The boy struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and kept him there until the boy started turning blue. Socrates pulled the boy’s head out of the water and the first thing the young man did was to gasp and take a deep breath of air.

Socrates asked him, “What did you want the most when you were there?” The boy replied, “Air”. Socrates said, “That is the secret of success! When you want success as badly as you wanted the air, then you will get it!” There is no other secret.

Answer: Surrender is not a one-time procedure. It is not that we surrender once, and we are done with it forever. We have to keep surrendering at every moment. In this process, there are innumerable obstacles. Our mind is made of Maya and it naturally runs towards the world. We need to beat this mind with the intellect. We also have saṁskārs of past lifetimes that must be countered. And then, we have the ignorance or agyān within us, which is the source of all the problems.

However, we must not feel disillusioned. Innumerable souls in the past have overcome these obstacles to perfect their surrender to God, and have attained Him; if we endeavor sincerely, we too will be successful.

First, we must illumine our intellect with the spiritual knowledge given to us by our Guru. Then, with this purified intellect we must work on the mind, to detach it from the world and attach it to Names, Forms, Pastimes, Virtues, Abodes and Saints of God. Along with our sincere efforts, we must pray to God and Guru for help, firmly believing that Their Grace can make us perfect our surrender.

To speed up the process of surrender, we should strengthen the sentiment, “God and Guru alone are mine.” When we develop love for God and Guru, surrender becomes natural and automatic. When we reach the state of complete surrender, the feeling “He alone is mine” will always remain in our mind, and all our thoughts and actions will be in consonance with it.

If we can keep increasing our desire to serve, that is also a very potent tool for progress. Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj states:

sau bātana kī bāta ika dharu muralīdhara dhyāna
baḍhavahu sevā vāsanā yaha sau gyānana gyāna

“Fix your mind on Shree Krishna, and keep increasing the desire for sevā. This is the most powerful weapon for conquering the mind and Maya.”

Answer: On the spiritual path, we naturally learn to practice tolerance, forgiveness and humility. However, this does not mean that we should knowingly allow others to exploit us. The scriptures instruct us to take whatever action is necessary, for protecting ourselves in self-defense, when attacked.

There is a charming story in this regard. In a neighborhood, there lived a venomous and foul-tempered snake. The children of that locality were scared of it to death. The moment they would spy it in the distance, they would run for their lives.

One day, Sage Narad Muni happened to come to that neighborhood. As was the snake’s habit, he approached Narad ji, with his hood raised menacingly and eyes fiercely red. Narad ji stood his ground peacefully, with a benevolent and serene smile on his face. The snake was astonished. “Everyone runs from me in fear. How come you are not scared of me and what is the secret of your peacefulness?”

Narad ji taught the snake the process of devotion, whereupon the snake became his disciple and began practicing Bhakti. He shunned violence, giving up his old ways of scaring the neighborhood children.

Soon the children came to know that the snake was harmless and did not bite anyone. Now their fear vanished. They would not leave it alone. On sighting it, they would bombard it with a battery of stones and sticks. They would even come close and kick it with their heeled shoes. The poor snake was badly bruised.

One year later, Narad ji was visiting that area again. He thought, “Let me see how my disciple is doing.” He was dismayed to see the snake badly bruised, with a plaster cast on a portion of his body. “What happened to you, my dear disciple?” he asked.

The snake replied, “O Gurudev, this is the result of the Bhakti that you taught me. The people of the world, knowing I will not retaliate, do not let me live peacefully.”

Narad ji said, “I asked you to stop biting people, but I did not ask you to stop spreading your hood. Whenever the children attack, you should simply raise your head and hiss loudly; then no one will come near you.”

Henceforth, whenever the children came close to the snake, it would hiss loudly and frighten them all away. Soon, it was living peacefully again. Similarly, on the path of devotion, we should shun actions and thoughts directed at harming others, but we definitely have the right to perform legitimate actions in our self-defense.

