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2024-03-29T09:01:24Z
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The Mind: Magnificent and Mighty by Vishakha Devi Dasi
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/the-mind-magnificent-and-mighty-by-vishakha-devi-dasi
2024-03-05T11:30:00.000Z
2024-03-05T11:30:00.000Z
ISKCON Desire Tree
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<p>Our mind, an aspect of Krishna’s material energy, can be a helpful ally or a hindering foe.</p>
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<p>Some five hundred and ten years ago, after Sri Chaitanya had taken sannyasa and was intending to travel by foot from Bengal to Vrindavan, Sri Nrisimhananda Brahmacari decided to serve Sri Chaitanya by creating a broad road for Him to walk on. What Sri Nrisimhananda created was by no means an ordinary road. In his Chaitanya-charitamrita (Madhya 1.156–159), Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami describes it:</p>
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<p>He bedecked the road with jewels, upon which he then laid a bed of stemless flowers. He mentally decorated both sides of the road with bakula flower trees, and at intervals on both sides he placed lakes of a transcendental nature. These lakes had bathing places constructed with jewels, and they were filled with blossoming lotus flowers. There were various birds chirping, and the water was exactly like nectar. The entire road was surcharged with many cool breezes, which carried the fragrances from various flowers. He carried the construction of this road as far as Kanai Natashala.</p>
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<p>The immense value and natural beauty of the road made it unique, but even more extraordinary was the fact that the road was not physically manifest but was created and existed solely in the mind of Sri Nrisimhananda Brahmacari. Yet Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted it just as if it were a physical road that He could walk on.</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada explains:</p>
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<p>For a pure devotee, it is the same whether he materially constructs a path or constructs one within his mind. This is because the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Janardana, is bhava-grahi, or appreciative of the sentiment. For Him a path made with actual jewels and a path made of mental jewels are the same. Though subtle, mind is also matter, so any path – indeed, anything for the service of the Lord, whether in gross matter or in subtle matter – is accepted equally by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord accepts the attitude of His devotee and sees how much he is prepared to serve Him. The devotee is at liberty to serve the Lord either in gross matter or in subtle matter. The important point is that the service be in relation with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (Madhya 1.161, Purport)</p>
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<p>So complete was Sri Nrisimhananda Brahmacari’s meditation that when he could not construct the road past Kanai Natashala (in eastern Bihar), although he was astonished and at first could not understand why the construction stopped, after some thought he confidently declared to the devotees that Sri Chaitanya would not go all the way to Vrindavan at that time. Sri Nrisimhananda said, “The Lord will go to Kanai Natashala and then will return. All of you will come to know of this later, but I now say this with great assurance.” (Madhya 1.162) And that, indeed, is what came to pass.</p>
<p>We may question this story and how it illustrates the mind’s power, but when looked at logically and philosophically, it’s not only reasonable but also soundly convincing.</p>
<p>In the Gita (7.4), Krishna explains that this world is composed of eight material elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and false ego. Krishna is ultimately the source of these elements (aham sarvasya prabhavah, Gita 10.8), and they and their combinations compose the entirety of what we can perceive with our senses. Krishna wants us to come closer to Him, and for that purpose He manifests Himself in the form of the deity. The deity, although made of material elements like wood or stone, is identical to Krishna Himself. And if Krishna so desires, He can also manifest in the mind of His devotee, as He did with Sri Nrisimhananda. “The Deity form of the Lord is said to appear in eight varieties – stone, wood, metal, earth, paint, sand, the mind or jewels.” (Bhagavatam 11.27.12) If Krishna wants to appear somewhere, who are we to say that He can’t or wouldn’t or shouldn’t?</p>
<p>Here’s how Srila Prabhupada expresses it:</p>
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<p>Bhumir apo ‘nalo vayuh kham mano. So, mind is also another material thing. So if you think of Krishna’s form within the body, mind, it is as good as you worship the deity in the temples made of brass or wood or stone. Because both of them are Krishna’s energy. Whatever possible, He can accept. And that is Krishna, because it is Krishna’s energy. Therefore the energy is not different from Krishna. Krishna can accept your service in any of these material … , so-called material. Actually there are no material things. Material things means the desire for sense gratification. That is material. (Room Conversation, Sept. 19, 1973, Bombay)</p>
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<p>We may not be expert enough to worship and serve the deity within our mind, but we can give credit to those who are expert enough and marvel at how Krishna reciprocates with them.</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada writes (Bhagavatam 4.30.28, Purport):</p>
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<p>There is a story about a brahmana who was offering sweet rice to the Lord within his mind. The brahmana had no money or any means of worshiping the Deity, but within his mind he arranged everything nicely. He had gold pots to bring water from the sacred rivers to wash the Deity, and he offered the Deity very sumptuous food, including sweet rice. Once, before he offered the sweet rice, he thought that it was too hot, and he thought, “Oh, let me test it. My, it is very hot.” When he put his finger in the sweet rice to test it, his finger was burned and his meditation broken. Although he was offering food to the Lord within his mind, the Lord accepted it nonetheless. Consequently, the Lord in Vaikuntha immediately sent a chariot to bring the brahmana back home, back to Godhead.</p>
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<h3>How Is This Relevant to Me?</h3>
<p>On one hand, our mind limits our spiritual quest: “The mind cannot catch You [the Lord] by speculation, and words fail to describe You.” (Bhagavatam 8.5.26) Worse, the mind can be our archenemy: “Except for the uncontrolled and misguided mind, there is no enemy within this world.” (Bhagavatam 7.8.9)</p>
<p>Yet, as we’ve seen above, that very mind can bring us to Krishna and His abode. The mind is so powerful that our very destiny depends on how it’s situated: “Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.” (Gita 8.6)</p>
<p>If we’re worshiping the deity in the temple and our mind is distracted, a mere show of worship will not be of any benefit. (Bhagavatam 5.8.14, Purport) But if our mind is focused on pleasing Krishna, then we can please Him whatever our material circumstances. Srila Prabhupada: “The whole yogic system is to convert the mind from matter to spirit. You can utilize the mind in both ways. When the mind is spiritually trained up, it is the best friend of the soul, and when the mind is materially polluted, it is the worst enemy.” (Letter, Sept. 28, 1975)</p>
<h3>Personal Experience</h3>
<p>In almost three quarters of a century in dealing with my own particular mind, I’ve found a few tools that help me befriend it. One is to recognize and respect its overarching power. Sometimes everything can be fine externally but my disturbed mind doesn’t allow me to appreciate anything. In fact, everything seems terrible. And the opposite occurs as well. The holocaust survivor Victor Frankl said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Such a choice takes mind control.</p>
<p>I must remember that my mind is not me but something covering me, the atma, or spiritual being, and not take the mind so seriously. Rather, I can acknowledge its condition, become detached from it, and neglect it. Srila Prabhupada writes, “There is one easy weapon with which the mind can be conquered – disobedience. The mind is always telling us to do this or that; therefore we should be very expert in disobeying the mind’s orders. Gradually the mind should be trained to obey the orders of the soul. It is not that one should obey the orders of the mind.” (Bhagavatam 5.11.17, Purport)</p>
<p>Boundaries also help keep the mind friendly. From the beginning of establishing the Hare Krishna movement, Srila Prabhupada requested all his initiated disciples to chant Hare Krishna and follow four regulations. These are firm activities and boundaries that, when followed with the intent of advancing spiritually, do wonders to control and calm the mind. “A person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord.” (Gita 2.64) Krishna helps the sincere practitioner.</p>
<p>Another tool that I’ve found helpful for keeping the mind in check is a regular daily schedule. Srila Prabhupada writes of the detriment of irregular habits. “Overeating, over–sense gratification, overdependence on another’s mercy, and artificial standards of living sap the very vitality of human energy.” (Bhagavatam 1.1.10, Purport) Srila Prabhupada’s awareness of Krishna was always fresh and vibrant, never hackneyed or stereotyped, and at the same time he generally followed a predictable pattern in his days, rising early to translate, take a morning walk, lecture, have breakfast, and so forth (although he was flexible for special occasions). We can follow this in spirit and establish a regular routine for sleeping, rising, and performing our daily activities, for this helps train the mind to function even if it’s disturbed.</p>
<p>Bhagavad-gita tells us that if one is too austere or too sensuous one cannot control the mind. This is confirmed in Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.20.21):</p>
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<p>An expert horseman, desiring to tame a headstrong horse, first lets the horse have his way for a moment and then, pulling the reins, gradually places the horse on the desired path. Similarly, the supreme yoga process is that by which one carefully observes the movements and desires of the mind and gradually brings them under full control.</p>
<p>Purport: Just as an expert rider intimately knows the propensities of an untamed horse and gradually brings the horse under control, an expert yogi allows the mind to reveal its materialistic propensities and then controls them through superior intelligence. A learned transcendentalist withholds and supplies sense objects so that the mind and senses remain fully controlled, just as the horseman sometimes pulls sharply on the reins and sometimes allows the horse to run freely. The rider never forgets his actual goal or destination, and eventually places the horse on the right path. Similarly, a learned transcendentalist, even though sometimes allowing the senses to act, never forgets the goal of self-realization, nor does he allow the senses to engage in sinful activity. Excessive austerity or restriction may result in great mental disturbance, just as pulling excessively on the reins of a horse may cause the horse to rear up against the rider. The path of self-realization depends upon clear intelligence, and the easiest way to acquire such expertise is surrender to Lord Krishna. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (10.10):</p>
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<div>tesham satata-yuktanam</div>
<div>bhajatam priti-purvakam</div>
