(12/16) Control Your Mind

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Uluberia, 23 April 2019, noon, part 12
Translated from Bengali

You hear about gods enjoying a happy life in heaven, and you start thinking that you want to live there too – you do good things and go to heaven, but when you go there, you will have to come back one day. When your pious merit is exhausted, you will have to come back from heaven. There is a sloka in Srimad Bhagavad-gita that explains this clearly. If I offer you, 'You can go to heaven, but in your next birth after that you will be born as a dog,' will you agree to this? You will not. We all have to leave this world one day, and where we will go in our next birth? What will become of us? Have you ever thought of this? You are enjoying your lives now thinking, 'Whatever will be will be. When I die, then I will see. For now, I have good eyes, nose, eyes, tongue, etc. – let me enjoy my life.'

We will all have to leave this world – nobody will be spared. I keep telling you all the time: please practise Krishna consciousness. I have not come here to cheat you. Krsna bala, sange chala, ei matra bhiksa chai (কৃষ্ণ বল, সঙ্গে চল, এই মাত্র ভিক্ষা চাই). I am begging you for one thing only – come with Me and chant the Holy Name of Krishna!' What alms am I asking you for? What I want from you is that you come with us and chant the Holy Name of Lord Krishna. There will be a festival in Nabadwip soon; please come there.

We did not come to this world to eat nice food and wear nice clothes. We have had so many births before, and in each of those births we ate as much as we wanted. Was our hunger satisfied? Will your hunger be satisfied now if you eat two hundred grams of rice? It will not. We will always want more, more, more. You can eat well in the morning, but after a while you will be hungry again, and when the evening comes, you will be hungry again, too (unless you eat before going to bed you will not be able to fall asleep). We are always eating... Do not eat so much (atyahara), do not hoard things (prayascha), do not talk too much or listen to gossips (prajalpa), accept what is favourable to devotion, reject what is unfavourable to devotion (niyamagraha), give up greed (laulancha) and bad association (jana-sanghancha).

The mind is naughty, it always goes here, there, everywhere. 'Dusta mana! Tumi kisera vaisnava? (দুষ্ঠ মন ! তুমি কিসের বৈষ্ণব ?). Naughty mind! What kind of Vaisnav do you think you are? You do not want to do any service! You have no attachment to service...' Srila Prabhupad said that a mind is like an uncontrolled horse that is always running in all directions – it goes wherever it looks. It is necessary to always draw the rein and control your mind. How? By using intelligence (buddhi). For example, you have a wife, but your mind is telling you to go and talk to some other lady – your intelligence can judge, 'This is not good. Do not go there, it is not right to do this.' We must follow our intelligence's judgement.

Suppose I want to hit or slap somebody. I can realise that if I give them a slap, the person will go to the police and file a case against me. So, I can think, 'No, I will not do it, it is not good.' It means that my intelligence has won. In another situation, I can have some material desire, and if anger sprouts from that desire, I will not be able to stop, so I will end up hitting the person out of anger. People become controlled by anger and pride, 'Oh, he has sworn me! Why must I let him go just like that?' And a fight begins...

From desire anger arises, from anger greed arises, from greed illusion arises, from illusion madness arises, and from madness arises envy. Envy means you cannot tolerate another person's success or wellbeing. This is the worst quality. We sing in one of the kirtans written by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur:

পর সুখে দুঃখী সদা মিথ্যাভাষী
পরদুঃখ সুখকর ॥

para-sukhe duhkhi sada mithya-bhasi
para-duhkha sukha-kara

'I always lie. I feel unhappy to see others happy, and I feel happy to see others sad.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

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Length: 85 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Be Resolute
2) Pillars of Service Mood
3) Tongue's Attachment
4) Tread with Caution
5) Search for Reality
6) The Obstacle Is You
7) Bogus Love, Bogus Claims
8) Core of Devotional Life
9) Love Me, Love My Dog
10) Bad Days Turn Into Bad Life
11) Tottering Life
12) Control Your Mind
13) Devotees' Benevolent Kindness
14) Gift of Vision
15) Seal Your Heart from Maya
16) My Question to You