Learn How to Make Your Mind Your Best Friend
Elevate yourself through the power of your mind, and not degrade yourself, for the mind can be the friend and also the enemy of the self. (Bhagavad Gita 6.5)
Lord Krishna taught us three essential maxims through the above sloka, and they are:
- Our mind is powerful and has the power to make us grow as well as degrade
- Whether we elevate ourselves or end up in downfall depends on how we control our mind and
- The most important lesson, we are responsible for our growth as well as our debasement.
Even the hand that comes to you through the darkness will have to be your own – Swami Vivekananda
Given the choice between growth and degradation, only an idiot would prefer degradation. As Lord Krishna says, the choice between growth and degradation is ours. In choosing growth, we must befriend our mind, and that must be our top priority in life. We can achieve other goals only when we befriend the mind. If it is so simple, why are so many of us not able to achieve it? What must be done to befriend the mind? The answer is straightforward and explained in the very next sloka.
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Mind will Remain the Best Friend When Conquered
बन्धुरात्मात्मनस्तस्य येनात्मैवात्मना जित: । अनात्मनस्तु शत्रुत्वे वर्तेतात्मैव शत्रुवत् - Bhagavad Gita 6.6
One-word answer is jitaha. Jitaha means victory / overcoming resistance. Lord Krishna suggests we must win against our mind i.e. the intellect has to win over the mind; intellect has to control the mind against possible resistance.
For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.
We are constantly pressured to succeed in life: conquer competitive exams, beat our colleagues for promotion, and win deals against competitors. We fail to recognize the most crucial victory i.e. conquering the thoughts. This is the most difficult of all the fights, and the most important. Conquering your thoughts will ensure easy victory in all other fights.
We dissipate a large portion of our energy in combating people whom we perceive as enemies and potentially harmful to us. The Vedic scriptures say that the greatest of all enemies—lust, anger, greed, envy, illusion, etc.—reside in our own mind. These internal enemies are even more pernicious than the outer ones. The external demons may injure us for some time, but the demons sitting within our own mind can make us live in constant wretchedness. We all know people who had everything favourable in the world but lived miserable lives because their own minds tormented them incessantly through depression, hatred, tension, anxiety, and stress.
Negative Thoughts Cause Damage
The Vedic philosophy lays great emphasis on the ramifications of thoughts. Virus and bacteria are not the only causes of diseases. Negative thoughts cause even more damage.
In the Buddhist scripture, the Dhammapada (1.3), the Buddha also expresses this truth vividly:
I have been insulted! I have been hurt! I have been beaten! I have been robbed! Misery does not cease in those who harbor such thoughts.
When we nourish hatred in our mind, our negative thoughts do more damage to us than the object of our hatred. It has been very sagaciously stated: “Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping that the other person will die.” The problem is that most people do not even realize that their own uncontrolled mind is causing them so much harm.
Mind – Double-Edged Sword
The same mind can become our best friend if we bring it under the control of the intellect. The more powerful an entity is, the greater is the danger of its misuse, and also the greater is the scope for its utilization. Since the mind is such a powerful machine, it can work as a two-edged sword. Thus, those who slide to demoniac levels do so because of their own mind, while those who attain sublime heights also do so because of their purified minds.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, former President of America, expressed this very nicely: “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”
That is why Lord Krishna said, “If one remains happy to be a prisoner of their mind, it is degradation for sure”.
Clouds are brought in by the wind and again driven away by the same agency. Similarly, man’s bondage is caused by the mind, and Liberation too is caused by that alone. – Vivekachoodamani
To grow, conquer your mind by cultivating constant positive thoughts.
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