<div>dadami buddhi-yogam tam</div>
<div>yena mam upayanti te</div>
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<p>One may not be a great scholar or spiritual intellect, but if one is sincerely engaged in loving service to the Lord without personal envy or personal motivation the Lord will reveal from within the heart the methodology required to control the mind. Expertly riding the waves of mental desire, a Krishna conscious person does not fall from the saddle, and he eventually rides all the way back home, back to Godhead.</p>
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<p>So we befriend our mighty mind through knowledge (“I am a spiritual being”), detachment (“I am not my mind”), purity (chanting Hare Krishna), regulation, and especially through our correct intention. That intention is to come closer to Krishna, and we do that by serving Him with devotion. “Please try to conquer this mind by the weapon of service to the lotus feet of the spiritual master and of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Do this with great care.” (Bhagavatam 5.11.17)</p>
<p>Ultimately our success will be when we relish and rejoice in all aspects of spiritual life. At that time we will be naturally absorbed in Krishna, His devotees, and His service, and will serve Him however we’re able, including within our mind, just as Sri Nrisimhananda Brahmacari did.</p>
<p>Srila Prabhupada writes (Bhagavatam 5.11.8, Purport), “The mind is the cause of material existence and liberation also. Everyone is suffering in this material world because of the mind; it is therefore proper to train the mind or to cleanse the mind from material attachment and engage it fully in the Lord’s service. This is called spiritual engagement.”<br /> <br /> <strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://dandavats.tumblr.com/post/677428191235817473/the-mind-magnificent-and-mighty">https://dandavats.tumblr.com/post/677428191235817473/the-mind-magnificent-and-mighty</a></p></div>
Fortify Yourself – Cultivate Inner Happiness by Vaisesika Dasa
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/fortify-yourself-cultivate-inner-happiness-by-vaisesika-dasa-1
2024-02-08T09:30:00.000Z
2024-02-08T09:30:00.000Z
ISKCON Desire Tree
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<p>As long as we are in this world, we have to work and interact with it. It’s hardly practical, or desirable, to ignore the world or the loving relationships we have with the people in it. Nor is it possible to completely avoid environments fraught with negativity and lower vibrations. So how does one fortify oneself from being influenced by these energies?</p>
<p>Those who daily engage in spiritual practice are content because they enjoy pleasure from within. They understand that everything has a relationship with the Supreme and that everything is meant to be used in service to the Supreme. Feeling fulfilled, they move about the world without being disturbed by even the most agitating sights and sounds. In contrast, those lacking such inner peace are like consumers who shop when they are hungry or restless. Bewildered by unlimited choices, they indiscriminately buy what they don’t need, or things that are bad for them.</p>
<p>People who connect daily, especially as dawn breaks, with the Divine through bhakti yoga feel contentment and inner strength. When we meditate on sublime mantras, read elevated books like the Bhagavad-gita, hear from sadhus, and dedicate our work to the Supreme, we become fulfilled. Armed with such a higher taste, we naturally forego the nonessential and are able to make wise, discriminate choices.</p>
<p>I recently attended a memorial service for one of my best friends from high school. After the ceremony, I conversed with the other attendees, some of whom were drinking wine. I noticed that the more they drank the less able they were to understand subtle concepts. For example, one of my old high school teachers, knowing that I had joined a monastery after my junior year, asked me about the course of my life and the philosophy I was following. I explained to her the concept that we are not our physical bodies but spiritual beings. Initially, she had a keen interest and was beginning to resonate with the concept, but the more wine she consumed the less she could process our conversation. She had embraced the lower energy of the alcohol. I was simply observing and marveling at how this lower energy was working. I thought, “Be careful what you feed your mind.”</p>
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<p>Please drop me a note with your realizations or if you have any questions/comments using <a href="http://vaisesikadasa.com/next-steps/ask-vaish/#askvaish">Ask Vaish</a> form. I would really like to hear from you.</p>
<div><strong>Source: </strong><a href="https://vaisesikadasa.com/en/fortify-yourself-cultivate-inner-happiness/">https://vaisesikadasa.com/en/fortify-yourself-cultivate-inner-happiness/</a></div>
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Somehow Fix Your Mind on Krishna
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/somehow-fix-your-mind-on-krishna
2024-02-05T07:30:00.000Z
2024-02-05T07:30:00.000Z
ISKCON Desire Tree
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<p style="text-align:justify;"><strong>From Back to Godhead</strong></p>
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<p style="text-align:justify;">By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada<br /> Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness<br /> Lecture given in Vrindavan, India on October 26, 1972</p>
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<p style="text-align:justify;">Any contact with Krishna purifies our consciousness and gradually qualifies us for eternal loving exchanges with Him.</p>
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<p style="text-align:justify;">Pradyumna Dasa, Srila Prabhupada’s Sanskrit editor, begins reading The Nectar of Devotion, Introduction: “Invoking auspiciousness: Lord Sri Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the reservoir of all rasas, or relationships, which are called neutrality, or passive adoration, servitorship, friendship, parenthood, conjugal love, comedy, compassion, fear, chivalry, ghastliness, wonder, and devastation. He is the supreme attractive form, and by His universal and transcendental attractive features, He has captivated all the gopis, headed by Taraka, Palika, Syama, Lalita, and ultimately, Srimati Radharani. Let His Lordship’s grace be on us so that there may not be any hindrance in the execution of this duty of writing The Nectar of Devotion, impelled by His Divine Grace Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Prabhupada.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;"><strong>Srila Prabhupada: </strong>Krishna is described as akhila-rasamrita-sindhu, “the ocean of rasas.” There are five primary rasas. Rasa means the mellow or the taste we enjoy in every activity. Everything is done with some taste. Whatever you do, you must enjoy some taste out of it. There are twelve rasas, out of which five are primary and seven are secondary. They are described in this book.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">For example, we can consider Bhishma, the grandfather of the Pandavas. During the Battle of Kurukshetra, he fought on the side of Duryodhana, against the Pandavas.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Duryodhana criticized Bhishma: “My dear grandfather, you are not fighting with full strength against Arjuna because he and the other Pandavas are your grandsons and you have natural affection for them. I think you are not fighting according to your strength. Otherwise, they would have been finished by this time.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Bhishma could understand his criticism, so he promised immediately, “Tomorrow I shall finish all these five brothers. Will that make you happy? I have kept five arrows to be used tomorrow to kill these five brothers.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Duryodhana was doubtful, so he requested, “My dear grandfather, may I keep the five arrows with me? You can take them from me tomorrow and use them.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“All right, you keep them.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Krishna could understand. “Bhishma has promised to kill the Pandavas tomorrow, and he has selected five arrows for them.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Krishna has to protect His devotees, so He told Arjuna, “Duryodhana once promised to give you a benediction. Now is the opportunity to accept it. Go to Duryodhana. He has kept five arrows very carefully; take them from him.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Arjuna went to Duryodhana because after fighting, in the evening, they were friends. There was no enmity. One man could go to the other’s camp as a friend, a brother. When Arjuna arrived, Duryodhana received him well. That is the Vedic etiquette.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“Arjuna, why have you come? Ask something from me. I am ready to give you anything. If you want the kingdom without fighting – if you have come for that purpose – I’ll give it to you.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Arjuna said, “No, my dear brother, I’ve not come for that purpose. But remember that you wanted to give me a benediction? I have come for that.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“Yes, I am prepared to give it.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“Give me those five arrows.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Duryodhana immediately delivered the arrows to Arjuna.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">The next morning, Bhishmadeva asked Duryodhana, “Where are those five arrows? Give them to me.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Duryodhana said, “Sir, this is the story. They have been taken away by Arjuna.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Bhishma could understand it was Krishna’s trick, and immediately, out of devotion, he became angry. Devotional service can be executed in anger, not simply by offering flowers. A devotee can serve Krishna by becoming angry.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Bhishma then promised, “Today Krishna has to break His promise.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Krishna had promised Arjuna, “Although I shall be on the battlefield, I shall simply drive your chariot, but I shall not fight.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Now Bhishma said, “Krishna has broken my promise. So I shall fight in such a way today that either Krishna will have to break His own promise or His friend Arjuna will be killed.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">When Bhishma was fighting very fiercely, severely, Arjuna’s chariot broke and he fell down. At that time Krishna took one of the wheels of the chariot and approached Bhishma, who was piercing Krishna’s body with arrows. Krishna accepted the arrows as more lovable than an offering of flowers. This is an example of the dealings between Krishna and His devotee Bhishma. It is a ghastly rasa. It appears very severe that Krishna was being pierced by Bhishma’s arrows, but Krishna was feeling pleasure.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura has explained this exchange very nicely. He has given the example of kissing. Sometimes there is hard pressure of the teeth, but still it is pleasurable. Although Krishna was being pierced by the arrows of Bhishmadeva, still Krishna felt very pleased. And when Bhishmadeva was on his deathbed, he wanted to see the form Krishna displayed when He was very angry and was approaching Bhishma to kill him on the battlefield.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">We can enjoy Krishna’s loving service in many ways. The gopis enjoy serving Krishna by embracing Him, and Bhishma enjoys serving Him by piercing His body with arrows. Therefore Krishna is akhila-rasamrita-sindhu.</p>
