17 - Mind: Our Friend or Our Enemy? | Swami Tattwamayananda

Chapter 2 Verses 60 – 63. The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on June 14, 2019.- The mind: our master or our slave? - Why does the mind revolt? - When does our mind become our friend?- Can we program our mind?- Why we cannot program our mind.- We cannot disown our accumulated impressions and samskaras. - The problem of fragmentation of the mind.- The pull of the sense-objects, the senses, the visual and the audio objects, the internet, etc.- If the mind is dragged away from its ideal, it won't stop till it reaches rock-bottom. - The analogy from Sri Shankaracharya's 'Viveka-chudamani'. - The analogy of the ball falling down the ladder - The attraction of the senses. - ('Viveka-chudamani', an introductory text on Advaita Vedanta - verse: 326). - The enslavement of the mind when dragged by unrestrained senses.- A warning: we should never try to restrain the senses without first evolving a counter-focus.- The mind compared to a drunken monkey, possessed by a ghost and bitten by a scorpion.- 'Controlling the mind' does not mean suppression, it actually means sublimation.- Keeping the senses engaged in creative work.- Need for a higher ideal in life and going beyond the sensory system.- Patanjali's concept of 'Parinama-dukha'.- (Ref: साधन-पादः ॥ परिणामतापसंस्कारदुःखैर्गुणवृत्तिविरोधा च्च दुःखमेव सर्वं विवेकिनः ॥ २.१५॥ )- The danger of keeping the mind in a vacuum, without a higher ideal, without a good job. - Giving a promotion to the mind by feeding it with good food in the form of spiritual ideas.- The importance of a healthy mind and disciplined senses: directing it into creative channels.- Psychology of the five 'kleshas' from Patanjali's Yoga-sutras- (साधन-पादः ॥ "अविद्यास्मितारागद्वेषाभिनिवेशाः क्लेशाः" ॥ २.३॥ ).- Kunti's prayer to Lord Sri Krishna: "Please give me more trouble so that I will always remember you and will never forget you." (Ref: the ancient Sanskrit epic, 'Mahabharata' ).- The imagery of the journey on a chariot from the Kathopanishad.