Just think about living your whole life with someone whom you do not like. It is a scary thought isn't it , what to speak of living with an enemy , people would prefer not to live instead of living with a enemy . Based on Our consciousness and our natural inclinations we create friends and enemies in this world. People who agree with our propositions and thoughts are our dear most friends , and those who do not accept our ways tend to become our enemies. Many times friends turn into enemies and enemies seem to become friendly . All these things are difficult to figure out , who is our friend and who is our enemy?
Bhagavad Gita, the ancient science Spoken by Lord Sri Krsna , The Supreme Personality of Godhead, clarifies all the confusion and provides us with clear transcendental intelligence to discriminate who are friend really is and whom we should be cautious of . On the battle field of Kurukshetra Arjuna was in a similar dilemma,when his cousins were standing on the opposite side as enemies to kill him and his brothers. It is in this state of confusion Arjuna instead of using his confused intelligence to resolve the confusion , turned to his eternal friend and guide Lord Sri Krsna to find out an answer, Entire Bhagavad Gita as then Spoken by Lord Krsna to relieve his friend of this dilemma, and put him back on track of righteousness.
As mentioned before , living with someone whom you do not like could be a night mare , what to speak of living with your enemies for life. Yet most of the people today not only live with their enemies , but trust is completely and follow the orders of their enemy and amazing thing is all of us thing that we are all independent. This is called maya the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna . The enemy I am referring to here is our uncontrolled mind and senses. In fact there is no enemy or friend outside of our mind, mind is the one who dictates one to see someone as an enemy or a friend, and since from time immemorial we are accustomed to obeying the orders of the mind, we cannot even detect that we are under the control of our mind. In Bhagavad Gita Sri Krsna explains,
"One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well."
The very next verse from the 6th Chapter Krsna explains how the mind could be ones friend or enemy
bandhur ätmätmanas tasya
yenätmaivätmanä jitaù
anätmanas tu çatrutve
vartetätmaiva çatru-vat [ Bg 6.6]
"For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy."
So from the above mentioned verses, it is quite evident that our uncontrolled mind is the one which makes friends and enemies in this material world. For one who has controlled his mind , the mind is a friend and hence he sees that actually nobody is my enemy, however for one who is unable to control his/ her mind and obeys the orders of ones mind for them mind remains a enemy and hence they would find faults in even the most friendly person.
Krsna also mentions in Bhagavad Gita that for one who has controlled his mind, the Supersoul is already reached. Supersoul or Paramatma, is the partial expansion of Krsna who lives in every one's heart and is the witness to every living entities activities, every desire or activity of any living entity becomes a success only when it is sanctioned by the Supersoul. As per the vedic scriptures, one who has attained the Supersoul becomes blissful , Realization of the Supersoul is the ultimate goal of the mystic yogis who perform severe austerities for years .
jitätmanaù praçäntasya
paramätmä samähitaù
çétoñëa-sukha-duùkheñu
tathä mänäpamänayoù [ Bg. 6.7 ]
"For one who has conquered the mind, the Supersoul is already reached, for he has attained tranquillity. To such a man happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same."
One who controls the mind, he becomes equipoised in the dualities of this world, for him happiness , distress, heat and cold ,etc are all same.
Unfortunately the civilization and the age we live in practically whole of the population is unaware of this knowledge hence are suffering with the miseries posed by the uncontrolled mind. Constantly flowing in the ocean of material dualities, people have accepted this as a way of life and do not even want to inquire about the transcendental state of happiness . For transcending these dualities is the duty of this human form . The nature of the soul as stated by the Vedic Scriptures is Sat -Cit - Ananda, which means it is eternal, Full of knowledge and completely blissful. It is practically impossible to control the mind with the methods of meditation in this Age of Kali, since there are too many disturbances in this age which makes the mind very turbulent. Every living entity at every step of life is overwhelmed with dualities of life which makes it impossible for controlling the mind which is more turbulent then the raging wind as stated by Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita [Bg.6.33 and 6.34]
Looking at the degraded condition of life in this Age of Kali, Lord has given concessions to the people in this Age of Kali, which was not available to people of previous ages. Sukadeva Goswami Mentions this to Pariksit Maharaja,
kaler doña-nidhe räjann
asti hy eko mahän guëaù
kértanäd eva kåñëasya
mukta-saìgaù paraà vrajet [ S.B. 12.3.51]
Simply by chanting the holy names of the Lord with a sincere heart one can become free from these dualities and would be able to control the mind and transform an enemy into a friend. Only by Chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare one will be able to live happily in this world in any situation and become liberated at the end of his life to reside in the Supreme Abode of Lord Sri Krsna. So why should one suffer the dualities of this life and get tossed between happiness and distress, pleasure and pain, why should one become a servant of our uncontrolled mind and live in captivity of our enemy thinking ourselves to be free. Taking to the process of chanting holy names of the Lord is sweet and enjoyable requiring no special yogic postures or going to the Himalayas to perform austerities. As Srila Prabhupada used to instruct his disciples , Chant and be happy .