<h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Krishna Responds to His Devotees</span></h3>
<p style="text-align:justify;">There are twelve rasas, five primary and seven secondary. Krishna is ready to respond to any rasa you want in dealing with Him. That is Krishna’s position. Putana wanted to kill baby Krishna by offering Him her breast smeared with poison. That was her purpose. But Krishna killed her by sucking out her life along with the breast milk, and she was given the position of Krishna’s mother. Krishna took the bright side. He thought, “Whatever her intention may be, she came to Me just like a mother, and I sucked her breast. Therefore she is My mother.” She came as an enemy, but Krishna did not consider the inimical side of her action; He considered only the motherly side.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Similarly, the gopis came to Krishna out of lust, but by that lust they became purified. Krishna is like the sun. The sun soaks up water even from a urinal, but the sun is not polluted, and the urinal becomes sterilized. So try to approach Krishna some way or other. Then your life is successful.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">As soon as you divert your attention to Krishna, that is love, although it may be perverted. Kamsa was always thinking of Krishna. He was Krishna conscious, but he was thinking in terms of killing Krishna. He was thinking of Krishna as an enemy. That is not bhakti. This is not anukula, or favorable service; it is pratikula, unfavorable. But still, Krishna is so kind that Kamsa was given liberation. That is the special kindness of Krishna.</p>
<h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:18px;">The Senses Follow the Mind</span></h3>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Srila Rupa Goswami writes, yena tena prakarena manah krishne niveshayet: “Some way or other, fix your mind upon Krishna.” Then your life is successful. Some way or other. Yena tena.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">If your mind is always fixed on Krishna, then your senses will also be engaged in Krishna’s service, because mind is the center of all activities of the senses.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Ambarisha Maharaja first of all engaged his mind in Krishna: sa vai manah krishna-padaravindayoh (Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.4.18). By first fixing his mind upon Krishna, he could then engage all the other senses in Krishna, beginning with the tongue.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Bhakti begins with the tongue. That is the statement in the shastras, the Vedic scriptures:</p>
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<div style="text-align:center;">atah shri-krishna-namadi</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">na bhaved grahyam indriyaih</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">sevonmukhe hi jihvadau</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">svayam eva sphuraty adah</div>
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<p style="text-align:justify;">“Material senses cannot appreciate Krishna’s holy name, form, qualities, and pastimes. When a conditioned soul is awakened to Krishna consciousness and renders service by using his tongue to chant the Lord’s holy name and taste the remnants of the Lord’s food, the tongue is purified, and one gradually comes to understand who Krishna really is.” (Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu 1.2.234). Our present blunt, materially covered senses cannot taste Krishna’s name, Krishna’s form, Krishna’s qualities, Krishna’s pastimes, or Krishna’s paraphernalia. A person suffering from liver disease or jaundice cannot taste sugar candy. The sugar candy is sweet, but to a jaundiced patient it will taste bitter. Similarly, our senses being covered with material consciousness, we cannot at the present moment taste Krishna’s form, Krishna’s name, Krishna’s qualities, Krishna’s pastimes, Krishna’s paraphernalia, and so many things. It is not possible.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Our senses are materially contaminated. Therefore we cannot directly perceive Krishna by using our present senses. They have to be purified. When your eyes are suffering from cataracts, you cannot see properly. But if the cataracts are removed by a surgical operation, then the eyes become purified and you can see. Similarly, the Brahma-samhita (5.38) states:</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">premanjana-chchurita-bhakti-vilochanena<br /> santah sadaiva hridayeshu vilokayanti<br /> yam shyamasundaram achintya-guna-svarupam<br /> govindam adi-purusham tam aham bhajami</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Syamasundara, Krishna Himself, with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.” Premanjana-chchurita: you have to collect the ointment of love for Krishna. And if you apply that ointment to your eyes, you’ll see Krishna. This is the process.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">You also have to free yourself from upadhis, designations. The sum and substance of designations is the material body. “I am this body.” “I am Hindu.” “I am Muslim.” “I am American.” “I am Indian.” All these are designations of the body. One has to become free from the contamination of the bodily concept of life. That is called sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam. When our spiritual body becomes revealed, the material body – that contamination – is washed off, nirmalam.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">At that time the senses remain. Our senses are now covered by the material energies. The living entity is not nirakara, formless. The living entity has spiritual hands, legs – everything. For example, my body is covered by this shirt, and because I have arms, the shirt has arms. Unless the spirit soul has hands and legs, how have we got these material hands and legs?</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">The conclusion is that the spirit soul has form. As Krishna has a form of sac-chid-ananda, or eternity, knowledge, and bliss, so the spirit soul, jivatma, being part and parcel of Krishna, also has form. That form is also described in the shastra.</p>
<div>
<div style="text-align:center;">balagra-shata-bhagasya</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">shatadha kalpitasya cha</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">bhago jivah sa vijneya</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">iti chaha para shrutih</div>
</div>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“If we divide the tip of a hair into one hundred parts and then take one part and divide this into another one hundred parts, that ten-thousandth part is the dimension of the living entity. This is the verdict of the chief Vedic mantras.” (Svetashvatara Upanishad 5.9) A rough idea of the form of the living entity has thus been given. Now, perhaps we have no instrument to measure one ten-thousandth of the tip of the hair. But this information is given in the shastra.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">We get information from the Bhagavad-gita (2.22) that the material body is like a garment: vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya. As we give up an old garment, when this body becomes useless we give up this body and accept a new body. Navani ghrinati.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">This is the transmigration of the soul. The soul is transmigrating from one body to another by means of the subtle body. That is a fact. But the gross materialists cannot see the subtle body. They simply see the gross body. Therefore they say, “When this body is finished, everything is finished.” No, that is not the fact. Within the gross body is the subtle body, made of mind, intelligence, and ego. Every day we have experience of this. The gross body is lying on the bed, but the subtle body goes out of the bed, out of the room, and to the top of a hill or somewhere else. That is our practical experience. Similarly, when this gross body is finished, no longer usable, the subtle body carries the soul to the womb of another mother. Through the semen of the father, the living entity is injected within the womb of the mother. The two secretions emulsify and become just like a small pea. Within that pea is the soul, and it develops. That is the process of transmigration of the soul from one body to another.</p>
<h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Nirakara: No Material Form</span></h3>
<p style="text-align:justify;">The soul has form; it is not formless. Similarly, Krishna has form, but that form is different from our material form. In the shastras it is sometimes said that the soul and the Supersoul are nirakara. According to the Sanskrit dictionary, nirakara meansnirakrita akara: “This akara, this form, is being nullified.” Nirakara does not mean there is no akara, or form. Nirakara means that the Supersoul or the soul has no akara as we generally see – material form. We are seeing some dog or some cat or some hog, some tree, some plants – 8,400,000 forms. But nirakara means that the soul has a different form.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">We cannot see the soul at the present moment. I am not seeing you, and you are not seeing me. When a boy’s father dies, the boy cries, “Oh, my father is gone, my father is gone.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“Where has your father gone? He is lying on the bed. Why do you say your father is gone?”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“No, he’s gone. He’s no more.”</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">That means the boy has never seen the thing that has gone. He has simply seen the outward body, the dress. This is called ignorance. I am not seeing you; still, I am saying that I see you. If I cannot see you, the part and parcel of God, how can I see God with these eyes? Therefore shastra says,</p>
<div>
<div style="text-align:center;">atah shri-krishna-namadi</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">na bhaved grahyam indriyaih</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">sevonmukhe hi jihvadau</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">svayam eva sphuraty adah</div>
</div>
<p style="text-align:justify;">You cannot see God, Krishna, with your blunt senses. You must purify your senses, and that purification begins with the tongue. With the tongue we can do two things. We can taste foodstuff and we can vibrate sound. If you engage your tongue in vibrating this transcendental sound – Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare – and do not eat anything except the prasada of Krishna, then your spiritual life immediately begins. Then gradually, as you advance in spiritual life, Krishna reveals Himself to you: “Here I am.” You cannot see Krishna, but being satisfied with your service, Krishna sees you. You cannot see the sun at night, but when the sun sees you, you can see the sun and yourself. Similarly, when Krishna sees you, being satisfied with your service, then you can see Krishna, you can see yourself, and you can see the whole world.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Whatever we are seeing now is all illusion. We are not seeing, because our senses are too blunt to see things as they are. In the Bhagavad-gita (5.18) it is said,</p>
<div>
<div style="text-align:center;">vidya-vinaya-sampanne</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">brahmane gavi hastini</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">shuni chaiva shva-pake cha</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">\panditah sama-darshinah</div>
</div>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater [outcaste].” One who has the eyes to see does not think, “Here is a learned brahmana, and here is a dog.” He sees the learned brahmana and the dog with equal vision. He does not see the dress. He sees the spirit soul within the brahmana and within the dog. That is called brahma-darshana. When one has that transcendental vision, then devotional service begins. With blunt eyes and senses one cannot serve God in devotional service.</p>
