CHAPTER 6, TEXT 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.
Even in America, Land of the Free, everyone has a boss.
That boss may be my manager. Or professor. My parents. Maybe my husband, or wife. Maybe my boss is simply time, which tells me when to wake up and go to sleep. Or maybe my boss is my stomach, because I need to eat. There will always be someone "superior" giving me orders, whether I like it or not.
Prabhupad writes, "The constitutional position of the living entity is to carry out the order of the superior." So in this sense, there is no getting around having a boss and carrying out the orders of that boss - it is our very nature to serve.
Freedom does not mean having no boss and no one to answer to.
Freedom means I get to choose my boss.
Have you ever had a bad boss? I have. I remember dreading waking up in the morning because I had to go to work. No matter that I liked my coworkers and even the work itself. The negative, doubtful, nitpicky, over-controlling, and discouraging attitude of my boss cast a shadow over my work and life. But I was bound to serve my superior, whether I liked him/her or not.
In this analogy, the mind is not the highest boss, like the CEO or company owner, but it's the manager. The function of the mind is to accept and reject.
What do I like? What do I dislike?
What comes to me is the image of a child who rejects broccoli with screams of disgust and accepts ice cream with screams of delight.
That's the mind.
That's our manager.
Great.
In this verse, Krishna says that the mind can be either the greatest friend or the greatest enemy, and without self-control the mind is the greatest enemy: "One who cannot control his mind lives always with the greatest enemy, and thus his life and its mission are spoiled." I need to become the boss of my mind, or my mind will take over my life and spoil it.
The good news is that my mind is only the manager, not the CEO.
The CEO is the intelligence. This means that my intelligence is capable of controlling my mind. I need to use my intelligence to control my impulses to accept and reject. Ultimately, though, "As long as one’s mind remains an unconquered enemy, one has to serve the dictations of lust, anger, avarice, illusion, etc." This is like living with a bad boss, day in and day out, a manager who is doubtful, nitpicky, temperamental, and negative. Living under the tyranny of lust, anger, hatred, and more is a life of hell.
The greatest choice to make in order to transform the mind from an enemy to a friend is to control it - to learn self-control, self-discipline, and self-knowledge. This is what it means to conquer the mind. A powerful and practical way to ways to cultivate self-discipline is to delay gratification. Viktor Frankl writes, "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." This is about expanding our free will and our ability to control our choices and ultimately our minds.
Delay, don't deny.
Delay the ice cream.
Delay the new clothes.
Delay the new gadget.
Delay the hurtful words.
Just the process of delaying is an act of self-control. We increase the size of that space between stimulus and response. And in the process of delaying, in that window of time, I can use my intelligence to accept what is healthy for me (the "broccoli") and reject what is unhealthy for me (the "ice cream").
Cultivating self-control makes the mind one's friend. Interestingly, the word "friend" comes from "Indo-European root meaning ‘to love’, shared by free" (britannica.com). To love is the root of both friend and free - which is the underlying message of this verse by Krishna. Our mind is our friend when we are free, and freedom is the very core of what it means to love.
We cannot love if we are not free.
So ultimately, if we conquer our minds, this does not mean that we are "free" of any superior. Our intelligence is the CEO of our company, but there's still the company owner - and the owner is Paramatma - the Lord in our heart.
Our owner is quiet, unobtrusive. He never raises his voice, so in the racket that our mind gives when it's our enemy, it's hard to hear him. But when we quiet down and control the mind, we can hear the Supersoul. He knows what's best. In this regard, "When the mind is conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictation of the Personality of Godhead, who is situated within the heart of everyone as Paramātmā." If I can learn to control my mind, make it my friend, I can hear the quiet, beautiful voice of the Lord in my heart. Carrying out the orders of such a superior can only lead to peace, love, and true freedom. He is my truest friend.
Full purport for Chapter 6, Text 6 by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/6/6/
Even in America, Land of the Free, everyone has a boss.
That boss may be my manager. Or professor. My parents. Maybe my husband, or wife. Maybe my boss is simply time, which tells me when to wake up and go to sleep. Or maybe my boss is my stomach, because I need to eat. There will always be someone "superior" giving me orders, whether I like it or not.
Prabhupad writes, "The constitutional position of the living entity is to carry out the order of the superior." So in this sense, there is no getting around having a boss and carrying out the orders of that boss - it is our very nature to serve.
Freedom does not mean having no boss and no one to answer to.
Freedom means I get to choose my boss.
Have you ever had a bad boss? I have. I remember dreading waking up in the morning because I had to go to work. No matter that I liked my coworkers and even the work itself. The negative, doubtful, nitpicky, over-controlling, and discouraging attitude of my boss cast a shadow over my work and life. But I was bound to serve my superior, whether I liked him/her or not.
In this analogy, the mind is not the highest boss, like the CEO or company owner, but it's the manager. The function of the mind is to accept and reject.
What do I like? What do I dislike?
What comes to me is the image of a child who rejects broccoli with screams of disgust and accepts ice cream with screams of delight.
That's our manager.
Great.
In this verse, Krishna says that the mind can be either the greatest friend or the greatest enemy, and without self-control the mind is the greatest enemy: "One who cannot control his mind lives always with the greatest enemy, and thus his life and its mission are spoiled." I need to become the boss of my mind, or my mind will take over my life and spoil it.
The good news is that my mind is only the manager, not the CEO.
The CEO is the intelligence. This means that my intelligence is capable of controlling my mind. I need to use my intelligence to control my impulses to accept and reject. Ultimately, though, "As long as one’s mind remains an unconquered enemy, one has to serve the dictations of lust, anger, avarice, illusion, etc." This is like living with a bad boss, day in and day out, a manager who is doubtful, nitpicky, temperamental, and negative. Living under the tyranny of lust, anger, hatred, and more is a life of hell.
The greatest choice to make in order to transform the mind from an enemy to a friend is to control it - to learn self-control, self-discipline, and self-knowledge. This is what it means to conquer the mind. A powerful and practical way to ways to cultivate self-discipline is to delay gratification. Viktor Frankl writes, "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." This is about expanding our free will and our ability to control our choices and ultimately our minds.
Delay, don't deny.
Delay the ice cream.
Delay the new clothes.
Delay the new gadget.
Delay the hurtful words.
Just the process of delaying is an act of self-control. We increase the size of that space between stimulus and response. And in the process of delaying, in that window of time, I can use my intelligence to accept what is healthy for me (the "broccoli") and reject what is unhealthy for me (the "ice cream").
Cultivating self-control makes the mind one's friend. Interestingly, the word "friend" comes from "Indo-European root meaning ‘to love’, shared by free" (britannica.com). To love is the root of both friend and free - which is the underlying message of this verse by Krishna. Our mind is our friend when we are free, and freedom is the very core of what it means to love.
We cannot love if we are not free.
So ultimately, if we conquer our minds, this does not mean that we are "free" of any superior. Our intelligence is the CEO of our company, but there's still the company owner - and the owner is Paramatma - the Lord in our heart.
Our owner is quiet, unobtrusive. He never raises his voice, so in the racket that our mind gives when it's our enemy, it's hard to hear him. But when we quiet down and control the mind, we can hear the Supersoul. He knows what's best. In this regard, "When the mind is conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictation of the Personality of Godhead, who is situated within the heart of everyone as Paramātmā." If I can learn to control my mind, make it my friend, I can hear the quiet, beautiful voice of the Lord in my heart. Carrying out the orders of such a superior can only lead to peace, love, and true freedom. He is my truest friend.
Full purport for Chapter 6, Text 6 by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/6/6/
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