What are some tricks of the mind?

[Guest guest]

I wanted to ask the devotees here to help me out with listing some tricks of the mind. Please be merciful on sharing some of the realizations that you've realized, thanks. For example, when my mind thinks ill, I either have a choice of accepting the thought as true or not. But its so hard sometimes to just ignore the thoughts which are offenses at the maximum possible limit. Should I still ignore these thoughts? Because after all, my goal is complete surrender to the Vaisnavas, and if these thoughts with offenses pop up, how do I know if I am actually trying to advance by ignoring the mind, or just simply making excuses while truly my heart is very polluted?

[jayaisvara 0]

Sorry, I didn't recognize while I made this thread I was logged out. So, I beg to ask you devotees, what are some tricks of the mind?

[Pankaja_Dasa 1]

 

 

If you stop Bhakti-yoga. Then thats a trick of the mind.

 

I did I was having bad thoughts and I gave up. You really need to learn to serve devotees. At that time also I wasn't taking prasadam, come to think of it. Now that I am the thoughts do seem to have subsided a lot more. I would LOVE to hear answers to this question you posed. It amazing question.

[krsna 3]

Exercises to grow in Krishna Consciousness

by

HH Bhakti Tirtha Swami

 

1. List our weaknesses:

 

In regards to our weakpoints that hold us back in spiritual life and execution of devotional services. You can go through your sadana and see where you are strong and weak at.

 

Also peer at some things less often looked at or maybe not looked at at all such as internal attitudes or how mind perceives things but we may keep to ourselves. Things such as you don't like the way a person looks, or his/her voice, dress, singing style, etc. All the ugly things that roll around in our heads. Sit down and take a good look at them. Try to really see where they are stemming from - insecurities, false pride, cynisism, repression, our ego being hurt or ruffled, past trauma that taints our present mindsets, etc. You can see so much of this isn't just our opinions on things but come from false ego. We can feel learned and advanced so look at others in certain ways.

 

Sometimes externally we may seem very compassionate and always there to help but really we like to be around when people have problems and we offer help because really it makes us feel better about ourselves and feel some superiority.

 

So these examples are things we need to really look at deep down in ourselves and come up with a plan to change.

 

Suggestion is to write down some weaknesses and/or mindsets you would like to change and 3-4 times a day remind yourself to stay out of them. After some time doing this it will become natural and inherent and the mindsets will become minimized or at least easier to handle or caught when they come up.

 

2. If I left my body tonight, How would I feel about where my consciousness is at?

 

Was my consciousness where I would want it to be if this was my last day?

 

If yes, then great- if not then look back at the day and analyze what you could do different on a daily basis so you get closer to where you feel pleased everynight where you are at.

 

-Today is the sum total of ones other days and lifetimes so a good reflection of where we are at. Everything good or bad builds on itself.

 

Another way you can do this exercise is wake up in the morning with the mindset "Today is my last day on the planet" So you would live your day with the best consciousness you can with quality rounds and personal interactions (Using BTSwami's principals for assistance such as "Treat everyone you encounter as if the success and failure of your spiritual life depends upon the quality of your interactions with them") At the end of the night reflect and see how you did. How did it differ from a "normal" day.

 

3. It is said that progress in ones spiritual life is measured not in how much one is doing but how little or much one is holding back. A person seemingly doing a lot may have the capacity to do so much more and/or much better quality and vice versa. So the next exercise is to sit down with yourself and think about How much and where am I holding back and why? For some we have maybe never thought about this before.

 

I mentioned my example of on a day to day basis without really sitting down and thinking about it I will tell my self I am doing pretty good. Tow the line and have a good amount of service and projects. Probably more then the average devotee. I try to help when I can when things come up. I figure Iam doing enough to get by and that all is relatively OK.

 

If I really sat down and did this exercise I would see how that the quality of my sadana and services are very poor and I could raise them tremendously. Thing is it would take work and shifting around a lot of internal stuff and when it comes down to it, Iam too lazy right now to do it. So this exercise gives me more of an understanding where I actually am and how much better I could be doing. I mean I knew I could be doing better as everyone knows that but this exercise and the other ones REALLY show me how much more I could be doing and the minimum I am really working with.