<h3 style="text-align:justify;">The Need for Purified Senses</h3>
<p style="text-align:justify;">When our senses are purified, then they can engage in the service of the Lord. Because Krishna is spirit, the Supersoul, He cannot be served by matter. He has to be served with spirit.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita (9.26),</p>
<div>
<div style="text-align:center;">patram pushpam phalam toyam</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">yo me bhaktya prayachchati</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">tad aham bhakty-upahritam</div>
<div style="text-align:center;">ashnami prayatatmanah</div>
</div>
<p style="text-align:justify;">“If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I will accept it.” Bhakti is spiritual activity. Krishna says, bhaktya prayacchati: “offers with devotion.” If you offer something without devotion – “Krishna, I have brought a very palatable dish; take it” – oh, Krishna will not take it. Naham prakashah sarvasya yoga-maya-samavritah (Bhagavad-gita 7.25). He’s not exposed to everyone. You cannot serve Krishna if you are not a devotee. Therefore Krishna says, yo me bhaktya prayacchati. That is the real thing – bhaktya, with devotion. Not that “I have brought a nice plate of food and Krishna will accept it.” Not like that.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">But Krishna can accept whatever you offer with devotion. It doesn’t matter what it is. It may be a simple flower, a fruit, a small piece of leaf, or a little water. For worshiping Krishna there is no impediment. If you want to worship demigods, so many things are required. But for worshiping Krishna, the poorest man in any part of the world can offer his love.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, by Rupa Goswami, which we have translated under the name The Nectar of Devotion, the Complete Science of Bhakti-yoga, is a very important book. Its real purpose is to understand how to become purified in devotional service, how to approach Krishna, how to satisfy Krishna. These things are described very nicely. Krishna, being the Supreme, is the Supersoul. We cannot approach Him with our material consciousness. The consciousness has to be changed. Then we can approach Krishna. That is the purpose of the Krishna consciousness movement.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Without being fire, you cannot enter fire. The shastra says that without being Brahman, you cannot approach Brahman. Similarly, without being purified of all material contamination, you cannot approach Krishna. The senses are to be purified. If you simply see Krishna with your eyes, then your eyes will be purified and spiritualized. If you keep yourself always in touch with fire, you become warmer, warmer, warmer, warmer. If you put an iron rod into the fire, it becomes warmer, warmer, warmer, and at last it becomes red hot. When it is red hot, it is fire. It is not longer an iron rod. Touch that red-hot iron anywhere, and it will burn. Similarly, if you keep always in touch with Krishna, you become Krishna-ized, and you can appreciate Krishna.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Thank you very much.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;"><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17263">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=17263</a></p></div>
Sri Updeshamrit – (Shloka-8) – Picture Story Book in Hindi
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/sri-updeshamrit-shloka-8-picture-story-book-in-hindi
2023-12-15T01:56:46.000Z
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SANATAN MISRA DAS
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What Is Mind? A Bhagavatam Conception of Mind By Bhanu Swami
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2023-11-21T12:30:00.000Z
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<p><strong>The Story of Puranjana</strong></p>
<p>King Puranjana had unlimited desires for sense enjoyment. Consequently he traveled all over the world to find a place where all his desires could be fulfilled. Unfortunately he found a feeling of insufficiency everywhere. 27.12.</p>
<p>Once, while wandering I this way, he saw on the southern side of the Himalayas, in a place named Bharata Varsa a city that had nine gates all about and was characterized by all auspicious facilities. 27.13</p>
<p> </p>
<p>While wandering here and there in that wonderful garden, King Puranjana suddenly came in contact with a very beautiful woman who was walking there without any engagement. She had ten servants with her, and each servant had hundreds of wives accompanying him. 27.20</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The woman was protect on all sides by a five hooded snake. She was very beautiful and young, and she appeared very anxious to find a suitable husband. 27.21</p>
<p>Interdependence of soul and intelligence</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Being thus entangled in different types of mental concoction and engaged in fruitive activities, King Puranjana came completely under the control of material intelligence and was thus cheated, Indeed, he used to fulfill all the desires of his wife, the Queen. 27.61</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In this way, King Puranjana was captivated by his nice wife and was thus cheated. Indeed, he became cheated in this whole existence in the material world. Even against that poor foolish King’s desire, he remained under the control of his wife, just like a pet animal that dances according to the order of its master. 27 62</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Soul, body intelligence, mind, subtle senses, desires, gross senses (9gates)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When the Yavanas were taking King Puranjana away to their place, binding him like an animal, the King’s followers became greatly aggrieved. While they lamented, they were forced to go along with him. 28.23</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The serpent, who had already been arrested by the soldiers of Yavana Raja and was out of the city, began to follow his master along with the others. As soon as they all left the city, it was immediately dismantled and smashed to dust. 28.24</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Therefore, my dear King, the living entity, who has a subtle mental covering, develops all kinds of thoughts and images because of his previous body. Take this from me as certain. There is no possibility of concocting anything mentally without having perceived it in the previous body. 29.65</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The mind of the living entity continues to exist in various gross bodies, and according to one’s desires for sense gratification, the mind records different thoughts. In the mind these appear together in different combinations; therefore these images sometimes appear as things never seen or never heard before. 29.68</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In Brahma samhita 5.54. it is said karmani nirdahati kintu ca bhakti bhajam. When a person is fully absorbed in Krsna consciousness, his stockpile of material desires is minimized. Indeed, the desires no longer fructify in the form of gross bodies. Instead, the stockpile of desires becomes visible on the mental platform by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. 4.29.69 purport</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>3.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The living entity attains a particular type of gross body in accordance with his past activities and mental condition. In this life the mental condition changes in different ways and the same living entity gets another body in the next life according to his desires. The mind, intelligence and false ego are always engaged in an attempt to dominate material nature. According to that subtle astral body, one attains a gross body to enjoy the objects of one’s desires. According to the activities of the present body, one prepares another subtle body and according to the subtle body, one attains another gross body. This is the process of material existence.</p>
<ol start="29">
<li>
<p>Madhya 8 229 purport.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p> </p>
<p>“Whatever state of being one remember when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.” The atmosphere of the subtle body at the time of death is created by the activities of the gross body. Thus the gross body acts during one’s lifetime and the subtle body acts at the time of death. The subtle body, which is called linga, the body of desire, is the background for the development of a particular type of gross body, which is either like that o one’s mother or like that of one’s father.</p>
<p>SB 6.1 54</p>
<p>Ahankara or false ego, is transformed into the demigods, the controlling directors of material affairs. As an instrument, the false ego is represented as different senses and sense organs, and as the result of the combination of the demigods and the senses , material objects are produced. SB 3.26.26 purport</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Mental activities, or psychological functions of thinking, feeling and willing, are also activities on the platform of ethereal existence. The statement in Bhagavad gita that the mental situation at the time of death is the basis of the next birth is also corroborated in this verse. Mental existence transforms into tangible form as soon as there is an opportunity due to contamination or development of the gross elements from subtle form. SB. 3.26.34 purport</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The senses are symbolic representations of the demigods, and their natural inclination is to work under the direction of the Vedic injunctions. As the senses are representatives of the demigods, so the mind is the representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The mind’s natural duty is to serve. When that service spirit is engaged in the devotional service to the Personality of Godhead, without any motive, that is far better even than salvation. Bhakti dissolves the subtle body of the living entity without separate effort, just as fire in the stomach digests all that we eat. SB 3.25.32-33</p>
<p>4. Some Conclusions based on Vedic Descriptions</p>
<p>Subtle body has a subtle form with subtle senses to perceive .</p>
<p>Subtle body not subject to gross physical laws of space and time</p>
<p>Subtle body changes according to present experiences and thoughts</p>
<p>Thought forms become more permanent if desires and thoughts are strong.</p>
<p>Attachment to the subtle body of another person can lead to attachments in future bodies</p>
<p>Sinful, selfish or violent acts create disruption in the subtle body.</p>
<p>This determines the gross form in the next birth along with suffering</p>
<p>Acts of punya or generosity maximize the health of the subtle body. This determines the extent of enjoyment in the gross body in next life.</p>
<p>Subtle body is an intermediary between the soul and the gross body, but still material.</p>
<p>The relation between the soul and body is established via false identification, false ego.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Super Soul guides the consciousness of the soul to fulfil his desires and enjoy in the gross world.</p>
<p>The Super Soul guides the soul to get out of ignorance.</p>
<ol start="2">
<li>
<p>Modern Investigations of Mind</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Remote Viewing</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Regardless of one’s a priori position, however, an unimpassioned observer cannot help but attest to the following fact. Despite the ambiguities inherent in the type of exploration covered in these programs, the integrated results appear to provide unequivocal evidence of a human capacity to access events remote in space and time, however falteringly, by some cognitive process not yet understood. My years of involvement as a research manager in these programs have left me with the conviction that this fact must be taken into account in any attempt to develop an unbiased picture of the structure of reality.</p>
