yourself AWARE of this FACT always.
Feed your mind, this FACT. You will start feeling that inner peace and happiness from your SOUL.
Coming to controlling the mind, you were not controlling it. You were STOPPING it completely. That is not the way to control it because mind always does what you tell it NOT to do :) If I tell you don't open the box before tomorrow, your mind will always crave to open it.
You have to control your mind like a master(soul) who controls a dog(mind) on a leash while taking it for a walk. You have to allow it to move outside by loosening the leash, but when it tries to run behind something(maybe another dog or some person), you have to pull back the leash. The problem with you was, since you do not recognize the fact that you are THE SOUL, you were trapped in the MIND or you can say, your consciousness was at mind level. Hence you were going through all the turmoil. What you were doing was, you just tied down the dog(mind) to a tree in the park all the while, in the process of controlling it. So, what happens to it? It goes through all the feelings you mentioned in your mail :)
Hope this post makes some sense and you are able to understand it. I don't tend to suggest anything until and unless I have gone thorough the process. So, you can be sure that whatever I explained above was the process I followed and the results, I experienced.
Regards,
Subash
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
First of all, big dandavats to you for the efforts you are making. That itself is pleasing to Krsna. I dont have any action plan to give you. Its just that when i read your post, I wanted to connect with you.
I can understand your feeling of emptyness once any devotee leaves your house. What you can do maybe is to log on to Mayapur.tv and listen to the morning lecture everyday at 8.00 am (IST). If you can attend the darshan arati, guru puja just before that, then its a complete package. You will get association of devotees and their lordships Sri Sri Radha Mahav Ashta Sakhis, Sri Panchatattva and Sri Nrisimhadev sitting in your house. Sometimes they also show Rajapur in between the arati, so you can get blessings of Jagannath deities also.
Constantly engage yourself in listening to lectures, watch temple openings and such programs regularly on youtube. Recently the Jaladuta Yatra Festival in Kolkata attracted a lot of senior devotees and the programs were very good quality. You may watch them for entertainment.
Other suggestion may not work so much - maybe you could shop online so you dont have to go to malls with all alluring sense gratifications.
Keep surrendering to guru and to Krsna to give you strength against this battle with maya. They will help you.
We will pray for you prabhuji. Just a thought, could you consider taking up another job in a place more suitable for devotion?
Haribol,
Your servant,
Rashmi
Hare krishna Prabhu, PAMHO
Do quality chanting, hear each word of the maha mantra , if your mind wanders away say the pancha tattva mantra to get Focus and mercy and keep chanting , Whenever your mind wanders while chanting bring it back and chant again with focus keep practicing this.Dont rush to complete your rounds take time to complete each round doing attentive chanting.