Just recently HH Candramauli Swami was saying that we keep hearing that we shouldn't associate with non-devotees. Normally we start to label and categorize this is a non-devotee and that is a non-devotee but we forget that most of us live with one 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Who? The mind! Maharaja was saying that the mind is a non-devotee if it hasn't been trained properly.
I had a nice realization with regards to what is a good measure of knowing if our mind has been trained properly in KC. Our chanting. If we can focus the mind and just hear the maha mantra when we chant, we can at least be assured that we're making some progress in training the mind.
Anyways, back to the mind in general. I was reading Srimad Bhgavatam a few days back and the purports I was reading just so happened to be speaking about the mind. Go figure! LOL! Here's what Srila Prabhupada so expertly explains:
Similarly, the material world is a creation of our mental concoctions. We have come to this material world to enjoy material resources, and by mental concoction we discover many, many objects of enjoyment because our minds are absorbed in material things. This is why we receive various bodies. According to our mental concoctions we work in various ways, desiring various achievements, and by nature and the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead (karmaṇā-daiva-netreṇa) we get the advantages we desire. Thus we become more and more involved with material concoctions. This is the reason for our suffering in the material world. By one kind of activity we create another, and they are all products of our mental concoctions. (SB. 6.15.24 purport)
Further Srila Prabhupada writes:
The mind is the center because the mind creates all these things. As soon as the material object is struck, however, the mind is affected, and we suffer. For example, with the material elements, the working senses and the knowledge-gathering senses we create a very nice car, and when the car is accidentally smashed in a collision, the mind suffers, and through the mind the living entity suffers.
The fact is that the living entity, while concocting with the mind, creates the material condition. Because matter is destructible, through the material condition the living entity suffers. Otherwise, the living entity is detached from all material conditions. When one comes to the Brahman platform, the platform of spiritual life, fully understanding that he is a spiritual soul (ahaḿ brahmāsmi), he is no longer affected by lamentation or hankering. (SB. 6.15.25 purport)
Just see how we set the stage for our own suffering if we don't train the mind properly. We certainly are the cause of our own suffering because we listen to the stupid mind's dictates. There is no other way but to chant and chant with the determination that "I want to listen to Krsna's holy names. Only Krsna can control this mind that I have been given with this body. Please Krsna allow my mind to be drawn to your nectarean names."
Wishing all of you much success in your personal mind-training programs!
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