<p>H.Putoff., Stanford University</p>
<p>Verification of Subtle Energy</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Results of three uniquely different experiments are provided, each providing robust correlates of subtle energy events manifesting in the physical band of reality. Taken together, the experiments support the postulate that subtle energy signals not directly observable by physical means do create a transduced signal at the magnetic vector potential field level of the physical realms.</p>
<p>Within the concepts of our standard electrodynamics, the transduction of the subtle energy signals generates electric and magnetic signals that have observable physical effects. The experimental results are also suggestive that human intention when applied to unseen subtle domains is the effective driver of events seen in the physical domain.</p>
<p>Based on a significant amount of experimental evidence emerging from numerous researchers, it appears that the physical domain is interconnected with a subtle energy domain. Although not directly measurable in physical terms, the actions of the subtle energies produce physical activity that is measurable in physical terms. For this to occur, it would seem that a magnetic vector potential of some kind must exist, via which the activity of the subtle energies is transduced into measurable physical events.</p>
<p>Dr. Edward Tiller</p>
<p>Experiments is Psi</p>
<p>The deviations achieved in any given run are practically immeasurable but the results of half a million test runs show an unmistakable signature of an effect the researchers attribute to human consciousness. Detailed mathematical analysis suggests that a minute perturbation of the “elementary binary probability” is involved, as if the mind were ever so slightly nudging the electronic dice in the desired direction.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>An even more puzzling result of the experiments is that the effect can be produced even if the experimenter is several thousand miles away from the random device, and perhaps even over significant intervals of time. In the most extreme case an experimenter in Europe on Monday might concentrate on producing the effect, but the actual measurements on the device are, by prior agreement, not carried out until Friday in Princeton.</p>
<p>Speculating on the phenomenon Jahn states, “All forces known to physics, like gravity for example, diminish with distance. And no forces in physics operate freely across time like this. It’s as if consciousness is somehow able to direct its influence directly across space and time, and understanding that certainly poses a challenge for science.”</p>
<p>And Dunne adds: “This is similar to what mystics have claimed through the ages, but now we have scientific evidence.”</p>
<p>Prof Robert Jahn , Princeton University</p>
<p>Experiments with Chi Gong Masters</p>
<p> </p>
<p>From December, 1990, to June, 1991, new experiments were performed investigating the effects of external Qi and its effects on:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>1. the radioactive decay rate of a radioactive element</p>
<p> </p>
<p>2. the ultraviolet absorption of de-ionized water.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The results demonstrated that the external Qi emitted by Dr. Yan Xin (from the United States) could cause an astonishing change in the radioactive decay rate of the radioactive source 241 Am, and it significantly affected de-ionized water and changed its ultraviolet absorption spectrum.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The most extraordinary feature of this experiment was that the external Qi was transmitted from the qigong master in the United States to the laboratory in Beijing — a distance over 10,000 kilometers. These positive results were published in a paper, “The External Qi Experiments from the United States to Beijing (China)” by Yan Xin in Zhongguo Qigong (China Qigong) in Chinese, Vol.1, pp.4-6, 1993.</p>
<p>Reincarnation Research</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Stevenson, an M.D. psychiatrist in the University of Virginia School of Medicine, has spent years investigating cases of children in Asia who claim to remember former lives. Only a small percentage of people ever “remember” a former life. But one striking result emerging from Stevenson’s investigation of almost 900 cases is that a violent death in a previous life is more likely to result in such a memory carrying over into a child’s present life.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Analyzing these cases, he found that 35 percent of the children who remember a previous life have birth marks or birth defects seemingly related in some way to the events of that previous life.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What Stevenson now presents with striking photographic evidence is an uncanny correspondence between those birthmarks or birth defects and the fatal wounds of the person whose life and violent death are remembered. One photograph shows birthmarks on the chest of an Indian youth who remembered the life of a man killed by a shotgun fired at close range. The following figure in the article shows the sketch made by an Indian physician who examined the postmortem report of the dead man with Dr. Stevenson. It shows clearly the correspondence between the wounds and the birthmark of the subject.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Another photograph shows the malformed ear of a Turkish boy who also remembered dying of a shotgun blast, in this case to the right side of the head. Acting as much detective as researcher, Stevenson tracked down the hospital records of the victim who had died of severe brain injuries from shot penetrating the skull.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In 18 cases, there were pairs of birthmarks corresponding to entry and exit wounds of gunshots.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>The Brain and Primary Reality</h2>
<p>The works of Pribram and Bohm combine to theorize that ,”Our brains mathematically construct ‘concrete’ reality by interpreting frequencies from another dimension, a realm of meaningful, patterned primary reality that transcends time and space. The brain is a hologram, interpreting a holographic universe.” (The Holographic Paradigm, by Ken Wilber 1982)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In his book, “The Implicate Order,” Dr. David Bohm says that primary physical laws cannot be discovered by a science that attempts to break the world into parts. He writes of what he calls an “implicate enfolded order” which exists in an unmanifested state, and is the foundation on which all manifest reality rests. This manifest reality is “the explicate unfolded order.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Dr. Bohm suggests that the holographic view of the universe is the beginning point of understanding the implicate enfolded and the explicate unfolded orders. The hologram concept holds that every piece, however small, is an exact representation of the whole, and can be used to reconstruct the whole.</p>
<p>Gloria Alvino, Human Energy Field</p>
<p> </p>
<h1>Earth resonance with Human Energy</h1>
<p>At the Shanghai Atomic Nuclear Institute of Academia Sinica, it was shown that Qi Gong masters emanate a vital force in the form of a low frequency sound that acts as a low fluctuating carrier wave. Some scientists believe that these waves can be generated by machine or with the human hand. A human being is the greatest generator of the electromagnetic low frequency waves when in a meditative state. When he sends out love he sends 8 Hertz waves. (Qi Gong research with Kirlian photographs, July 28,1995)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It is well documented and established that all evolution on the earth and all living creatures evolve in this 8 Hertz field, known as the Schumann Resonance, and the brain wave of the planet. Somehow this 8 Hertz wave is in tune with our DNA and it is this specific frequency that stimulates the growth of higher consciousness and evolution. Some scientists believe that with more and more electrical devices on the market, electromagnetic pollution could be one factor that masks the natural and beneficial 8 Hertz earth pulse. This masking effect is thought to be one of the causes of poor immune systems and premature aging.</p>
<p>Dr. Agnes Krowick</p>
<h1>Mind influences Body</h1>
<p>Based on this new perspective, David Thaler published an important revisionist article entitled The Evolution of Genetic Intelligence (Science 264:224,1994). Thaler introduces the significance of the environment, and more importantly, the organism’s perception of its environment, in not only regulating organismal behavior, but also in the rewriting of its genetic code. Heretofore, we believed that the behavior and expression of an organism represented a simple read-out of its existing genetic programs. We must now recognize that biological expression is actively determined by the organism’s perception of its life experiences. Through learning experiences, organisms create receptor “filters” through which they perceive their lives. The positive or negative focus of these receptor filters are directly responsible for the traits expressed by the organism in an effort to maintain its survival.</p>
<p>Dr. Agnes Krowick</p>
<p>Conclusions from Modern Science</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Subtle energy is real.</p>
<p>There is a mechansim apart from brain responsible for our perceptions of the world.</p>
<p>It has measureable effects on the gross world.</p>
<p>Subtle energy can be controlled by intention.</p>
<p>The subtle energy in some form can be called mind.</p>
<p>This mind exists beyond our gross conceptions of time and space.</p>
<p>This mind exists with subtle senses.</p>
<p>We can perceive other dimensions or times with this mind.</p>
<p>This mind separates from the gross body at death or by out of body experience.</p>
<p>This mind goes to another body at death.</p>
<p><strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=32196">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=32196</a></p></div>
How to Focus the Lens of Your Mind: A Journey Inspired by Vedic Wisdom
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2023-11-16T14:01:02.000Z
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<div><p><strong><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12293131064,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="500" alt="12293131064?profile=RESIZE_584x" /><br /><br />By Vaisesika Dasa</strong></p>
<p>In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, finding focus and maintaining it can be quite a challenge. Our minds tend to wander, distractions abound, and the demands of modern life can easily pull us in various directions. But fear not, for within the depths of Vedic wisdom and ancient scriptures lie valuable insights on how to hone the lens of your mind, enabling you to direct your attention and remain steadfast on your goals.</p>
<p>1. The Power of Focus in Vedic Teachings:<br /> The concept of focus is deeply ingrained in Vedic philosophy, as evident in the Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita. These teachings emphasize the importance of having a one-pointed mind. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna advises Arjuna to maintain a single-pointed intelligence. When your focus is scattered, your mind becomes like a tree with countless branches, wandering in endless directions. The goal is to bring your mind to a single, important focus.</p>