uddhared ätmanätmänaà
nätmänam avasädayet
ätmaiva hy ätmano bandhur
ätmaiva ripur ätmanaù [ Bg. 6.5 ] "One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well."
The very next verse from the 6th Chapter Krsna explains how the mind could be ones friend or enemy
bandhur ätmätmanas tasya
yenätmaivätmanä jitaù
anätmanas tu çatrutve
vartetätmaiva çatru-vat [ Bg 6.6]
"For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy."
So from the above mentioned verses, it is quite evident that our uncontrolled mind is the one which makes friends and enemies in this material world. For one who has controlled his mind , the mind is a friend and hence he sees that actually nobody is my enemy, however for one who is unable to control his/ her mind and obeys the orders of ones mind for them mind remains a enemy and hence they would find faults in even the most friendly person.
Krsna also mentions in Bhagavad Gita that for one who has controlled his mind, the Supersoul is already reached. Supersoul or Paramatma, is the partial expansion of Krsna who lives in every one's heart and is the witness to every living entities activities, every desire or activity of any living entity becomes a success only when it is sanctioned by the Supersoul. As per the vedic scriptures, one who has attained the Supersoul becomes blissful , Realization of the Supersoul is the ultimate goal of the mystic yogis who perform severe austerities for years .
jitätmanaù praçäntasya
paramätmä samähitaù
çétoñëa-sukha-duùkheñu
tathä mänäpamänayoù [ Bg. 6.7 ]
"For one who has conquered the mind, the Supersoul is already reached, for he has attained tranquillity. To such a man happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same."
One who controls the mind, he becomes equipoised in the dualities of this world, for him happiness , distress, heat and cold ,etc are all same.
Unfortunately the civilization and the age we live in practically whole of the population is unaware of this knowledge hence are suffering with the miseries posed by the uncontrolled mind. Constantly flowing in the ocean of material dualities, people have accepted this as a way of life and do not even want to inquire about the transcendental state of happiness . For transcending these dualities is the duty of this human form . The nature of the soul as stated by the Vedic Scriptures is Sat -Cit - Ananda, which means it is eternal, Full of knowledge and completely blissful. It is practically impossible to control the mind with the methods of meditation in this Age of Kali, since there are too many disturbances in this age which makes the mind very turbulent. Every living entity at every step of life is overwhelmed with dualities of life which makes it impossible for controlling the mind which is more turbulent then the raging wind as stated by Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita [Bg.6.33 and 6.34]
Looking at the degraded condition of life in this Age of Kali, Lord has given concessions to the people in this Age of Kali, which was not available to people of previous ages. Sukadeva Goswami Mentions this to Pariksit Maharaja,
kaler doña-nidhe räjann
asti hy eko mahän guëaù
kértanäd eva kåñëasya
mukta-saìgaù paraà vrajet [ S.B. 12.3.51]
Simply by chanting the holy names of the Lord with a sincere heart one can become free from these dualities and would be able to control the mind and transform an enemy into a friend. Only by Chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare one will be able to live happily in this world in any situation and become liberated at the end of his life to reside in the Supreme Abode of Lord Sri Krsna. So why should one suffer the dualities of this life and get tossed between happiness and distress, pleasure and pain, why should one become a servant of our uncontrolled mind and live in captivity of our enemy thinking ourselves to be free. Taking to the process of chanting holy names of the Lord is sweet and enjoyable requiring no special yogic postures or going to the Himalayas to perform austerities. As Srila Prabhupada used to instruct his disciples , Chant and be happy .
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