JKYog wishes you Happy Navaratra & Vijaya Dashami

Answer:  The solution is to develop a better understanding of the world, based on scriptural knowledge. The Vedas say that this material energy, Maya, consists of three guṇas: sattva guṇa, or the mode of goodness, rajo guṇa, or the mode of passion, and tamo guṇa, or the mode of ignorance.

Everyone’s mind too is made from Maya, and so the three modes of Maya exist in the mind as well. Depending upon the environment and where we focus our thoughts, one of the guṇas becomes prominent and our mind takes on that quality. If sattva guṇa dominates, one becomes peaceful, contented, generous, kind, helpful and serene. When rajo guṇa gains prominence, one becomes passionate, agitated, ambitious, envious of others success, and desirous for sense pleasures. When tamo guṇa becomes prominent, one is overcome by sleep, laziness, hatred, anger, resentment, violence, and doubt.

For example, let us suppose you are sitting in your library, engaged in study. There is no worldly disturbance, and your mind has become sāttvic. After finishing your study, you sit in your drawing room and switch on the television. Seeing all the imagery makes your mind rājasic, and increases your hankering for sense pleasures. While you are watching your favorite channel, your family member comes and changes the channel to her liking. This disturbance causes tamo guṇa to develop in your mind, and you are filled with anger. In this way, the mind sways between the three guṇas, and takes on the corresponding qualities.

This fluctuation takes place constantly in everyone’s minds, altering their thoughts amongst the three modes. When two people’s guṇas are divergent, their ideas, interests, desires and tastes also become divergent, and that causes strife. This strife exists everywhere, between husband-wife, father-son, brother-sister, friend-companion, and so on. Congruence can happen only when two people have the same guṇas. However, since everyone’s guṇas are fluctuating, it is unreasonable to expect that the other person’s guṇas will constantly match ours.

The reason for our anxiety is that we have unreasonable expectations. We want others to always think in the same manner as we do. And when this does not happen, we get disturbed. Instead if we could realize that invariably people will have views differing from ours, and this is very natural due to the three modes of material nature, we will not be disturbed when they oppose us or criticize us.

So by increasing our understanding of the world, we can insulate ourselves from the fluctuating moods of others.

• Listen to the melodious kirtans and divine lectures of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj and Swami Mukundananda.
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Houston Swami Mukundananda, a world renowned teacher of spirituality, yoga and meditation, is back in Houston as part of his current tour of 24 cities across US during which he has inspired hundreds of people. [Read more]

]]> http://www.jkyog.org/media-coverage/discourses-focus-on-mind-intellect-and-spirituality/feed 0 http://www.jkyog.org/media-coverage/swamijis-usa-tour-2011-media-coverage-august?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=swamijis-usa-tour-2011-media-coverage-august http://www.jkyog.org/media-coverage/swamijis-usa-tour-2011-media-coverage-august#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:23:03 +0000 admin http://www.jkyog.org/cms/?p=3773 Swami Mukundananda to visit Sugar Land and Houston
Voice of Asia
August 19, 2011

Houston: Swami Mukundananda, a highly educated spiritual leader, a well renowned saint from Vrindavan, U.P. India, makes a much awaited return to Texas  [Read more]

Swami Mukundananda Leads the “The Path to God Realization”
Indoamerican-news.com
Aug 19 2011

Swami Mukundananda, a well renowned saint from Vrindavan, U.P, India makes a much awaited return to Texas as part of his enlightening tour across USA. He has pioneered the ground breaking, “Jagadguru Kripaluji Yog” – a holistic system of Yoga that incorporates physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual health of humankind. The highly educated spiritual leader’s teaching is scientifically explained as “the spiritual art of managing the mind”. He brings a powerful combination of yoga, meditation and spiritual wellness to the fore through a series of discourses and practical learning sessions. [Read more]

Spiritual leader visits Rolling Meadows
Sunday, August 07, 2011
http://abclocal.go.com

August 7, 2011 (ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill.) (WLS) — One of the world’s spiritual leaders is bringing his message to the northwest suburbs. Swami Mukundananda spoke Sunday at the Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows. He is known for offering new ways of understanding both Eastern and Western scriptures.
[Read more]