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Make the MIND Humble!

"Our mind is always trying to project itself as the centre of the universe. Sometimes we find that people who start rendering devotional service love to talk about themselves, 'how dear they are to their guru, how important they are to the world, what great devotees they are and how successful their preaching is.' Maybe their egos need to be glorified, but it is very painful to hear a person always talk about himself.

On the other hand, how blissful it is when a person always talks about Krishna, Guru and devotional service not putting himself in the centre. But the tendency of the mind is to reflect the false ego platform and try to see the self as having a separate role from Krishna's.

To make the mind humble and actually take a service attitude requires an abrupt change of perspective. To do that, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakura has encouraged that the mind be smashed down to silence. His instruction is that we should pick up a mental broom or shoe and beat our minds a hundred times. It is quite humiliating to be hit by a broom, because it is meant for sweeping dirty things off the floor. Similarly what could be worse than being hit by a pair of shoes."

HH Jayapataka Swami
Lecture: Srimad Bhagavatam
June 11th 1994
Murari Sevaka