COMPANY OF YOUR MIND AJIT BISHNOI One may live in a palace or in a hut, but the first house one lives in is one’s mind only. Only once one goes out of this house, does one begin to live in an external house. Is it not a fact that we don’t notice our surroundings when we are engrossed in our thoughts?

Therefore, if we agree that our minds are our first dwellings, then it is important that this house is made the best, even better than the buildings we live in. But is it generally so? The answer is a big no. Why else are we escaping our minds? Why are we scared of not falling asleep when we want to? Why do we pop sleeping pills so readily, scared that our minds would not allow us to sleep? Why is there a television set even in our bedrooms? Why do we switch on our television sets as soon as we step in our houses? In some houses, television sets are switched on as soon as one steps in there? In some houses, television sets are always on extended duty. Why is waiting such a pain, minus a magazine or again a television set? Is sitting in comfortable surroundings in the company of our own minds so undesirable? Why do we keep calling people on our cell phones even though such calls have zero purpose? Why are we addicted to our laptops, checking our emails or sending silly messages? And why do we settle for company of people of doubtful utility, if spending some time with our minds was not such a misery. The answer to all these questions is our inability to come to terms with our minds. If we must spend sometime with our minds, couldn’t we make a good use of it like planning? How do writers, painters, lyricists, etc. function?

No! We live as if living with our minds is so bad as being in solitary confinement. Why? Because our minds are unfriendly. If we do spend time with them, they flood us with all kinds of negative thoughts. What are mental diseases except allowing our minds free run to wreck havoc on us. Where do crimes related to lust originate? Who makes us chase open-ended desires? Who impels us to do wrong things? Who scares us in dreams? It is the mind only which has not been tamed/trained.

How can we control this unfriendly mind? Let us seek answers from the Bhagavad-Geeta. In the verse 6.35, Lord Krishna advises practice and detachment. In the verse 18.65, He counsels linking to Himself. In the verse 16.12, He criticizes unlimited material desires. There are many more verses there with important guidelines. We can take advantage of them to bring our minds around. Then we don’t have to escape our minds. Rather they can be used very constructively. We cannot escape our minds. Rather they even accompany us to our next bodies (15.8).

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