Suppose while we are working we find a colleague suddenly starts mumbling something. If what they are saying doesn’t make sense, we might try to understand. But if they just keep muttering incoherently, we will just turn away from them and get on with our work – maybe using an earphone to shut off what they are muttering. We would need to do this especially if they tend to periodically go into phases of incoherence.

We need a similar pragmatic approach when dealing with our mind. The Bhagavad-gita (06.05) exhorts us towards such inner vigilance when declaring that we need to elevate ourselves with the mind, and not be degraded by it. Our mind sometimes suddenly goes into phases of incoherence. Sometimes it starts grumbling about things; sometimes it starts feeling glum; sometimes it starts feeling worried. If these feelings don’t make any sense, that is, if we can’t find any rational cause for these feelings, then we just need to turn away from them. By treating the mind like an incoherently mumbling colleague, we can avoid being held hostage by its mood swings, by its irrational fluctuation in feelings.

Just as mutterers when neglected fall silent after some time, so too does the muttering mind falls silent in due course of time when we don’t pay attention to it. Of course, because the mind is inside us, neglecting it is not easy. We can’t move away from it physically, but we can move our focus away from it by focusing it on something else. The most constructive, empowering and transforming object for focus is Krishna, the all-pure, all-powerful supreme reality.

By regularly practicing bhakti-yoga for fixing the mind on Krishna, we can ensure that even when our mind becomes confused, we ourselves stay focused.

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