Tackling the Mind

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Caracas, Venezuela
25 September 2009

Any questions?

Question: Could you explain the difference between mind, memory, and thought?

[His Divine Grace chuckles] It is a scientist question...

Mind is very naughty, you must control it with your intelligence. Mind controls everything. For example, if I see a beautiful girl in the street, I can still remember her now. Once, when I was giving class in Nabadwip, there was a devotee who would always sit with his eyes closed, and I asked him, "Why do you close your eyes?" He went to Gurudev and complain, "Acharya Maharaj was giving class and he asked why I closed my eyes!" Gurudev replied, "Yes. You go to the market and see a good girl, and if you close eyes even now, you can still see that girl. If you remember that girl, you can see that girl even now when you close your eyes." So, mind must always be controlled with intelligence.

You think you are here, but it can be so that only your body is here because if your mind is somewhere else, you cannot hear anything.

Gurudev always said that it is necessary to use good intelligence—mind always makes some disturbance, mind always doing something wrong. Srila Sridhar Maharaj also told Gurudev, "Do not listen to your mind, always listen to me."

In Srila Sridhar Maharaj's times, when there was some prasadam left from the day before, Srila Sridhar Maharaj told not to waste it (not to throw into the drain), all brahmacharis had to take it the next day. One time, the dal was kept overnight uncovered and when a brahmachari served that dal to Gurudev the next day, Gurudev saw there was an insect in the dal on his plate. He wanted to refuse, "Oh!" but then he took the insect out and ate it. Srila Sridhar Maharaj observed this and asked him later, "Why did you eat the dal?" Gurudev answered, "Because you have told me not to follow my mind!"

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