I was going through some quotes and came across this one from Plato:
"The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile."
The same thought is shown in one of the most beautiful line in the Japji Sahib (in the current context, although everything written in Guru Granth Sahib is awe inspiring) ...Man Jeetay Jag Jeet (By winning over your mind, you have won over the world).
Does that mean that we are at a constant battle with our minds...Yes and No. No because there are a billion thoughts running through the mind and we cannot battle each one of them. So how do we deal with them...
Rakhanhaar samaar jana, sagaley chhod vichaar mana - Sukhamani Sahib (Keep your Creator in mind and leave all other thoughts).
This means that we need to keep coming back to our true self again and again. Our true self is not our thoughts or who we think we are. Our true Self is the place within us for the Highest of the High - Man Mandir Tan vesh kalandar (My mind is a temple and my body is the simple cloth of the humble seeker).
Yes (answer to the question that do we need to fight our mind) because sometimes some of the thoughts stick out and keep coming again and again and then they form a habit (Kar kar karna likh ley jaao - Actions repeated again and again are engraved on the soul). Habits are really hard to break and then we need to fight it (take affirmative action) to overcome it.
Now this is easier said than done. Through countless lifetimes we have accumalated so much filth on our mind- Janam Janam ki is man ko maiel laagi kala hova siyah (The mind has become black like ink from the filth of sin birth after birth). Guru Sahib has given us a very simple method to take our "Daily Shower". Bhariay mat papan ke sang, oh dhopai naave ke rang (When the intellect is stained and polluted by sin it can only be washed by the love of the Name/Love of God).
But how do we get the Naam Rang? To be continued.....
Shanti Kaur British Influence on Sikhism-mono
16 years ago
well i suppose there will be two kinds of people who will be visting this blog.........ppl like me and may be some of "less" likeminded ppl who really either dont know wut god is(if they think it exists at the first place)......or have a more of a "non-religious" perception of god....or non-gurbani/sikhism angle of looking at it..........sort of more practical/scientific ppl lying comfortably some where in the middle of thiesm and athiesm hanging on to thier internal logical self-explanations..........
ReplyDeleteand the second kind....ppl like u....
i personally feel that the content of u r blog shud be more inclined towards ppl like me rather than u.....
i think its more beneficial and karmically rewarding i suppose....to convert a partial or full athiest into a thiest of some form atleast.... then to toss u r godly/spiritual ideas among ur kind only..... and the way i am reading it....i dont think its inclined towards the former kind...... i dont think it starts from zero at the first place.......its starting from an already elevated state... u r already assuming the ideas of re-incarnation/our true self being the god/we having a creator....and many other concepts u mentioned.....as being absolute truth ..... which is making it hard for people like us to grab it.....its form is not very munchable by our kind of minds.... or very absorbent..... any average joe with a little bit logical/scientific bent of mind would discard it as old eastern/indian philosophies....and hence probably might lose the rarest chance he had to an ocean of knowledge embedded in sggs....
just my opinion...and excuse my poor spellings...
Good point Tarun...the thing is that when some one without any prior understanding of all the concepts related to Sikhism/God/Guru/Spiritualism reads this may find it alienating and foreign. But that is the initial hurdle. Believe me I had to go through the same thing when I sat down in Satsang in Jamshedpur India and didnt understand a word of it. It wasnt like the person who was doing the discourse did a special introductory session for me. But through time and (lots of) patience one starts understanding this concept. For some it might come easier and for others it might take longer, but like any other thing in life, it needs an attitude towards learning.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, I do understand the point you are making. I will see if I can clarify it through another blog entry.