The mind is illusion’s internal advertising agent by
Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 06
Much of today’s materialistic culture runs through
advertising. Most multinational companies often spend far more on product
promotion than on quality control.
Advertising agents are expert at persuading people into
believing that their wants are their needs. In fact, the evil genius of
advertising is that it can make people believe that they want more than their
life things that they don’t need at all.
While the formidable persuasive power of advertisers is well
known, much lesser known is the persuasive power of the internal advertiser:
the mind. It is illusion’s advertising agent – it makes us go after the many
products paraded by the illusory energy.
The mind is far more insidious than any other advertising
agent because it doesn’t just persuade us – it pretends to be us. Because it
lies inside us, it manipulates us into believing that its fancies are our fancies.
So sinister and subversive is the mind’s spell that it makes us chase after
trivialities, even risking in the process our financial security, moral
integrity, emotional stability and spiritual sanctity.
Further, while we can just close the door on a persistent
advertiser or even have one evicted, we can do neither with the mind – again
because it exists inside us. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (06.06) warns that
the mind can be our worst enemy if it is uncontrolled, that is, if it is
allowed to unrestrictedly cast its spell on us.
The most effective way to counter the mind’s incessant
promotion of petty worldly things is to expose ourselves to the glorification
of higher spiritual things, ultimately of the highest reality Krishna. By
absorbing ourselves in Krishna and his service, we can generate an inner
devotional momentum that silences and steamrolls the mind’s distracting
propaganda – till the mind eventually becomes purified and joins the devotional
movement of our heart towards him.
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