We are all in an inner war with the mind, which the
Bhagavad-gita (06.06) indicates is often our enemy. In this war, scriptural
rules that mandate regulation of worldly indulgence are our protectors. When
immoral temptations masquerading as pleasures seduce us, rules serve as fences
that keep us within the safe zone of scripturally ordained morality.
Degraded and demoralized, we then begin the slow labored
journey back to the protection of the fences that we had ourselves broken down.
Dallying with the mind refers to letting our thoughts idly
wander, unguardedly allowing them to go wherever the mind fancies. When we dally
thus, the mind beguiles us into believing that many pleasures await us if we
just step out of the fences of morality. As we fall for this lie, the mind
subtly and sinisterly distorts our perception so that we see it not as an
enemy, but as a friend. And we see scriptural rules not as protectors, but as
deprivers.
By thus perverting our perceptions, the mind makes us
defectors, who fight against the very principles we had resolved to uphold.
Infatuated by the mind’s promises of pleasure, we break the protective moral
fences and become its puppets, doing things that we would normally never do.
Only when we experience the hollowness of its promised pleasures do we realize
that we have been fooled. Degraded and demoralized, we then begin the slow
labored journey back to the protection of the fences that we had ourselves
broken down.
If we don’t want to become defectors, we need to stop
dallying with the mind. By keeping ourselves busy in Krishna’s service, we can
leave ourselves no time to dally with the mind. Over time, as our devotion
develops we will become free from any need for such dallying, for we will
delight in dallying with Krishna, in relishing constantly his presence invoked
by our sincere devotional service.
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