When your mental expressway gets overcrowded, direct your thought traffic with your intelligence

Suppose we are caught in a traffic jam on an expressway. We honk and maneuver, but make little progress. But instead of staying vexed, we intelligently call the traffic police. They come promptly and take control. They direct vehicles here to stop, vehicles there to move aside, vehicles there to move forward – and soon the road becomes clear. Similarly, sometimes we may find ourselves caught in an inner traffic jam – our thought traffic may congest our mental expressway. As various possibilities, cravings and worries all try to surge forward inside us, we find ourselves unable to think clearly or act confidently. We consider one course of action, but it seems to lead nowhere. So, we give it up to consider another, but it too seems unviable. And so it goes on – our thoughts keep us agitated and immobilized. At such times, we need to urgently call a competent thought traffic controller. Thankfully, we have such a controller readily available within: our own intelligence. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (06.26) recommends focusing the mind using the intelligence sustained by conviction. Intelligence that is not spiritually convinced can get overwhelmed by the thought traffic’s volume. But we can boost our intelligence by regular study of scripture. And we can complement it by invoking the supreme intelligence Krishna, whose presence manifests through sincere prayer and meditation. When the intelligence is thus spiritually strengthened, it can put first things first. Amidst all the thoughts honking inside us, it can focus on the eternal truth that we are indestructible souls; that Krishna is always in control; and that our infallible purpose is to serve him. When contemplation on these unchanging truths calms us, we get the inner security and clarity to determine the best way to serve Krishna, thus clearing the inner traffic jam.