 

The mind has great ways to keep us all thinking we aren't doing so bad and gives us many reasons not to improve. We are all different and our minds are all different so someone's mind may play a certain trick on them due to their particular make up and another mind will do the opposite. Someone's mind may tell them they are doing just great and they are so wonderful and that is the minds trick for that particular person in this lifetime. Someone else their mind will constantly tell them how awful they are and this affects that particular person and keeps them caged.

 

It has been said that the balance we should strive for is think that simultaneously we could die today but also live to 80 years old so have to live our lives daily with both in mind. It is very easy to think to tighten things up as we get older but really the future is today as each day builds on the next (and plus, we never really know in the present age when our last day is going to be....)

 

* A tip when doing these exercises and analyzing the mind is to remember that the mind seperate from you.

 

To keep it in perspective when your mind is chattering or thinking all those ugly things, picture it as a separate person talking to you. This can help in aiding to control it and it keeps things in the proper perspective. Just working with this fact itself can be an exersize of its own and can help someone out tremendousely

 

With all of these exercises the more honest and serious we are to change what we find we don't like or is wrong, our advancement could skyrocket. These exercises are a very strong indicator of how serious we really are. A true test of how serious we are is how serious we take and implement these - a lack of implementing will show how much false ego and illusion have their grip.

 

We can ask ourselves why we don't live these exercises on a daily basis. Why shouldn't we??

 

This will show some of us that we may not be as serious as we thought. That is OK and one of the functions of these is to show us where we really our with ourselves. The mind can play big tricks on us telling us were OK with where we are at when were very far from that.

 

These exercises were brought up to show ourselves what we are doing now to become effective leaders, role models and human beings in the future. We all have to work as hard as we can to maximize our potential. The future is us and the time is now to start thinking about it and what we want ours and ISKCONS future to be.

 

[jayaisvara 0]

That is a great article krsna, thanks for posting it. The questions that arose while reading those articles is, yes we are not the minds. But how is it possible to ignore the mind when it does so much aparadhas? Won't these aparadhas severe our spiritual life like a mad elephant uprooting the creeper of devotion?

[gHari 0]

The tools of the mind are WORDS. It will scatter and shift and collate and randomize its words to sodomize the soul, for that is its purpose. It exists only to befool us.

 

The ego is the trickster mezmerizing the soul with the kaleidoscope of mind. Words are the mind's tools. Beware of words! They are the enemy, the trickster's slight of hand, the circus barkers, the beguilers, betrayers, and agents of all that is false.

 

Worship its words and we will build a babbling tower, an erection of arrogance, a labour that consumes the being - that eventually will crumble into the honesty of death.

 

Trust not words. Trust not the veil that hides the reality. Trust not the trickster, or me.

 

[krsna 3]

The Blind Men and the Elephant

 

 

 

 

 

In a search for a good rendition of

the story of the blind men and the elephant, we came across this poem

by American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) based on the famous

Hindu parable. The poem provides a metaphorical explanation as to how

the descriptions in the world's religions of the one Supreme Being that

they all worship can so radically differ.

 

<font color="blue"> It was six men of Indostan

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind.

 

The First approached the Elephant,

And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side,

At once began to bawl:

"God bless me! but the Elephant

Is very like a wall!"

 

The Second, feeling of the tusk

Cried, "Ho! what have we here,

So very round and smooth and sharp?

To me 'tis mighty clear

This wonder of an Elephant

Is very like a spear!"

 

The Third approached the animal,

And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands,

Thus boldly up he spake:

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant

Is very like a snake!"

 

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,

And felt about the knee:

"What most this wondrous beast is like

Is mighty plain," quoth he;

"'Tis clear enough the Elephant

Is very like a tree!"

 

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,

Said: "E'en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most;

Deny the fact who can,

This marvel of an Elephant

Is very like a fan!"

 

The Sixth no sooner had begun

About the beast to grope,

Than, seizing on the swinging tail

That fell within his scope.

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant

Is very like a rope!"

 

And so these men of Indostan

Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right,

And all were in the wrong!

 

Moral:

 

So oft in theologic wars,

The disputants, I ween,

Rail on in utter ignorance

Of what each other mean,

And prate about an Elephant

Not one of them has seen. </font color>

 

/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[jayaisvara 0]

Srila Prabhupada always use to tell this story about the blind men and the elephants, thanks gHari and krsna. Constantly chanting the holy name in the mind and trying to concentrate in it is the only way out it seems, is it not?

