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

HEROES OF COMPASSION

"To show compassion to others in this world is the greatest way of pleasing the Supreme Lord." - Radhanath Swami. Compassion is one of the core quality of a civilized and a refined person. And for a spiritual practitioner who wants to experience higher levels of consciousness and please the Supreme Consciousness, the quality of compassion is of utmost importance. Compassion is defined in the Oxford dictionary as "a strong feeling of sympathy for people who are suffering and a desire to help them." In the Sanskrit language, compassion is denoted by several words - daya, karuna, kripa. Chankaya Pandit, one of the greatest scholars of India mentions that "the ability to see other's suffering as one's own" (aatmavat manyate jagat) as one of the main characteristics of one in knowledge. In the same mood, the Vaishnava acharyas define a devotee as "one who becomes sad seeing the sadness of others" (para dukha dukhi) . If we study the Vedi...
Post a Comment
Read more

WHO IS YOUR DEAR DEER?

"Oh Lord, please transfer the attraction I have towards the objects of this world to You." We all know the story of King Bharat from Srimad-bhagvatam who became attached to a baby deer, so much so that, he forgot to perform devotional service to The Supremely Dear Lord. Thus, his attachment and attraction to The Dear Lord was replaced by his newfound attachment and attraction to this deer. This deer became his dear deer. The result - in his next life, he was born as a baby deer. Lord Krishna explains in Bhagvat-gita 8.6 yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ "Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail." Krishna in this verse explains that our next life depends on the object that is dear to us in this life. Or, in the context of the example of King Bharat, our next life depends on who is our deer in t...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE JOURNEY OF EXCELLENCE TO EXCELLENCE

" We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. "   - Aristotle I generally don't like to speak about myself, I am a very shy person in that sense. But here, I would like to share a small story from my life just to make an important point. You see, most lessons we need to learn are stored in our past, we just need to visit it once in a while to refresh the lessons learnt without getting caught up in it. THE EXPERIENCE OF EXCELLENCE I started chanting 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra and became committed to spiritual life, towards the end of my 11th std. This was way back in 1999. During this time, there were few dozen devotees in ISKCON, all over Goa. When I entered 12th std, I decided to focus fully on my studies and top the college. I thought, this would be the best way to preach to all my friends - by showing them how spiritual life helps one achieve success in life. And, it was also the best way to protect my spiritual life ami...
Post a Comment
Read more