06.27: We deserve a break – from the mind

Our mind harasses us constantly with internal proposals for material enjoyment. Moreover, it has a formidable externally ally: today’s culture. It does externally what the mind does internally: bombard us relentlessly with promises of material enjoyment. Today’s culture seconds the mind because every culture is a product of the prevalent collective mind. What people think and believe and desire expresses itself in their external actions and environments, which combine to form their culture. Most people today have no knowledge about their spiritual identity and destiny. So they unsuspectingly accept, even embrace, their mind’s proposals for material enjoyment. Their embrace of materialism is the fabric of today’s aggressively materialistic culture.

Therefore, our spiritual integrity is presently under a deadly two-pronged offensive: internal and external. To protect ourselves, we absolutely need to take a break from the mind. Placing ourselves physically in the devotional culture based on Gita wisdom provides us a break from the external attack of the mind. Placing ourselves intellectually and devotionally in Gita wisdom provides us a break from the internal attack of the mind. This culture and wisdom provides us devotional experiences, and nourishes our conviction that real happiness is found not in materialism but in devotion. When we become deeply convinced of this truth, this effect of this conviction will be miraculous: we will be able to not only counter, but also convert the mind. The Bhagavad-gita (6.27) describes how diligent spiritual practice rids the mind of passion, makes it peaceful and reorients its inclinations. The day our mind becomes spiritually inclined, from that day our inner life becomes joyful – forever.

Thus, absorption in Krishna can offer us a break from the mind – and can offer us much more: it can even break the mind.