[sumedh 0]

Personally i have no devotion but will share my views. If ill thoughts are propping up and one considers them to be unworthy, unwanted then how can these be considered as vaishnava aparadha? Fighting them mentally is of no use and only shifting our attention to Krishna is the way, so please be assured on this; rather these should act as catalysts to chant more in the state of mind as recommended by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

 

Hare Krishna

[Priitaa 0]

The biggest trick of the mind is to give it permission to 'wander' around. For example, we tell ourselves since we are thinking about Krishna conscious philosophy, even tho we are hitting it up from every angle we can think of plus more, and driving ourselves crazy in the process, we convince ourself since it is Krishna consciousness that makes it ok. Sure its not as bad as total nonsense, but as long as we give ourselves permission to mental specualte, then our minds will wander and be miserable.

 

However its true that the mind can not be controled only be mere will power. It requires 'immersing' the self in the Maha Mantra, coupled with surrender to the guru, devotional service, and reading shastra attentively (in other words, here too we do not allow the mind to 'wander.') We must be willing to change our lifestyle and make ALL aspects of it within Krishna consciousness, or at least as many as practically possible.

[Guest guest]

I think a key trap of the mind is to assume that our imagination is reality. Its part of the narcisistic nature of much of new age religion. Everyone is seeking to be the center of all sorts of transcendental realizations. So they imagine all sorts of nonsense and set themselves in the center. So they imagine chakras this, crystals that, planetary alignments and voodoo who-ha. When in fact if they just lived in reality, be a good person, work in their community for practical benefits, raise their children right - thats whats needed. Instead we have mysticism as a form of escapism. They can't deal with life so they turn to their imagination and imagine away the problems.

[krsna 3]

----------

 

However its true that the mind can not be controled only be mere will power. It requires 'immersing' the self in the Maha Mantra, coupled with surrender to the guru, devotional service, and reading shastra attentively (in other words, here too we do not allow the mind to 'wander.') We must be willing to change our lifestyle and make ALL aspects of it within Krishna consciousness, or at least as many as practically possible.

 

------------------

 

This is such a wonderful verse and purport about how to control the mind:

 

Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 5 Ch.11

TEXT 17

bhratrvyam enam tad adabhra-viryam

upeksayadhyedhitam apramattah

guror hares caranopasanastro

jahi vyalikam svayam atma-mosam

SYNONYMS

bhratrvyam--the formidable enemy; enam--this mind; tat--that; adabhra-viryam--very, very powerful; upeksaya--by neglecting; adhyedhitam--unnecessarily increased in power; apramattah--one who is without illusion; guroh--of the spiritual master; hareh--of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; carana--of the lotus feet; upasana-astrah--applying the weapon of worshiping; jahi--conquer; vyalikam--false; svayam--personally; atma-mosam--which covers the constitutional position of the living entity.

 

TRANSLATION

This uncontrolled mind is the greatest enemy of the living entity. If one neglects it or gives it a chance, it will grow more and more powerful and will become victorious. Although it is not factual, it is very strong. It covers the constitutional position of the soul. O King, 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.

 

PURPORT

There is one easy weapon with which the mind can be conquered--neglect. 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. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura used to say that to control the mind one should beat it with shoes many times just after awakening and again before going to sleep. In this way one can control the mind. This is the instruction of all the sastras. If one does not do so, one is doomed to follow the dictations of the mind. Another bona fide process is to abide strictly by the orders of the spiritual master and engage in the Lord's service. Then the mind will be automatically controlled. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has instructed Srila Rupa Gosvami:

 

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva

guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

When one receives the seed of devotional service by the mercy of the guru and Krsna. the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one's real life begins. <font color="red"> If one abides by the orders of the spiritual master, by the grace of Krsna he is freed from service to the mind. </font color>

 

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Fifth Canto, Eleventh Chapter of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, entitled "Jada Bharata Instructs King Rahugana."

 

 

 

[jayaisvara 0]

The mind is not factual, but its so strong that it convinces the intelligence that an idea or thought is real, is it not?

 

Why is it that in the above post by krsna, Bhagavatam says

"This uncontrolled mind is the greatest enemy of the living entity. If one neglects it or gives it a chance, it will grow more and more powerful and will become victorious."

