<p>Whether the mind is a friend or an enemy depends upon the sagacity of the spiritual aspirant. <br /><br /></p>.<p>According to Sri Babuji, the mind is the cause of our bondage as well as our freedom: “A mind filled with worldly pleasures and desires is the cause of our bondage while a mind that is devoid of them is the cause of our freedom or emancipation.” According to Swami Yatiswarananda: “The trouble is that our mind is too outgoing, we are too selfish, too self-centered. So we should try to do some service to others in some form or the other. Look at a mother’s sacrifice! No one should be allowed to lead a self-centered life without making any sacrifices for others whatever form they make take.” “Life is a sacrifice and can find its fulfillment only in sacrifice. Out and out self-centered people have no place in spiritual life.” As Sri Ramana Maharishi wisely said: “You say that this is the ‘age of reason’ and that the teaching must be in accordance with reason. I ask: ‘whose is the intellect?’ You must answer: ‘My intellect. So the intellect is your tool. You use it for measuring variety. It is not yourself nor is it something independent of yourself.” “You are the abiding reality, while the intellect is just a phenomenon. You must find and get hold of yourself. There is no intellect in dreamless sleep. There is none in a child.” “The intellect develops with age. But how could there be any development or manifestation of the intellect without the seed of it is sleep or childhood? Why go to history to discover this fundamental fact? The degree of truth in history is the same as the degree of truth in the historian.” We benefit when we befriend the mind. It is both a friend and an enemy. Left to itself, it becomes an enemy but if it is controlled with spiritual practice, it becomes a friend. The mind is the external garb of illusion.As Sri Babuji expressed it: “The mind can be likened to a monkey. Just as a monkey hops from one branch of a tree to another, the mind also jumps from one material attraction to another. Its journey is aimless. The mind fails to identify the real goal of life.”<br /><br />“Only one who has reached the goal of his own life can lead others. Otherwise it will be like travel following the instructions of a blind man.”<br /><br />“The guidance of Gurudev alone can make the travel smooth and soft and enable you to reach the goal of Godhead. If there is no goal, life will be an endless travel from one birth to another birth.”</p>
<p>Whether the mind is a friend or an enemy depends upon the sagacity of the spiritual aspirant. <br /><br /></p>.<p>According to Sri Babuji, the mind is the cause of our bondage as well as our freedom: “A mind filled with worldly pleasures and desires is the cause of our bondage while a mind that is devoid of them is the cause of our freedom or emancipation.” According to Swami Yatiswarananda: “The trouble is that our mind is too outgoing, we are too selfish, too self-centered. So we should try to do some service to others in some form or the other. Look at a mother’s sacrifice! No one should be allowed to lead a self-centered life without making any sacrifices for others whatever form they make take.” “Life is a sacrifice and can find its fulfillment only in sacrifice. Out and out self-centered people have no place in spiritual life.” As Sri Ramana Maharishi wisely said: “You say that this is the ‘age of reason’ and that the teaching must be in accordance with reason. I ask: ‘whose is the intellect?’ You must answer: ‘My intellect. So the intellect is your tool. You use it for measuring variety. It is not yourself nor is it something independent of yourself.” “You are the abiding reality, while the intellect is just a phenomenon. You must find and get hold of yourself. There is no intellect in dreamless sleep. There is none in a child.” “The intellect develops with age. But how could there be any development or manifestation of the intellect without the seed of it is sleep or childhood? Why go to history to discover this fundamental fact? The degree of truth in history is the same as the degree of truth in the historian.” We benefit when we befriend the mind. It is both a friend and an enemy. Left to itself, it becomes an enemy but if it is controlled with spiritual practice, it becomes a friend. The mind is the external garb of illusion.As Sri Babuji expressed it: “The mind can be likened to a monkey. Just as a monkey hops from one branch of a tree to another, the mind also jumps from one material attraction to another. Its journey is aimless. The mind fails to identify the real goal of life.”<br /><br />“Only one who has reached the goal of his own life can lead others. Otherwise it will be like travel following the instructions of a blind man.”<br /><br />“The guidance of Gurudev alone can make the travel smooth and soft and enable you to reach the goal of Godhead. If there is no goal, life will be an endless travel from one birth to another birth.”</p>
