Our mind is restless and fickle in nature. It is turbulent in its actions and tenacious in its selections. It is extremely difficult to control because it is strongly bound to desire for habituated sense gratification. It is also powerful and hard to withdraw once it is out in pursuit of desired sense objects. Trying to control the mind is like trying to control the wind. It is like trying to confine a violently blowing cyclone in a pot because our mind is the set of cognitive faculties that enables consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory.
In the material world the activities of the mind are acceptance and rejection. As long as the mind is in material consciousness, it must be forcibly trained to accept meditation on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but when one is actually elevated to loving the Supreme Lord, the mind is automatically absorbed in thought of the Lord. In such a position a person in pure consciousness has no other thought than to serve the Lord.
This dovetailing of the mind with the desires of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is called nirvan?a, or making the mind one with the Supreme Lord.
The best example of nirvan?a is aptly cited in Bhagavad-gita. In the beginning the mind of Arjuna deviated from that of Lord Krishna. Krishna wanted Arjuna to fight, but Arjuna did not want to, so there was disagreement. But after hearing Bhagavad-gita from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Arjuna dovetailed his mind with the Lord’s desire. This is called oneness. This oneness, however, did not cause Arjuna and Krishna to lose their individualities. There is a misconception among some ignorant beings that oneness necessitates loss of individuality. Actually, however, we gather that individuality is not lost. When the mind is completely purified in love of Godhead, the mind becomes attuned with the mind of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The mind at that time does not act separately, nor does it act without inspiration to fulfill the desire of the Lord. The individual liberated soul has no other activity. In the conditioned state the mind is always engaged in activity impelled by the three modes of the material world, but in the transcendental stage, the material modes cannot disturb the mind of the devotee. The devotee has no other concern than to satisfy the desires of the Lord. That is the highest stage of perfection, called nirvan?a or nirvan?a-mukti. At this stage the mind becomes completely free from material desire.
Therefore, the mind must detach itself from the infatuation of sense objects by association from those wise in Vedic knowledge who posess spiritual knowledge. In this way the mind will be elevated and gravitate towards spiritual objectives. The mind is completely freed from all material contamination and detached from material objectives. At that time the mind is actually dovetailed with that of the Supreme Lord and is experienced as one with Him because it is freed from the interactive flow of the material qualities.
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