<p>2. You Have the Power to Focus:<br /> Vedic wisdom emphasizes that the power of focus is within your reach. Your conscious self can decide what to focus on, and your ability to do so is one of your main assets. It is a matter of practice and discipline. You are not a passive observer; you can actively choose what deserves your focus.</p>
<p>3. Knowing Your Priorities:<br /> The first step in mastering the art of focus is to recognize your priorities. What is most important in your life? Once you have clarity on this, you can direct your attention to it, keeping your goals at the forefront.</p>
<p>4. Consistency and Discipline:<br /> Consistency is the backbone of focus. Create routines that align with your goals and stick to them, even when motivation wanes. Discipline yourself to follow these routines, as it is the consistent effort over time that leads to success.</p>
<p>5. The Distraction Dilemma:<br /> The word “distraction” is intriguing because it contains both “attraction” and “distraction.” Often, we lose focus on what truly matters due to alluring distractions. Remember the Vedic wisdom that encourages you to find your main desire, your “kalpavriksa tree,” and focus on it.</p>
<p>A Journey to the Kalpavriksa Tree:<br /> To understand the power of focus, we embark on a journey to the mystical “kalpavriksa tree” – a tree that fulfills any desire. As you sit under the tree, you become aware of your consciousness and the freedom to direct your attention.<br /> Amidst the multitude of desires, choose one that holds a special place in your heart. Offer it to the kalpavriksa tree, signifying its significance.</p>
<p>Hold Your Desire Like a Flower: This chosen desire is like a delicate flower. You hold it up as an offering to the tree, expressing its paramount importance in your life.</p>
<p>Bring It Back: After making your offering, place this desire, your flower, in your pocket. It serves as a reminder of what you cherish most in life.</p>
<p>Return with a New Perspective: Having made your offering and set your focus, you return from your meditative journey with a fresh perspective on your desires and priorities.</p>
<p>As we conclude our journey to the kalpavriksa tree, remember that where your attention goes, your energy flows. You have the power to choose where you direct your focus, and you are free to move in any direction you desire. You can transcend the limitations of your mind by cultivating focus and setting your sights on your most cherished goals.</p>
<p>In the vast landscape of your conscious self, learn to pinpoint your focus and unlock the immense power of your mind. The wisdom of the Vedas reminds us that we are not captives of our thoughts but sovereigns of our attention. With clarity of purpose and disciplined focus, you can turn your desires into reality, just as the kalpavriksa tree fulfills wishes.</p>
<p>So, the next time you find your attention drifting, remember this ancient journey to the kalpavriksa tree and bring your focus back to the path that leads to your heart’s deepest desires.<br /> <br /> <strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://vaisesikadasa.com/en/how-to-focus-the-lens-of-your-mind-a-journey-inspired-by-vedic-wisdom/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-focus-the-lens-of-your-mind-a-journey-inspired-by-vedic-wisdom">https://vaisesikadasa.com/en/how-to-focus-the-lens-of-your-mind-a-journey-inspired-by-vedic-wisdom/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-focus-the-lens-of-your-mind-a-journey-inspired-by-vedic-wisdom</a></p></div>
Fortify Yourself – Cultivate Inner Happiness by Vaisesika Dasa
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/fortify-yourself-cultivate-inner-happiness-by-vaisesika-dasa
2023-07-31T11:45:00.000Z
2023-07-31T11:45:00.000Z
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<p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10952044679,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10952044679?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="500" /></p>
<p>As long as we are in this world, we have to work and interact with it. It’s hardly practical, or desirable, to ignore the world or the loving relationships we have with the people in it. Nor is it possible to completely avoid environments fraught with negativity and lower vibrations. So how does one fortify oneself from being influenced by these energies?</p>
<p>Those who daily engage in spiritual practice are content because they enjoy pleasure from within. They understand that everything has a relationship with the Supreme and that everything is meant to be used in service to the Supreme. Feeling fulfilled, they move about the world without being disturbed by even the most agitating sights and sounds. In contrast, those lacking such inner peace are like consumers who shop when they are hungry or restless. Bewildered by unlimited choices, they indiscriminately buy what they don’t need, or things that are bad for them.</p>
<p>People who connect daily, especially as dawn breaks, with the Divine through bhakti yoga feel contentment and inner strength. When we meditate on sublime mantras, read elevated books like the Bhagavad-gita, hear from sadhus, and dedicate our work to the Supreme, we become fulfilled. Armed with such a higher taste, we naturally forego the nonessential and are able to make wise, discriminate choices.</p>
<p>I recently attended a memorial service for one of my best friends from high school. After the ceremony, I conversed with the other attendees, some of whom were drinking wine. I noticed that the more they drank the less able they were to understand subtle concepts. For example, one of my old high school teachers, knowing that I had joined a monastery after my junior year, asked me about the course of my life and the philosophy I was following. I explained to her the concept that we are not our physical bodies but spiritual beings. Initially, she had a keen interest and was beginning to resonate with the concept, but the more wine she consumed the less she could process our conversation. She had embraced the lower energy of the alcohol. I was simply observing and marveling at how this lower energy was working. I thought, “Be careful what you feed your mind.”</p>
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<p>Please drop me a note with your realizations or if you have any questions/comments using <a href="http://vaisesikadasa.com/next-steps/ask-vaish/#askvaish">Ask Vaish</a> form. I would really like to hear from you.<br /> <br /> <strong>Source:</strong> <a href="https://vaisesikadasa.com/en/fortify-yourself-cultivate-inner-happiness/">https://vaisesikadasa.com/en/fortify-yourself-cultivate-inner-happiness/</a></p></div>
Mind the Mind by Caitanya Carana Dasa
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/mind-the-mind-by-caitanya-carana-dasa
2022-02-19T13:58:32.000Z
2022-02-19T13:58:32.000Z
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<p>Being our closest companion, the mind needs to be constantly monitored, under the lens of divine intelligence</p>
<p>The word mind, as used in common parlance, connotes many things including awareness, intellect, memory, attention, intention and determination. Despite its familiar connotations, what the mind actually denotes remains vague and elusive. This is evident in logical positivist philosopher A. J. Ayer’s refusal to study the mind because “it has no locus.” Translated to nonjargon, he essentially admits not knowing where or what the mind is.</p>
<p>The Bhagavad-gita, however, gives a clear understanding of the mind, placing it an intermediate level within a three-level model of the self:</p>
<p>1. The body is our visible material covering that we feed and dress, and normally identify ourselves with.</p>
<p>2. The mind is the subtle material mechanism that interfaces between the soul and the gross material body.</p>
<p>3. The soul is the essence of who we are – it the source of the consciousness that makes the inanimate body and mind seem alive.</p>
<p>Whereas some thought systems conflate the mind and the soul, Gita wisdom clearly differentiates the two: the soul is the root of consciousness, whereas the mind is the route of consciousness. The mind is the medium through which the soul interacts with the body and the world outside. The soul is conscious, whereas the mind, being material, is not – it merely reflects the soul’s consciousness.</p>
<p>Channel of Distraction</p>
<p>To better understand how the mind shapes the soul-body interaction, let’s use a computer metaphor. We can compare the body to the hardware, the mind to the software and the soul to the user. Stored in the mind are impressions of past pleasant and unpleasant experiences. These impressions condition it to certain patterns of functioning that over time become its default script. This script determines its ideas of what needs to be done for getting pleasure or avoiding trouble. Unfortunately, much of this script is distorted and distorting. The mind imagines pleasures where there are none or exaggerates insignificant pleasures till they seem irresistible. And it imagines problems where there are none or exaggerates inconsequential problems till they seem insurmountable. By thus distracting our attention from important tasks to unimportant or even unnecessary ones, the mind drains our energy.</p>
<p>That’s why we can’t just outsource our tasks to the mind and expect them to be done. We need to mind the mind, that is, we need to act as hands-on monitors, terminating those thought processes that take our consciousness in unwanted directions. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (6.26) urges us to use our intelligence to restrain and refocus the mind whenever it wanders.</p>
<p>To better understand how the mind dissipates our energy in false alarms, let’s consider another metaphor.</p>
<p>Aggravator of Worry</p>
<p>We know the story of the boy who cried wolf, misinforming villagers about a marauding wolf when actually there was no threat.<br /> The mind does something similar to us when it goes into a hyper-anxiety mode. By magnifying small problems till they appear like colossal catastrophes, the mind cries wolf.</p>
<p>Actually, the mind does much worse than crying wolf – it also acts as the wolf. When faced with a problem, the mind runs off into the past to the crises we had undergone and imagines that history is about to repeat itself. Or it runs off into the future, painting grim pictures of the many things that may go wrong. Either way, it sabotages our capacity to function effectively in the present. And the present is the only time that we have – or will ever have – to do anything right, be it correcting a past error, preparing for a future complication or choosing a fresh action plan. But the mind depletes our presence in the present by devouring our consciousness. Thus it acts like a predatory wolf.</p>
<p>Because the mind is like the misleading boy and the marauding wolf rolled into one, it is the worst wolf. No wonder the Bhagavad- Gita (6.6) warns that the mind can, when uncontrolled, be our worst enemy.</p>
<p>The Distracting Companion</p>
<p>Significantly, the same verse states that the mind can, when controlled, be our best friend. This implies that we can control the mind.<br /> To understand how we can control the mind, we need to remember that the mind can never take the steering wheel from us. The body is like a car and the soul, the driver. In our bodily car, we are always in the driver’s seat.</p>
<p>The mind is our default traveling partner sitting permanently next to us. It frequently proposes ideas of where we should travel and fabricates images of the pleasures that await us there. By its propositions and fabrications, it prompts, prods, pushes, pinches and punches us to fulfill its wanderlust. However, it cannot usurp us from the driver’s seat. So, it can only impel us – never compel us. That is, though the mind can push us, it can’t force us. We have the power to not just neglect it, but also counter and silence it.</p>
<p>Countering the mind, however, is not easy. That’s because the mind doesn’t just persuade us to obey it – it also makes us believe that its voice is our voice. The mind subtly and sinisterly causes us to misidentify with it.<br /> To understand how it effects such misidentification, we can compare it to a ventriloquist.</p>