 

and Srila Prabhupada says that we should neglect the mind? If I assume that I get an undesirable thought that is opposed to bhakti, should I just neglect that thought and try to convince the intelligence its not factual? I tried this method and it works but fear set in me because I got fearful that if I continue this way, this is hypocritical such that my mind thinks one thing and I try to do something else. Then I started trying to forcefully control the mind, then fell into a pit of depression and confusion.

[gHari 0]

I left my computer screen with the Fellowship visible at the change of last night's shift at work.

 

Actually not many of us here are using this spiritual quest to avoid doing our duty or pulling our weight for family and society. Those who are thinking that this is their profession, right now, should note that doing business with Krsna for food and lodging will never lead to the desired goal. Even Arjuna had to do his job. Posing as a religionist while sitting around all day on the net, just to avoid working for a living doesn't impress anyone, and if anything, it simply insults God. He knows the why.

 

I have no idea where this poster got the idea that religionists do not raise their children or live constructively, nor even where the word "mysticism" arose. Seeking the Kingdom of God is certainly not a mundane activity. So to think that mystical realities like those referenced by Christian mystics like St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas are sheer bunk seems unreasonable. Here is the America Heritage Dictionary's definition (which doesn't seem to me to connote ghosts, goblins, pitchforks and unbridled imagination):

<blockquote>mys·ti·cism NOUN: 1a. Immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God. b. The experience of such communion as described by mystics.

2. A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.

3. Vague, groundless speculation. </blockquote>

[vanamali 1]

""1a.Immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God. b. The experience of such communion as described by mystics.""

--------------

 

This sounds like a good working defninition for the purpose of studying religious experience.

 

[krsna 3]

 

Yes,I'm seaching for this kind of mysticism in my life.

Contact with the Supreme Transcendent Lord Sri Krsna but until I reach Sri Krsna I'll be struggling in the mire of this stinkin' world of matter duality & hate.And my friggin' uncontrolled mind which drives me to hellish conciousness.

________

mys·ti·cism NOUN: 1a. Immediate consciousness of the transcendent or ultimate reality or God. b. The experience of such communion as described by mystics.

2. A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.

[krsna 3]

S.B.Canto 5

 

Chapter 11

 

Jada Bharata Instructs King Rahûgana

 

(1) The brahmin [Jada Bharata] said: 'From lacking experience you do not speak of the most important in use of the terms of those who have the experience; these matters of mundane and social behavior one should in fact discuss with the intelligent who do have such a refined sense of truth.

 

(2) Because of this, o King, is indeed among those, who notably by the Veda's [veda-vâdi] take interest in the endlessly increasing concern with the rituals of a material household, as good as never the actual spiritual science [tattva-vâda] found that manifests itself so clearly with the advanced of purity.

 

(3) Although sufficiently known with the words, is the very exalted direct vision of the real purpose of the Veda not theirs, as the happiness of a worldly life for example is like a dream of which one naturally will come to realize that it is unreal.

 

(4) As long as the mind of someone is under the control of the mode of passion, of goodness or of darkness, do actions, auspicious or otherwise, by the senses of action and perception, expand like with an elephant that is roaming freely.

 

(5) That mind endowed with many a desire is, driven by the modes of nature, attached to material happiness; as the chief of the sixteen elements of the material existence [the physical, the active and the perceptual ones plus the mind] does it, estranged, wander around in names [in upâdhi's - suppositions] and does it manifest with bodies of a higher or lower quality in different forms [compare B.G. 3:27].

 

(6) The unhappiness, happiness and severe immoderation obtained in the course of time as a result, creates the mind embracing the material nature which tricks the entity itself into the vicious circle of material action and reaction.

 

(7) Therefore do the learned ones speak of the mind as the cause of being absorbed in the natural modes - with the qualities amiss - in higher or lower conditions of life, of which the for that time manifested outer symptoms of the living entity of being fat or skinny e.g. are the proof.

 

(8) The attraction to the modes makes up the conditioning to the material world, but when the mind of the living entity is there for the ultimate good of being above them is he as a lamp; a wick enjoying clarified butter burning improperly no doubt leads to a flame with smoke, but doing so properly in bondage to the fuel of karma is the flaming wayward mind in contrast evidence of the clear reality.

