Reasoning Mind & Intellect

I’ve been training myself to eat more consciously without distractions, trying to taste what I relentlessly cooked. It went well until the day when a good movie and hunger arrived at the same time. My mind said “why don’t we eat while watching television, only for today” and we did that. After that, for the next couple of weeks, we ate with the tv or the computer on.

The mind argued; it’s not a big deal. I am still eating. With or without the distraction, the food is going to the same place.

Have you come across such silly reasoning? Here are a few 😉

• I can afford to pay the bills. So I will have the air conditioning on even when it is raining.
• I am not going to be there when the Earth goes out of the water. So, I will have the faucet on while I am brushing and thinking for good 15 minutes every day.
• What will my friends think if I do not have a paper dispenser in the kitchen? My mom’s gen used reusable kitchen towels. Our’s don’t.
• Housework is not my thing. But I do not mind spending a lakh for my gym membership.
• I am putting 20 hours at my work each day and I don’t mind trading my sleep for more money. I’ll take a pill to shut my head, for a couple of hours, if it needs rest.
• We do not have the time to cook. So, the family eats processed food.
• I am a spiritual person but I still have a long list of requests waiting on God’s approval.
• I know, my people and I come with an expiration date but I will take care of it when the day arrives.

I guess this is a concomitant of a dumb society heading south. Today we have vitamin deficiencies, global warming, restless and uncoperative mind, unhappy lives and fake gurus…

We have more money than our parents but we aren’t any happier. And if we continue being this, then we are preparing our mind for more pain.

The mind is like a child, if we act upon its every need then it wouldn’t be able to take a ‘no’ for an answer. You can make your way with the machines and technology but can you get your way with another human? Maybe not.

You will get more ‘no”s than ‘yes”es. Well! Then you would have an inadaptable Mind and an unwilling Human to deal with. But the truth is, we humans can bring realistic change any day- if we have a guiding intellect and a reasoning mind.

Bhagavad Gita says in Chapter 2 verse 41, that uncultivated Intellect is many-branched and is useless but those of the yogis are focused. How do we understand this shloka in this context? If we want to be a yogi, we need discipline in life. Though a large part of society is conforming to a popular way of life, we still need to walk the right way. It might be popular and common practice but it might not be right. So, we need to cultivate the intellect with the proper knowledge to guide the ever confused mind.

Vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana
Bahu-sakha hy anantas ca buddhayo ‘vyavasayinam//  

Image: the internet