8/17/2019 Accepting the Mind

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Accepting the Mind - Pujya Swamiji:

"In the program of recovery sponsored by Alcoholics Anonymous, the first step is for the person to

say he has no power over alcohol. This has to be accepted first, otherwise, there is no hope of

recovery. The same thing is true with everything, not just alcohol. I have no power over anger. I haveno power over this restless mind. When I accept this, half the battle is won. Lord Krishna accepted

this one great psychological fact that the nature of the mind is agitation. You don't try to remove the

agitation; you simply accept that it is agitation. Do not get agitated over agitation, thinking that it is

something you are going to solve. Do not think that your mind is something peculiar because it is not,

any mind is agitation.

Try to imagine a mind that has a constant thought. A constant thought means you cannot see

anything else. Ten miles ago you saw one tree, and still the tree is right in front of you! Nothing else

is there, no car, no person, nothing. You would not ever survive with such a mind. The mind must

necessarily change. Just as in a movie, the frame must always be changing at a certain speed foryou to be able to see objects, moments, etc., here too, the mind has to keep changing all the time so

that you can see.

Accept the fact that the mind is agitation, that it has its own roots, that it has its own logic. If we

suddenly think of something, we think the thought has come from nowhere. The point is that

whatever suddenly occurs in your head has its own logic. We just have to learn to discover the

distance between the mind and 'I', thus mastering the mind."

Swami Dayananda Saraswati