<p>The Ventriloquist</p>
<p>Ventriloquism is the art of projecting one’s voice so that it seems to come from another source, say, a dummy. Those unaware of ventriloquism mistakenly think that the inanimate dummy is speaking, but those aware can figure out what’s actually happening.</p>
<p>The mind is like a most crafty ventriloquist. While ordinary ventriloquists may perform a show for us to see, the mind makes us its show. Ordinary ventriloquists may project their voices to inanimate objects for entertaining onlookers, but the mind projects its voice onto us and makes us believe that its voice is our voice. Because we are often unaware of the mind’s insidious tactics, we fall prey to its ventriloquism and act out its selfish desires, assuming that they are our desires. Only later when the short-lived pleasure of acting out ends and the consequences start registering do we ask in dismay: “Why did I do that?”</p>
<p>How do we protect ourselves from the mind’s deceitful ventriloquism?</p>
<p>By stopping the mind when it is speaking in the second person (“You do this and enjoy”) and not letting it take on the first person voice (“I want to do this and enjoy”). To understand this, let’s explore the ventriloquism metaphor further.</p>
<p>When ventriloquists make a dummy speak, they have to be present somewhere nearby; the voice can’t be projected over long distances. If onlookers are informed and alert, they can, as soon as they hear the dummy speaking, look around, spot the ventriloquist and say, “That’s you speaking.” By thus catching the ventriloquism in the act, they can avoid getting deluded.</p>
<p>Similarly, the mind has to be in our vicinity before it can make us misidentify with it. Of course, ontologically speaking, the mind is always in our vicinity; it exists inside us. But functionally speaking, the mind is not always aroused and active with its nefarious schemes; it’s not always a ventriloquist in the act.</p>
<p>When the mind becomes captivated by some unhealthy fancy and wants us to act it out, it initially has to speak in the second person: “Why don’t you do that? You will enjoy it. You need a break; you need some fun.” At this stage, we sense that something within us is prompting us towards some unwholesome indulgence. Though the voice may be insistent, we are still aware that it is different from us; the mind is still speaking in the second person.</p>
<p>However, if we listen to the proposals of the mind, we give it the chance to cast its ventriloquistic spell on us. With frightening swiftness, it projects its voice on us. Soon, sometimes in a matter of moments, the mind starts speaking in the first person: “I want to enjoy that.” But because we have been taken in by its ventriloquism, we no longer realize that it is the mind speaking; we mistake its voice to be our own. Once we take ownership of the mind’s desires, then all our inner safeguards crumble and we end up doing something foolish or selfdestructive.</p>
<p>The Trajectory to Self-destruction</p>
<p>The Bhagavad-gita (2.61-62) delineates eight stages in the trajectory to self-destruction. Let’s understand these using an example of how a recovering alcoholic may relapse:</p>
<p>1. Contemplation (dhyayato): The alcoholic starts considering the prospect of drinking: “Look at that – doesn’t that look good?”</p>
<p>2. Attraction (sanga): He starts feeling that a drink will be enjoyable: “It’s nice – you can relax and enjoy.”</p>
<p>3. Obsession (kama): He starts feeling strongly infatuated by it: “I want it – and want it now.”</p>
<p>4. Irritation (krodha): He starts feeling irritated at anything that stops him from getting it: “Who can stop me from doing what I want?”</p>
<p>5. Delusion (sammoha): He gets completely confused about what is good and what is bad: “I don’t need anyone’s advice – I know what to do.”</p>
<p>6. Oblivion (smriti-bhramsad): He forgets the hangover, the bondage and the misery that alcohol has caused in the past: “There’s so much pleasure here – why should I not enjoy?”</p>
<p>7. Stupefaction (buddhi-naso): He loses his intellectual capacity to discern before acting and decides to act on the spur of the moment: “I am going to drink right now.”</p>
<p>8. Destruction (pranasyati): He falls headlong into a relapse and wallows in it till he wakes up with an awful headache and throws up in the washroom.</p>
<p>In the stages of contemplation and attraction, the mind’s voice keeps getting louder and more demanding. But it is still speaking in the second person: “Why don’t you enjoy that? It looks promising.” From the stage of obsession, however, the mind starts speaking in the first person. We start identifying with its desire and thereafter start feeling angry at whatever obstacle blocks us: “Who can stop me from enjoying?” Hereafter, the mind’s ventriloquism makes a complete fool out of us; we cast aside our intelligence and binge, and thus get ourselves into trouble.</p>
<p>To protect ourselves, we need to be alert and catch the mind when it is speaking in the second person: “Ah! That’s the mind speaking. I am not going to listen to it.” Though the mind may still push us, just by disowning it we can win a major part of the battle. And we can win the battle fully if we immediately focus on something engaging, illuminating, empowering. Once we get engrossed in something constructive, the mind’s destructive proposals can no longer allure us. Being starved of our attention, it is eventually forced to fall back, whimpering and defeated.</p>
<p>Move away from the mind – and move towards Krishna</p>
<p>To mind the mind, we need to:<br /> · Distance ourselves from it and<br /> . Distance the real situation from its distorted depiction of things.</p>
<p>Some ways to do this distancing are: deep breathing, meditating, journal-writing, praying and, most importantly, studying scripture with spiritual guides and chanting the holy names.</p>
<p>Scripture serves as a standard guidebook for human behavior. When we study scripture regularly, we become equipped with a ready reference point for evaluating the mind’s proposals and rejecting them whenever they contradict scriptural guidelines. As the import of scripture and its relevance in our daily lives may not be immediately apparent to us, we need the guidance of spiritual mentors, who can counsel us according to our specific situation.</p>
<p>The supreme scriptural guideline is to become devoted to Krishna , for that alone reinstates us on the spiritual platform of existence that is our eternal home. And moving closer to Krishna automatically moves us away from the mind, especially its distracting proposals. And as Krishna is all-attractive, moving towards Him is much easier and sweeter than just moving away from the mind. Moreover, He being our greatest well-wisher, as the Gita (5.29) states, helps us by His omnipotent grace to ward off the mind’s unwholesome advances.</p>
<p>The best way to move towards Krishna is by chanting His holy names, because that divine sound offers us an accessible and relishable channel for raising our awareness to a higher, spiritual level of reality, thereby automatically moving away from the mind and its obsession with petty things.</p>
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<div><strong>Source: </strong><a href="https://dandavats.tumblr.com/post/676426771576537088/mind-the-mind-by-caitanya-carana-dasa-being">https://dandavats.tumblr.com/post/676426771576537088/mind-the-mind-by-caitanya-carana-dasa-being</a></div></div>
The Mind Is Always Searching for A Network to Join by Jayaprakash Ramsaran
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/the-mind-is-always-searching-for-a-network-to-join-by-jayaprakash
2022-01-04T10:36:15.000Z
2022-01-04T10:36:15.000Z
ISKCON Desire Tree
https://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree
<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9980954464,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="460" alt="9980954464?profile=RESIZE_584x" />Have you ever seen this little sentence on your phone: “Searching for network?” I remember looking at that one day and thinking how the mind is always searching for a network, too. Especially when traveling, I look at the phone and it’s going back and forth: “Where’s the network? I need a network!” It wants to hook up to some network somewhere. </p>
<p>If I don’t take charge of which network my phone connects to–if I just walk out the door–my phone will hook on to somebody else’s network. And for some reason, my cell phone grabs on to something called Xfinity. Who told it to do that? Not me. Unless I deliberately disable the Wi-Fi, or I tell it to go to a specific network, it goes right to this bogus Xfinity thing, which does nothing for me, as far as I can tell. </p>
<p>The mind is like that, too. It’s always searching for the network to join. So, choose your network, or it will be chosen for you. Decide where you’re going to hook your mind and preprogram it. Ask yourself, “Which network do I want to be hooked into?” They’re not all equal. The mind always searching for something to log on to, so you have to be really deliberate about it.</p>
<p>The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means “the way we link.” So, continuing the metaphor of the searching for network, yoga means linking your mind to the ultimate network. There are lower networks, there are higher networks, and we can actually link our mind to the ultimate network. We call that brahman–a spiritual network that the mind can be connected to.</p>
<p>In fact, the human mind is very high technology, much higher than an iPhone. It is designed to network with higher spiritual energies, and you can train the mind to hook into that. This is what mantra meditation is all about. No extra charge, just a little bit of paying attention–your most important asset–and you can learn to hook into that network. There are volumes written about the experience.</p>
<p>This excerpt is from Vaisesika’s upcoming book, Your Seven Spiritual Superpowers. Want more wisdom? Join his weekly zoom class <a href="https://vaisesikadasa.com/en/next-steps/ask-vaish/#askvaish">here</a>!</p>
<p><strong>Source: </strong><a href="https://vaisesikadasa.com/en/the-mind-is-always-searching-for-a-network-to-join/">https://vaisesikadasa.com/en/the-mind-is-always-searching-for-a-network-to-join/</a></p></div>
The Only Enemy a Person Can Have is His or Her Own Uncontrolled Mind by Radhanath Swami
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/the-only-enemy-a-person-can-have-is-his-or-her-own-uncontrolled
2021-12-18T10:10:00.000Z
2021-12-18T10:10:00.000Z
ISKCON Desire Tree