 

(9) For sure there are the eleven of the mind of the five senses of action, the five senses of knowing and the insidiousness [or the falsehood of the ego, the identification with them]; of the different activities, the different objects of the senses and the place where they occur - of those eleven functions say the learned, o hero, that they are the fields of activity [see B.G. 13: 1-4].

 

(10) Smell, form, touch, taste and hearing [the knowing senses]; evacuation, sexual intercourse, movement, speech and manual control [the senses of action] with the eleventh element of accepting the idea of 'mine', thus gives the 'I' to this body of which some have said that it is the twelfth element.

 

(11) By the elements, by nature itself, by the culture, by the karma and by time are all these eleven of the mind modified into the hundreds, thousands and millions who do not follow from one another nor from themselves, but from the knower of the field.

 

(12) The knower of the field purified sees all these different activities of the mind of the unpurified individual entity in action, that from time immemorial are created by the external energy; sometimes manifest [as in waking] and sometimes not manifested [as in dreams].

 

(13-14) The knower of the field is [then] the all pervading, omnipresent, authentic person; the original one, who is seen and heard of as existing by His own light; who is never born, who is the transcendental one, the One Nârâyana wherein all beings rest, the Supreme Lord. the One Vâsudeva harbour of consciousness; He who by His own potency in the soul exists as the controller, of just as well the air as the nonmoving and moving entities; He is the Supersoul of expansion that entered and thus controls as the One of Fortune in the beyond who is the shelter and knower of everyone in every field; the vital self that appeared in this material world [see also B.G 9: 10 & 15: 15].

 

(15) As long as the embodied one, o King, is not free from this influence of the material world, by in freedom from attachments being awakened to the order knowing the spiritual truth and conquering the six enemies [the mind and the senses of perception], will he till that time wander around in this material world.

 

(16) As long as one has this mind, that as the symptom of the soul its fixation for the living entity is the breeding ground for all the worldy miseries of lamentation, illusion, disease, attachment, greed and enmity, does one get the consequence of egotism.

 

(17) This mind, that formidable enemy, is very powerful, growing so from neglect; he, who free from illusion, applies the weapon of worshiping the lotusfeet of the spiritual teacher and the Lord, will conquer the falsified personal that has covered the soul.'

 

[jayaisvara 0]

krsna, excuses are part of the minds weakness aren't they? Because everytime I read about the disciplines of Vaisnavas, its hard for me to believe how its possible. Yet, in my childhood, I was disciplined, and had all respects for God, then it went away due to material attachments which got strong, and now again to come back to my lost respect for God, it seems very hard. Indeed, the mind is the greatest enemy. It'll keep saying excuses and at the time of death, it'll just bail us. Foolish mind.

[Pankaja_Dasa 1]

 

 

found this:

 

___

Letter to: Madhusudana

Los Angeles

16 January, 1970

Washington, D.C.

 

My Dear Madhusudana,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 13, 1970 and your question is very peculiar.

 

You have admitted that it is something like the tricks of the mind. May I ask you if you are regularly chanting 16 rounds of beads? The tricks of the mind or influence of Maya will infiltrate if we do not follow the regulative principles and regularly chant the prescribed Names without any offense. Perhaps you know that there are 10 (ten) kinds of offenses in chanting the Holy Name. The first offense is not to obey the order of the Spiritual Master, and the second is to minimize the authoritative value of the Scriptures. These things are infiltrating within you as I see from your writings that Vedas or Bhagavatam or Gita seem not so universal.

 

What is the reason of your thinking like that? What do you mean by universal? Do you think that there is any other Scripture in the world which is more universal than the Vedas and Bhagavata etc.? Is there any literature in the world which is more sublime in knowledge than the Bhagavad-gita? The word ``Krishna'' means ``All Attractive,'' so where you get the foreign element in Krishna? Does it mean that He is attractive for all except yourself? And if He is not attractive to you, why it is so? So you kindly answer all these questions from me.

 

You say that you will do as I say and you also prayed to Madhusudana to slay the demon of your doubt but unless you act according to the direction of Madhusudana how can Madhusudana or Madhusudana's father help you. You are with us practically for the last four years and still if you think you cannot surrender to Krishna without any doubt, then what kind of progress you have made by this time?

