Remember that only two persons can enter our minds: God and ourselves, writes AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI

If yes, you are really blessed.  If not, there are problems galore for you. I will explain with the help of information I have gathered from the Bhagavad Gita. let us start with the assumption that you are friendly with your mind. What benefits will you deriveIJ I will begin with the most obvious and welcome advantage: One sleeps well. And we know how important good sleep is in today’s world. A large percentage of our population is sleep deprived or suffers from sleep-related problems. Do you have any idea about the extent of use of sleeping pills IJ

The next big benefit is that one can control one’s desires. What really leads one astrayIJ It is all kinds of foolish and lusty desires. One wastes one life either wasting a lot of time and effort in doing what one is incapable of doing successfully like aping a big businessman or doing wrong things which hurt. Rather one concentrates well and excels in activities which suit one’s circumstances. A friendly mind prevents one from taking decisions based purely on emotions. One can develop good habits, and can successfully get out of bad habits.  One’s mental faculty will be sharp and effective. And one will be peaceful, which is an enormous gain.

Now let us take up what happens when one is stuck with an uncontrolled mind. One will develop bad habits, unable to rein in the mind. Where is any question of having any willpower, which is so crucial to achieve anything in our highly competitive worldIJ Same goes for concentration and being focused in life. One is likely to be anxious, fearful, etc, which give rise to mental diseases. Again, the percentage of people getting mentally sick is rising fast; depression is the most common problem. And we know that mental suffering is lot worse than physical suffering. There may be relief in physical suffering but mental suffering stays with the person except when one is sleeping or busy.

A person whose mind is uncontrolled will behave irrationally. Can you find any excuse or justification for getting into fights over minor car accidentsIJ This is bad but what about unnecessary quarrels in homes, which spoil everyone’s moodIJ Then, crimes are results of sick minds. Can any sane person harm another person grievouslyIJ Are there sufficient reasons for them except in rare casesIJ And, lastly, one with an unfriendly mind suffers what is entirely unnecessary.

So how does one make one’s mind friendlyIJ First of all, one should be aware of the fact that there are only two persons who can enter our minds: God and ourselves. Our minds are entirely our own except when we allow God to enter it through meditation. This is why meditation is so highly touted because the presence of God in the mind makes it friendly.

Unfortunately, one makes a practice like meditation unpleasant by forcing ourselves too much.  Mind is a faculty given to us to use not abuse. We have to see that whatever we do must be within the capacity of the mind.  Anything more is going to hurt both the mind and its owner.

This brings us to the third advice and that is to treat the mind as a separate entity even though it is inbuilt in our bodies. This means that we have to cater to its needs. Do we know that our minds are leaders of our sensesIJ When the senses are pleased, our minds are satisfied, which contributes to the health of the mind. This does not mean that we resort to inappropriate sense enjoyments, which will hurt in more ways than one. lastly, try spending some quality time with it and strike a friendship with it.

Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com