10. Camp Ten : Limitations of Mind

Our whole life is a continuous yoga, but if there is uniformity and consistency in life, it becomes meaningful. Instead of living the life in its fullest form, we divide it in small segments. we put aside our ethical values in our professional life and try to acquire wealth. In our social life, we pretend to appear clean wearing the mask of a gentleman. Yet in our spiritual life, we strive for the realization of God. One part of our life takes our mind morally down and pushes towards degradation, whereas the second part sublimates our mind and leads to the path of welfare of ourselves. Due to such controversy, our mind does not experience any transformation till the life ends. So the mind remains unchanged.

Life should be spent as a composite whole. Just as mind is in business, it should be engrossed in day-to day life and in religious life as well. It means that a man should be in Shuddha Sattva while dealing with business, routine life and worship of God. If we want to maintain harmony of mind in adverse circumstances too, we should act according to the voice of our conscience. The biggest limitation of mind is that it is the most obedient servant but very notorious master. As a result, the man, who becomes a slave of mind is totally destroyed by mind in thousands of ways. when the person resorts to his mind and is pushed towards demolition, his conscience scorns him several times but if the soul's voice is constantly ignored, it becomes dormant and inoperative. The person who does not have the ability to listen to the voice of conscience, he should immediately be conscious to seek the shelter of awakened liberated soul and under his proper guidance he must wake up his dormant conscience.

If a person wishes to be free from the slavery of mind and intends to make it his own obedient servant, he must understand the limitations of the mind thoroughly. Bhagwan Swaminarayan has discussed this topic in detail in 'Vachnamritam'. so says Shri Hari:

'Mind is the faculty where all desires including the desire for woman etc originate. The mind decides on the alternatives available and it controls all the senses.' (Gadhada-F-12)

'There would remain in the mind the desire for passion for eating, drinking, walking etc. All such thoughts should be known as the limitations of mind and it should be removed by the constant suggestions such as : I am the soul. I am distinct from that thought. I am happy.' (Kariyani-3) 'The nature of mind is sticky, so it sticks to good or evil elements about whom it thinks. Moreover, it lacks in the ability to differentiate and parse out. What is the best and what is the worst, so it sometimes clings to the most evil element or subject and only pursues it blindly.' (Gadhada-M-6)

Thus mind is always connected with egoism and desires and so all its activities are inspired definitely by ego and desires. Consequently if we may not consider mind as a cause of ignorance, we can surely coin it as a stimulus of errors. Mind's nature is to remain aloof of truth. So by the touch of imaginary, illusive so-called truth means false-hood, mind engages in the activities against nature and fetches more and more mistakes, inconsistency, heterogeny, ugliness and deformation.

If mind's this limitation and fault are to be converted into a virtue and are to be used into the attempts of achieving God, the senses should be kept under control along with self thought and all the activities related to five senses viz. speech, touch, sight, taste and smell must be practised to the direction of God. With eyes vision of God's form, by nose the experience of smell only of flowers and neivedhya (food stuff offered to God), with ears listening to the God's account of sports and spiritual knowledge, with the help of tongue, enjoyment of divine prasad (graceful return) of the Almighty and pious touch of God's love by means of nine course devotion (Navadha Bhakti), thus keeping mind totally engaged into the form of God, just as a caterpillar concentrates on the female bee and turns itself into the female bee, in the same manner mind being steady in the form of God leads the soul to the ultimate realization of God. Sura Khachar, the king of Loya, was an unique follower of Bhagwan Swaminarayan. He had a keen inclination and attachment for enjoying various tasty food dishes. As a result, his sentimental mind was always surrendered to meals. for a devotee, such enticements are ominous.

So Shreeji Maharaj gave him an oath that whatever was being served in the dish, should be eaten with interest considering it as the grace of God without any complaint.

Then Shri Hari told his wife to serve him sometimes tasty and sometimes tasteless food. Because of Lord's command, Durbar ate everything served without minding the taste. Within six months, Sura Khachar became negligent towards the taste.

Without overcoming all the limitations of mind and without going beyond mind, self-realization is impossible, and for this purpose, the only remedy is to lead the life naturally as a witness in the form of self-personification.