 

So this Krishna science can be understood through the process of sincere service, and so far any doubt which may sometimes arise in our mind there are the devotees, the Scriptures and the Spiritual Master. Did you discuss all your doubts with your contemporary Godbrothers and devotees? So there are many questions like this about you.

 

You say that within your heart you know that Krishna is the Original Personality of Godhead but when you think of Krishna or try to feel Him you think Krishna as foreign on account of Sanskrit language. Please, therefore, be careful that Maya is peeping at you and if you do not take care timely it may prove fatal. Please, therefore, chant regularly without the offenses and be steady in your situation without any tottering of the mind. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead without any question. He is accepted as such beginning from Arjuna through all the great Acaryas--Ramanujacarya, Madhvacarya, Sankaracarya, Lord Caitanya, Lord Brahma, the Vedic authorities Vyasadeva and Narada--like that, down to ourselves.

 

So this knowledge descends through bona fide disciplic succession. You have accepted this chain of authorities, now you are feeling doubts means certainly you are being attacked by Maya.

 

So please take care and chant Hare Krishna regularly without any offense.

 

Your ever well-wisher,

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

 

 

 

 

 

Later.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter to: Madhusudana

--

Los Angeles

30 January, 1970

 

 

My Dear Madhusudana,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 21, 1970, and I am so glad to learn that you have regained control of your mind and the tricks of Maya have finished. So by Krishna's Grace you have been saved from Maya's attack.

 

This appears to have been a very close call for you and the lesson should be taken well that if we deviate from the strict following of the regulative principles Maya is always ready to inject doubts to shake our faith in Krishna. So I am glad that you have recovered and I was praying for Krishna to save you.

 

So you can see the great necessity of following the prescribed duties of chanting regularly and following strictly the instructions of the Spiritual Master and the regulative principles. In addition to this everyone should go on the streets with Sankirtana Party as much as possible and preach this Krishna Consciousness Movement to his best ability for the benefit of all people.

 

Please continue your efforts in Krishna Consciousness with great determination. Yes, Patience is is a qualification in the successful execution of devotional service. So study our literatures, discuss philosophical points and problems with your God-brothers, and especially chant regularly sixteen rounds daily without offense and go on Sankirtana. We must always remember that chanting of Hare Krishna Mahamantra is our life and soul.

 

So you have got good facility, you are a sincere boy, you have got a good Krishna Consciousness wife, good association of devotees and good scope for spreading this movement in Washington. Always be engaged in Krishna activities and be happy. That is my desire.

 

Please try to understand the questions I have asked in my last letter to you, scrutinizingly, so that you may know to avoid being agitated by any trickings of Maya in the future.

 

Please offer my blessings also to your good wife, Kancanbala. I hope this will meet you in good health.

 

Your ever well-wisher,

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

P.S. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your check for $15.00 sent by __

[krsna 3]

RASCAL MIND

 

Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja

 

Based on Thakur Bhaktivinode’s Gitavali; 9.1

 

O stupid mind, rascal mind, mad mind, chant,

 

“hare krsna hare krsna

krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama

rama rama hare hare!”

 

Then all stupidity will be destroyed. “Get out, stupidity!” Drive out all stupidity by chanting the holy name. bhaja-re bhaja-re, mana ati manda — My mind is stupid, evil mind, and it will only be purified by chanting the holy name under the guidance of a pure devotee. bhajan vina gati nai re — There is no other way out. You should understand that you have come here to do bhajana. There is no other way out.

 

bhajana vina gati nai re —The only way is to do bhajana —

 

“hare krsna hare krsna

krsna krsna hare hare

hare rama hare rama

rama rama hare hare.”

[krsna 3]

 

Srila Gour Govinda Swami

 

"In our minds there are hundreds and thousands of desires giving

duhsanga to us. Is your stupid mind thinking about Krishna? Is your

stupid mind thinking about the instructions of sadhu-guru-vaisnava?

Is your stupid mind thinking about the instructions of Mahaprabhu

and His dear devotees? If the stupid mind is not thinking about

these things, then you are doing duhsanga, asat-sanga. You are not

doing sadhu-sanga at all. Externally or apparently you are staying

in the temple but you are really doing asat-sanga."