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<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img class="align-center" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5NKu7H-Blh8/W6ybx2l6SnI/AAAAAAAAm94/cS6-rm9L5AgUBVMg2vbV05sYSFDW_GqdQCHMYCw/s0/2018-09-27_10-58-25.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" alt="2018-09-27_10-58-25.jpg?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="350" /></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Yoga is often misunderstood as merely breath control, asanas or exercises; for some it is about practising some rules and regulations based on morality and for others it is cultivation of scriputral knowledge. But the real purpose of Yoga is to fix our mind on the Supreme.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">According to Bhagavad-gita, yoga can not be practiced unless we practice mind control. An uncontrolled mind restricts the soul from reaching its natural blissful state, which a practioner is trying to acheive through yoga.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Our mind works like a television set. A television set is just some plastic, metal, and glass fitted with circuits inside. This box can tune into waves of energy transmitted by a satellite to produce images and sounds.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">The pleasure that we are looking for in this world is compared to the energy emitted by the satellite. Satellites can transmit energy that can be received through millions of televison sets, but not every television is tuned into same channel. For human beings, the senses are just like an antenna, receiving whatever station the tuning device chooses. The tuning device is the mind. We tune into what our mind focuses on, and what we are tuned into is what affects us and our life.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">People are affected by watching advertisements. They tune into the product, get attracted to it and then buy it. Similalry, we will be affected by whatever we tune into. This is the law of nature – “We become like whatever we associate with”. For example, if we put an iron rod in fire, it becomes red hot like fire. If we put that same iron rod in ice, due to its association with ice, it becomes as cold as ice. So, yoga simply means tuning our mind into a spiritual channel.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">In Bhagavad-gita [BG 2.62], it is mentioned that while contemplating the objects of the senses, one developes attachment. Contemplation is the mind’s way of tuning in. Our whole direction in life is based on what we contemplate, or what station or channel we choose to tune our mind into. The mind contemplates and then activates the senses. The most beautiful sense object may be kept right next to us, but if our mind is absorbed somewhere else and we don’t even look at it, we will not be affected. Therefore Bhagvad-gita states, “For one who controls the mind, the mind is the best of the friends, but for one who is unable to control the mind, the mind is the worst enemy.” The only enemy a person can have is his or her own uncontrolled mind. If our mind is controlled, there are no enemies outside.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">We should try to avoid tuning in to negative forces because everytime we do, our receptivity to positive forces reduces. If we avoid all these other stations, and we tune into the channel of Supreme power then our receptivity for spirituality becomes much deeper.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;"><strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://www.dandavats.com/?p=66922">http://www.dandavats.com/?p=66922</a></p></div>
Dear Mind by Bhaktimarga Swami
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/dear-mind-by-bhaktimarga-swami-1
2021-08-11T09:22:02.000Z
2021-08-11T09:22:02.000Z
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<p style="text-align:center;">Some days you are a friend</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Some days you are foe</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You swing moods up</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You swing them low</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I can’t always trust</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You’re not in one place</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You respond well to lust</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Big dose or a trace</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You lead me to greed</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It’s not what I want</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You convinced it’s a need</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">In truth it’s a taunt</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">When there is anger</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pent up inside</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You then do hanker</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">To push it outside</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I don’t know why</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You are so cruel</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Cunning and sly</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">And wanting to rule</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You’re some kind of clown</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Silly and joking</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">A laugh or a frown</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Nabbing and poking</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Yet you are subtle</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Silent and swift</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Keen to befuddle</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">On your full-time shift</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You are your worst</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">When the body is idle</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Every bubble you burst</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">To retain your title</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;">But my dear Mind</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’m not your slave</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’ll reverse the role</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Get you to behave</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">And be under control</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It’s my turn to reign</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">So settle down — sit</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Magic is in the name</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It’s the perfect fit</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Now just cooperate</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">And take out your sting</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Let us then celebrate</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">With mantra we sing<br /> <br /> <strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://thewalkingmonk.blogspot.com/2021/08/tuesday-august-3-2021.html">http://thewalkingmonk.blogspot.com/2021/08/tuesday-august-3-2021.html</a></p></div>
Dear Mind, by Bhaktimarga Swami
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/dear-mind-by-bhaktimarga-swami
2021-04-26T14:04:00.000Z
2021-04-26T14:04:00.000Z
ISKCON Desire Tree
https://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree
<div><div>
<p style="text-align:center;"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8837138452,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="8837138452?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="350" /><br />Dear mind,</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Some days you are a friend</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Some days you are foe</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You swing moods up</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You swing them low</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I can’t always trust</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You’re not in one place</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You respond well to lust</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Big dose or a trace</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You lead me to greed</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It’s not what I want</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">And convince it’s a need</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">In truth it’s a taunt</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">When there is anger</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Pent up inside</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You then do hanker</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">To push it outside</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I don’t know why</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You are so cruel</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Cunning and sly</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">And wanting to rule</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You’re some kind of clown</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Silly and joking</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">A laugh or a frown</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Nabbing and poking</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Yet you are subtle</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Silent and swift</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Keen to befuddled</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">On your full-time shift</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">You are at your worst</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">When the body is idle</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Every bubble you burst</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">To retain your title</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">But my dear mind,</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’m not your slave</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">I’ll reserve the role</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Get you to behave</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Get you under control</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It’s my turn to reign</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">So settle down, sit</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">There’s magic in the name</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">It’s the perfect fit</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">The art to co-operate</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Can take out your sting</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">Let us so celebrate</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">By mantra we sing</p>
</div>
<p style="text-align:center;">-Composed by Bhaktimarga Swami, The Walking Monk©<br /> <br /> <strong>Source: </strong><a href="http://thewalkingmonk.blogspot.com/2021/04/friday-april-16-2021.html">http://thewalkingmonk.blogspot.com/2021/04/friday-april-16-2021.html</a></p></div>
Become regulated by Kadamba Kanana Swami
https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/become-regulated-by-kadamba-kanana-swami
2020-10-17T11:10:31.000Z
2020-10-17T11:10:31.000Z
ISKCON Desire Tree
https://iskcondesiretree.com/members/iskcon_desire_tree
<div><p><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8044253088,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="500" alt="8044253088?profile=RESIZE_584x" />A lot of people think that in chanting 16 rounds, it is all about sincerity. And they come to me and ask, “I am lacking. What can I do to get more serious about chanting 16 rounds?” In other words, how to become more sincere? But it is not about sincerity, it is about organisation. Organise your life! Become regulated! Do not let the mind and the senses just drag you according to their dictations. The ‘manoratha’, the chariot of the mind, is taking us here and there and everywhere. Whatever we see, that goes into our mind and it says, “I must have it!”</p>
<p>kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās<br /> teṣāṁ mayi na karuṇā na trapā nopaśāntiḥ<br /> (Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya-lila 22.16)</p>
<p>The senses are demanding and we are just giving in! Whatever the senses want, whatever the mind comes up with – “Yes! That is what I will do!” Just running after the mind. But the essence of yoga is sense control and mind control. So, how is it done by regulation? To a certain extent, some determination is required and that determination is based on knowledge in the beginning and of love for Krsna in the end. But then, it requires regulation, that we control the mind and the senses and engage them in a regulated way consistently.</p>
<p><strong>Source: </strong><a href="https://www.kksblog.com/2020/10/become-regulated/">https://www.kksblog.com/2020/10/become-regulated/</a></p></div>