Let the Mind Be; Why Interfere?
Questioner: Acharya Ji, from the past two days, I am writing down all the activities going on in my mind. It seems really hard for me to see the mind the entire day. How can I watch the activities of mind and so separate from it?
Acharya Prashant: So, all that happens, why do you write that down? Why do you give it importance by registering it? So many things happen. Even as I speak you might have burped, somebody might have had hiccups. Would you write that down? Is that significant?
All of these are hiccups of the mind, just waves. As I speak to you, I might just say (makes a sound). Would you register that? How significant is that? How significant is that? Did you notice that right now as I am speaking, I am rubbing my little finger against my thigh? See, here is my little finger, and here is my knee, I am rubbing my finger on my knee. How important is that? Why notice it? All that you have written down is just there. The question to be asked is why must it be ‘in’? Let it be there. Why must it be ‘in’? Why must it be in association with you?
Keep looking at me and tell me- what is the level of ink in your pen? The same pen you used, to write down your notes. What is the level of the ink in your pen?
Questioner: It's full.
Acharya Prashant: It's not full, but does it matter? Does it really matter? And it is the same pen with which you are writing. If the pen that writes need not be attended to. Why must be the mind that has thought out what is written be given that kind of attendance?
A thousand things keep happening here and there, let them happen. Yes, the mind sometimes asks seemingly intelligent questions, sometimes foolish questions. Who are you, a waiter? To cater to all kinds of whims of the mind? Sir, what must I serve you next. And the bugger is asking for snacks at midnight. Its daybreak and the esteemed guest is asking for deserts. And you are saying, 'But, it is my duty to serve the mind, if the honorable one has asked for deserts at five AM, let me procure'.
This is just a very small snapshot. If you could be shown everything that passes through your mind the entire day, you would go mad. You would go mad upon knowing how mad you are. And you would be embarrassed and ashamed. There is nobody here who if shown, what all passes through his mind the entire day would not feel astonished and ashamed. And I am not talking of moral kind of a shame. I am talking about the humbling, the drubbing that comes when being defeated badly.
You can not win the mind, you can not cater to the mind, you can not control the mind. And you are not responsible for everything that this ancient mind does. A thousand squirrels are sitting here, and five hundred monkeys, and the extinct dinosaur., and all the men and women of the world living and dead, and about to come.
They are all sitting here in the mind, and they are playing their mischief parallelly. Do you know what an enormous crowd it is? The entire universe is contained in your seemingly little mind, And they are all raising a huge uproar. They are all together in their noise. It’s a strange chorus, and you want to note that down?
Do you know how much you dream? You just heard the dinosaur intervening (pointing towards the audience), and you thought that dinosaurs were extinct. They are alive, see (pointing towards the audience). Do you really want to pay heed? Let them have their mischief. You follow your dharma. You ‘be’ with the real One. And what is the real One? you need not know. All that you need to know is you are not that which keeps bubbling in your mind.
That much is enough, in fact being with God means nothing more than being able to not identify with the noise in your head. Without God that would anyway not have been possible. So, if you are not identifying, you are anyway already with God.
There is no secret here, sir. There are only complexities and you get nothing by solving these complexities. It's an endless maze. You can feel a little emboldened. You can feel a little upright. You can feel a bit of an achiever. If you solve a portion of this huge puzzle.
The puzzle can be solved. At times you may feel that you have put a lid on the mind, but the more you solve it, the more you see how expansive it is. It's of very little value trying to control the mind, to shut down the mind, or understand the mind. The mind has its own universe, the mind is the universe. The mind has a parallel life of its own, let it live, let it live.
It is carrying the accumulated residue of an infinity of time. All of that has to run its course. You have to allow all of that to burn itself out. And while that is burning itself out, cleaning itself up in the natural course, you stay a little aloof. Let the dinosaur live its life.
There are snakes in here (pointing to his head), and there are rabbits afraid of wolves. There are world wars being fought here (pointing to his head). And there are old men, little kids, they are all here (pointing to his head).
And because they are old men, sometimes they will come up with very wise suggestions. You listen to what they have to say and smile and then walk past them. It's their job to talk you up, it's their job to talk you in, and it's your job to keep flowing silently.
