Skip to main content

Thought on Thoughts

The problem with many of us is that we have given way too much importance to our thoughts.

Just think about it. How many thoughts we have in a day? Hundreds or thousands. How many thoughts we have had in our life up until now? Millions or quadrillions. The irony is that the mind makes us believe that every thought is important and we foolishly subscribe to our mind. 

Just like in an ocean so many waves come and go, similarly we get so many thoughts. The problem is not the thought per se, but our attachment to our thoughts. 



Interesting thing is that thoughts are harmless - they come in awareness and pass away. Just like clouds pass through the clear sky.

Our thoughts can harm us only if we give importance to them and hold on to them.

That's why in the Bhagavad-Gita when Lord Krishna is explaining the flowchart of how a living entity suffers. The first step, He explains is contemplation of sense objects. Contemplation is nothing but holding on to our thoughts longer than required. 

Our reason to come to this material world is that we took our mind's proposal seriously. And if we continue to keep taking our thoughts seriously and strengthening it by giving our attention, we will continue to be enslaved by our mind and continue to suffer in this world. 

As the saying goes - Insanity, is doing the same thing again and again & expecting a different result.

So what to do? We need to snap out of our mental world of imagination to the real, true world of service to Krishna. 

We need to develop the conviction that only thoughts about Lord Krishna and service to Him are worth giving our attention to. Any other thought is not worth our energy....we should  surrender it as soon as it arises. That should be our plan of action.

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LIFE BEYOND LABELS

One of the main pastimes of the mind is to label. It loves labeling, in fact it thrives and exits on labeling . Labeling is a wonderful tool to learn concepts by making it simple, but when it comes to experiencing life, it doesn't work so well for us especially if our labels of life are negative. Simple words, labels affect us in ways beyond our wildest imagination. They shape our views, color our lives with different perspectives. These mental labels affect practically every aspect of our life - be it personal, relationships or our experience of life in general. The mental labels start right from our birth. We identify ourselves as our body, our name, our gender. Then as we grow older, so many other labels add up to our identity. Our education, our profession, our economic status. What others tell about who we are slowly become important to us, our new labels. If someone repeatedly calls us ' useless ', slowly that turns into a label. It's not that only others ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ENEMIES OF PEACE

Bhagvat-gita 2.71 vihaya kaman yah sarvan, pumans carati nihsprhah nirmamo nirahankarah, sa santim adhigacchati "A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego - he alone can attain real peace." This is one of those verses of Gita that is very deep and profound. In fact, every verse of Gita is a storehouse of wisdom. In this verse Lord Krishna mentions three enemies of peace. These are three mentalities that destroy peace. 'Want' mentality "Wants" is one of the primary reasons for our peace to be destroyed. If our mind is considered to be like pond, desires can be compared to be stones which when thrown into the pond of our mind, agitate it. The problem with desire is there seems to be no end to them. One is fulfilled another arises. In fact the mind has countless unfulfilled desires stored in it. How many can we be fulfille...
Post a Comment
Read more

GLORIOUS LIFE OF A GLORIOUS DEVOTEE

"What is the value of a prolonged life which is wasted, inexperienced by years in this world? Better a moment of full consciousness, because that gives one a start in searching after his supreme interest." - Srimad-bhagvatam 2.1.12 THE WINNER OF HEARTS Today is the disappearance day of His Grace Jayananda Prabhu. He left his body, a day before Narasimha chaturdashi in the year 1977. Jayananda Prabhu is an example of a perfect devotee whom every devotee should follow. Born as Jim Khor, Jayananda Prabhu became one of the intital and senior most disciple of Srila Prabhupada. He was a mechanical engineer by education but he chose a simple, humble profession of a taxi driver in order to be free from an artificial life of name and fame. He was already a kind of spiritual seeker therefore, as soon as he came in touch with Srila Prabhupada and the Krishna Conscious movement, he got hooked onto it and took it up with all seriousness right from day one. He was enthusiasm ...
Post a Comment
Read more