Meditation Yoga
Chapter 6, Verse 5
uddhared-ātman-ātmānaṁ
nātmānam avasādayet
ātmaiva hy-ātmano bandhuḥ
ātmaiva ripur-ātmanaḥ
One should raise oneself by one’s own mind and not allow oneself to fall; the mind alone is the friend of the conditioned soul, and also its enemy.
“One should raise oneself by one’s own mind and not allow oneself to fall...”The control of the mind is very important! Because of the mind, people experience limitation in everything and limit their own existence. Here Bhagavan says, “Control the mind, raise the mind! Let the mind be transformed from a lower state into a higher state of consciousness.”
“... the mind alone is the friend of the conditioned soul, and also its enemy.” Here Krishna reminds Arjuna that a controlled mind is one’s friend, but an uncontrolled mind is one’s enemy. Your happiness or sadness doesn’t depend on anyone else. Don’t think that anyone makes you happy or makes you sad. No one! When the mind is deluded by attachments, wants and desires, one sees imperfections and becomes sad. But through discipline, through Bhakti Yoga, by controlling the mind through Karma Sannyasa Yoga, where one renounces everything in the mind itself, one does everything with an attitude of surrender. In this way, one is lifted, one lifts oneself from the normal mundane reality and attains God-Realisation. On the contrary, the one who is engaged in sinful deeds under the impulse of evils like attraction, repulsion, lust, anger, greed, and infatuation, is deprived of the supreme fruit of human existence, Grace. One doesn’t realise why one has incarnated. So, when the Atma is leaving the body, the Atma realises this and looks back at its life saying, “Oops, I did it again! I have to come back.” At that moment, due to karma, not only the mind, but also the Atma itself goes into a state of depression and confusion. It’s like there is a whirlpool turning around the Atma. The Atma is saying, “Oh my goodness, what have I done? Ay, yi, yi!”
Krishna says, “A controlled mind will raise itself towards God Consciousness, but it is the opposite for someone who dwells on lust, anger, and greed.” These souls have to sometimes incarnate in a lower species as animals, as swine, goats, and dogs. That’s why sometimes people will meet a dog and feel, “This was my dear friend, my companion!” Why do you think that people feel like this? They meet each other because there is a connection between them. That’s why they resemble each other! If there was no connection, how would they resemble each other? One is a dog and the other one is a human being, but the human starts to drag himself so much down into the ‘dog state’, that he starts to resemble a dog! Whereas, if he could incarnate in a higher state, he would resemble the Divine and express the divine qualities! Imagine what is going on in the dog! The dog is looking at the human, saying, “You fool! In my last life I was also a human. We were close friends. And seeing how well you are treating me now, I am very happy, wag, wag, wag. I will serve you. I will show you that I am faithful, because I want to reach the high state of surrender. But you are a fool. You are always happily looking down at me, not realising that you are dragging yourself down, that you are creating an attachment which will doom you!”
There is a story I like to tell: One morning, a successful businessman was walking to his shop and on the way he met a saint. As soon as the saint saw him, the saint started laughing crazily. The businessman looked at the saint, but as his mind was so much focused on his business and on how he could get more money, he didn’t think too much about it. He opened his shop and later on, while he was working, a goat ran into the shop and tried to hide itself behind the desk. The owner of the goat arrived and asked him, “Where is my goat? Please give me my goat!” The shop owner said, “Your goat is here, but it doesn’t want to leave.” Then he thought, ‘Well, maybe, this is a sign. Let me try to save this goat and buy it from its owner.’ He asked him, “For how much would you sell this goat?” The goat’s owner said, “I can sell it to you for 500 rupees.” The businessman protested saying, “That’s too much! I will give you only 100 rupees.” The goat’s owner replied, “Are you a fool? I asked you for 500 rupees and you want to give me only 100 rupees? No way, forget about it!” The businessman said, “Okay, I will give you 250 rupees, but no more than that!” The goat’s owner didn’t accept the offer and took the goat to be slaughtered. At that moment, the saint came and again laughed crazily at the businessman. The businessman started getting worried and asked himself, ‘Why is this crazy yogi laughing at me like this?’
