Calming the Monkey Mind
Divya
Dubai (U.A.E)
Hari Aum!
Blessed to be a part of yet another insightful Call-Talk with Maa ji during the Holy season of Navraatri. Sincere thanks to Manish ji for giving us this opportunity to listen to Maaji and stay connected during these times when we are not able to be physically present at SISS.
‘Harnessing & Harmonizing’ our fickle mind. A beautiful topic indeed! The mind has always been an interesting subject for me to analyse and understand. The helter-skelter monkey mind keeps jumping from one place to another, all the time. Sometimes I can understand it well and succeed in not getting influenced by it, but most of the time I fall prey to this monkey mind.
From the Call-Talk, Maaji makes us realise how important it is to harness & harmonize our mind to conduct ourselves in the right way. Why do we need to harness our mind? Obviously because if not, our life goes haywire. We need to harness our minds to live our lives in a way that is positive, productive, and fruitful, optimising all that we can in every way. We live in a complex world with so much diversity and hence it is important to harmonize our activities with the surroundings to be in peace, for which we need to purify our mind. Like a well-tuned Veena, a pure and clear mind can produce harmonious music.
‘Mind is Man’ - As is the mind, so is the individual. 90% of the time we get swayed by our mind. An agitated mind disturbs our thoughts, which in turn leads to wrong actions. If the mind is pure, we feel good and everything around us seems to move in harmony. But are we paying enough attention to our mind? We always need to ask ourselves the question; ‘Is the mind overpowering us?’ A good question to ponder upon. And more often than not, the answer is yes.
Maaji very compassionately nudged us to reflect on ourselves and observe our mind during the 9 days of Chaitra Navraatri, so that we can keep it in control whenever it wanders away, swayed by the outside objects and our inner vasanas. She also told us about the importance of reading Sree Durga Saptashati during these 9 days. Durga Maa depicts the Trigunaatmika Maya that we worship. in Her 3 different roles i.e., Saraswati Maa, Lakshmi Maa and Durga Maa, representing the three Guna-s within us. The purpose of saadhna is to defeat the lower impact of Maya in our bosom, and thereby direct it to the Saattvik tendencies. This was beautiful explained by the analogy of Arjuna’s chariot, with the reins in the hands of Bhagwaan.
It is important for us to therefore surrender to the Supreme and understand the reason and symbolism behind our rituals and worship. The main objective of our upaasna is to purify our inner equipment. Once the mind is in harmony, it rids itself of any confusion and one's ego and desires get dissolved.
We are so blessed to have Maaji in our life. May we all remain under the folds of the Guru Parampara, and may the Mother Goddess' divine glory and grace be upon us always to help us win over our lower tendencies. May Bhagwaan Sree Ramchandra ji bless us with the strength to ‘Adore and Adapt’ His virtues.
Hari Aum!