Suppose a crazy psychopath has taken a child hostage and is using that child as a shield against the police seeking to rescue. At such times, specially trained hostage negotiators, who are experts in understanding the psychology of psychopaths, are deployed. By using various strategies they try to get the psychopath to release the child.

Our mind is like that crazed psychopath. It takes our life hostage by subjecting us to crippling misconceptions about who we are, and what is desirable and what is doable for us. Not only does it practically sabotage us by misdirecting our attention towards various unworthy things, but it also sabotages us subtly by making us believe through its whispers and screams that we are worthless and will never be able to manage our mind. 

To make the best of our life, we need to negotiate with our mind. We can’t get rid of it; It is inside us and will always be inside us. Still, we can get it to release our life from its grip through expert negotiation. No wonder the Bhagavad-gita urges us to deal with our mind experity (06.06). To negotiate with the mind effectively, we need to equip our intelligence and realize our spirituality. 

With our intelligence, we understand that we are different from our mind, and that our potentials are not defined by our mind. With our spirituality, we understand that we belong to a non-material level of reality, from where we can derive strength to deal with the mind which exists at a level of reality below us. We can nourish both our intelligence and our spirituality by studying the Gita and thereby learning time-tested strategies to unleash our potential and fulfill our destiny. 

One-sentence summary:

Talk with your mind the way a hostage negotiator talks with a crazed psychopath.

Think it over:

  • How is our mind like a crazed psychopath?
  • How can we learn to expertly negotiate with our mind?
  • How can the Gita help us manage our mind?

***

06.05: One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.

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