What should one do to stabilise the mind?
The higher mind and the lower mind, the wretched mind and the virtuous mind, all the different types of mind have to be stabilised. Even a yogi or sadhu who has attained great heights, or a rascal who has sunk very low, need stability, because the mind is energy and this energy becomes dissipated in different spheres. Whether you are vicious or virtuous, spiritual or benevolent, you have a mind and your mental energies are being dissipated.
At different levels there are different sadhanas. At my level I am also trying to stabilise the mind. Since coming to Rikhia, I have been well mentally and physically. While doing panchagni sadhana, my health has been perfect. My neighbours, however, have been disturbing me very much. They do not come to disturb me, but it is the unstable quality of my mind that disturbs me. That disturbance started on the day I heard the command within my mind, “Love your neighbours as I have loved you. Give them the comforts that I have given you.” Since I heard this message, every time I sit for meditation it comes to my mind.
I do not want to get rid of this thought though. It is a good thought, because God has always loved me. He has been very kind. I have had no problems in my life. I taught people how to get rid of their constipation, but personally I do not know what constipation is. I taught people how to overcome so many problems that I had never experienced myself. Insomnia – I don’t even know what it is; I sleep very well. I have had no money difficulties in my life. There was a period when I used to beg as a sadhana in Benares. I enjoyed moving around in different districts; I was not unhappy. But this thought, “Love thy neighbour,” has disturbed me very much.
It is God’s order. Now, when he has shown me the way, how can I not carry it out? I am waiting for a breakthrough, but it has not taken place. I have everything, the resources, the capacity, but I do not know what to do, and this is in my mind. Now you see my difficulty. You have your own difficulty when you sit for meditation. It may not be the same as mine, you may have some other nagging thought. So in every state of consciousness, the human mind is unstable. Even my mind is unstable, but I do not want to make it stable because God has made it unstable.
I have a lot of negative thoughts. What should I do?
Let them come. What does it mean? If you get dysentery, it means your stomach is upset. Will you fill your stomach or will you take lemon water? When you have an urge to vomit and relieve yourself, will you eat sweets? In the same way, when you have negative thoughts, try to understand that some garbage is being cleaned out of the mind. Let it come out and do not feel guilty about it. That is the important thing, because negative thinking is natural and you are not the only person with negative thoughts. No one should accuse you because of this. Everyone, even rishis and yogis, have negative feelings, bad feelings, criminal feelings, anger and passion. The garbage is there in man’s mind because it has not been cleaned out. If you clean it every day, you will have less and if you clean it only once a year, you will have lots.
I cleaned the garbage out of my mind and threw it away. It took me forty to fifty years. If you want to spend this much time, do so, but it is very difficult. Nobody’s heart is pure. You will not find anyone in this world who has a pure heart. Everybody has worries, fears, jealousy, greed and hatred. Everybody has a very funny relationship with God. When you want a child, when you want money, when you want to recover from sickness, you ask God. Of course, you cannot help it, and you are not the only person in the world who is doing this. The same applies to everybody, but do not hate yourself for it. Respect yourself, because you are not the only person with negative thoughts.
However, you should practise Gayatri mantra every day. Gayatri is the brilliant, divine Mother. When you practise one or two rounds of surya namaskara, you should say, “You are brilliance; give me brilliance. You are ojas; give me ojas.” Worship Lord Surya. The sun is brilliant, so you are brilliant. Good thoughts do not eliminate bad thoughts, but they balance them.
What is the easiest sadhana to make the mind strong?
To make the mind strong, you must be able to make a decision and stick to it without wavering. Whatever you want to do can become a sadhana provided you offer it to God. The feeling that ‘I am the doer’ must not be there. Whatever work you do, you must have the feeling of dedication. For example, you have a shop, but you consider it my shop. You think that I have put you there to sell the items in it and deposit the money in the bank. It is my money, but you can spend it according to your needs. You do not have to give it to me. If I ask for money, you give me some. You run the shop in my name; I am the owner. While performing this duty, what frame of mind will you have? Will you think of yourself as the owner or as the caretaker? You should have the feeling that God is the owner.
A sannyasin leaves home and stays in the guru’s ashram for twelve years to learn this. Whatever he does, from kitchen to computer, from banking to construction, he does it for Swamiji. He does not do anything for himself. Guruji does not go anywhere to get signatures from contractors or to buy provisions. He is the person doing all of it. This is action without desire for results. Lord Krishna has said in the Bhagavad Gita (9:27), “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give, whatever you practise as austerity, O Arjuna, do it as an offering unto Me.”
Action performed according to your wish, not for yourself but for others, is selfless action. In fact, in grihastha ashrama there is more possibility for selfless action, since everything a householder produces and whatever actions he performs are not done merely for himself, but for his wife, his children, his kith and kin, his dependants and for the society he lives in. Everyone owes a large debt to society. If society becomes unstable, what can you do? You will not be able to run to a shop nor will you be able to buy or sell goods or go to the bank.
To repay the debt to society, one has to keep aside a part of one’s earnings. It is necessary for the well off sectors to support and uplift the weaker sectors of society, who are in need. If you neglect the deprived sector, you will not be able to live and trade in security. So, remember that whatever you produce or earn should be distributed judiciously: this percentage for myself, this percentage for my children, this percentage for my dependants, this percentage for hospitals, this percentage for education, and so on. Such distribution of wealth must also be done.
In this way, everyone must work without desire for the fruits of action. When you develop that level of consciousness, then an unbelievable awakening will take place within you. You can call it chetana, consciousness, or atman, soul. This means that your boundaries must not be narrow and small – this is mine, that is yours. These are the thoughts of narrow-minded people. For a person with a big heart, the whole creation is kith and kin. It is also said in the Mahabharata that for the generous hearted, the whole world is a family.