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Chapter 6
CONTROL OF THE MIND
29. Equanimity And Evenness In Outlook
20. Take a grief-stricken man to a running stream of river. The sight of clear, pure and peacefully flowing water will assuage his sorrow. He will forget his troubles. What gives the stream such healing power? It is because of the manifestation of the benign power of God in that stream. There is a beautiful description of the streams in the Veda: ‘अतिष्ठन्तीनां अनिवेशनानाम्।’—The stream flows without break, it has no resting place, no home of its own. It is like a sannyasi in this respect. Watching the flow of such a sacred stream concentrates the mind in a moment. Should that stream not motivate me to create a spring of love and wisdom within me? 21. If the flowing water, which is part of the material world, can bring such peace to my mind, imagine how much peace the mind would have if the stream of divine consciousness, devotion and wisdom begins to flow through the valley of the mind. Once a friend of mine was travelling in the Himalayas in Kashmir. He used to write to me about the holy mountains and the beautiful streams there. I wrote to him, “Those holy mountains and the streams and the winds blowing there give you immense joy. I can see and feel all that within my heart. I daily view such marvellous scenes in the inner recesses of my heart. Even if you invite me, I would not come there, leaving the great and divine Himalaya within me. The Lord has said, ‘Among the fixed and immovable things, I am the Himalaya.’[1] The Himalaya is the symbol of steadfastness and should, in fact, be worshipped to imbibe that quality. What is then the point in forsaking the duty and rushing towards it, enamoured by the description of its beauty?” 22. So, calm the mind a bit. Look at the world with a positive and friendly eye. Then an infinite number of springs will begin to flow within your heart. Your inner firmament will be illuminated with the stars of noble ideas. If auspicious objects made of stone or clay can bring peace to the mind, would not the vision of the inner world have this effect? I had once been to Travancore (Kerala). One evening I was sitting on the beach, silently listening to the majestic roaring of the boundless sea. I was just still, full of peace, lost in myself. My friend brought fruits for me. Absorbed in another world, I felt distaste even for such a pure sattvik food. The sea was as if chanting ॐ ॐ (Om, Om) remiding me of the Gita’s exhortation, ‘Remember Me and fight on.[2] That was what the sea was doing; it was ceaselessly doing karma. Its waves were surging back and forth without a moment’s rest. That sight had made me lose appetite for anything. What was there in that sea to have such an effect? If my heart could overflow with joy at the sight of waves of salt-water, how ecstatically would I dance when the waves of wisdom and love surge in my heart? Vedic seers had this experience in their hearts. ‘अंतः समुद्रे हृदि अंतरायुषि..... (‘I am witnessing all around the streams of ghee[3] in the sea, within the heart, in all the living beings waves of sweetness are arising in the sea’) This divine language has non-plussed the commentators. What is meant by the streams of honey and ghee? But, how can there be streams of salt-water in my heart? It is bound to have waves of milk and ghee and honey surging within it. |
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