In the evening he was very happy to be back home. There, his wife welcomed him nicely saying, “Hello my dear! Oh, darling, how are you today?” He said, “You know, there was this weird yogi who was always laughing at me. I first saw him while I was on my way to the shop; I saw him again when a man brought a goat to the shop. Again the saint was there laughing crazily at me. I wonder why he was laughing at me like that.” Then the businessman asked, “Where is our baby? Bring the baby!” As he was holding the baby and playing with him, “Ahralarala...”, the baby peed on him. The yogi was outside, looking at this scene, and he started laughing crazily again. The businessman noticed that the yogi was outside laughing like this and he wanted to know why. This was the third time that day that the yogi was laughing at him! He went quickly outside and said, “Please, tell me why you are laughing at me like that? I saw you for the first time when I was walking to my shop. You burst out laughing as soon as you saw me! I saw you a second time during the day; you were laughing at me when a man brought a goat to the shop. And now you are laughing at me again! Please tell me, why? I want to understand. Every time you laugh, it scares me.”
The yogi said, “You fool! Why was I laughing at you? I was looking at how you are functioning in life, without knowing that you will soon die. As you said, I saw you when you were on the way to open your shop, but your mind was so focused on how much money you will make with the big project that you have in mind, and you don’t even realise that tomorrow is your last day. You are going to die tomorrow. That’s why I was laughing. This is the end! You are making big plans, yet today is your last day on Earth and you don’t realise it. I laughed at you the second time, because that goat, was your deceased father who, due to his sins, degraded himself to the animal level and was born in the form of this goat. This business that you are running was from your father. However, when your father came to you for protection so that he would not be killed by the butcher, you could not even pay 500 rupees to save his life! That’s why I was laughing at you. How unwise you are! I am laughing at you the third time, because this little baby that you are holding in your arms and playing with, used to be your worst enemy and he knows that you will die soon. He is thinking, “Look, I got your wife and I will have her for my whole life. That’s why I peed on you.”
Such is the state of people who make friends due to attachment and worldly ambitions. These are not real friends. Companions, who we associate with, is very important. Is it a high association or a low association? The saints, the holy men, the bhaktas, the friends of God, the ones who are on the spiritual path, who share the same aim of surrendering to the Lord always associate themselves with people who have the same attitude. They are true friends, they help each other and always work for freedom. They are always aware of God in everything they do, wherever they go.
The ones who like to smoke and drink? With whom do they associate? Only with people who smoke and drink, isn’t it true?They don’t make friends with people who don’t smoke and drink. People who have a certain tendency will always be with people who have the same tendency and, in this way, they create more and more bondages and attachments. Whereas true friends help each other to realise God. Within their hearts, they develop true reverence and love for all, and help each other with a genuine heart, not because of any expectations and not because they are pretending.
Therefore, the surroundings are very important. Friends who sincerely care for your advancement will not do anything to hurt you. Whereas your enemies will do the opposite. They will always say, “O come here! We are doing this or that for your own good.” But, in reality, they are so unscrupulous that they will do everything for their own benefit, and they will not hesitate to put you down. Such is the state of a mind which is not surrendered. And in that state, the mind becomes crazy, and depressed; one feels that, “Oh, I am not loved.” People should try to associate themselves with a sadhu Satsang, with true friends who elevate them.
Here Lord Krishna says, “The mind itself can be the cause of your salvation. If you train your mind to be your best friend, and your mind dwells on the Divine, it will lead you to freedom. On the contrary, if the mind is full of negativity, it will be the cause of your doom.” One’s mind will be one’s own friend or one’s own enemy, depending on what object the mind dwells.
Bhagavad Gita
