Suppose a colleague started bossing us
around. Being annoyed, even angered, we would counter, “Mind your own business.
You are not my boss.”
Yet we hardly ever do the same thing when
our mind starts bossing us around. And the mind is not even our colleague – it
is actually our subordinate. The Bhagavad-gita (03.42) outlines the chain of
command in our inner world: the senses are above the body; the mind, above the
senses; the intelligence, above the mind; and the soul, above the intelligence.
So the soul is not just above the mind, but is two rungs above it. Thus, it has
no right to order us.
Of course, the mind is far too wily to come
right out and order us. Knowing that we wouldn’t entertain such an outright
usurping of our authority, it acts much more subtly and sinisterly. Subtly, it
whispers and suggests and insinuates. And sinisterly, it makes us misidentify
with it, thereby making us believe that its ideas are our ideas. Consequently,
we don’t even realize that we are being manipulated till we end up doing
something self-defeating and then wonder what made us do that. So, though the
mind doesn’t boss us explicitly, it does end up bossing us essentially.
By becoming introspective, we can notice
when the mind starts bossing us. But more critical than catching the mind in
action is countering its action. And for that we need to wholeheartedly invite
Krishna to occupy the position of our boss. When we diligently render direct
devotional service to him and redefine our entire life as an offering of loving
service to him, we get by his grace philosophical insight and spiritual taste.
With that empowering grace, we can not only pause the mind’s bossing but also
purge it of its disruptiveness.
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