The mind is very fickle and
like the monkey, leaps from branch to branch and tree to tree. Like the leaping,
long tailed one, our mind leaps about and is suspicious where there is no
reason to be. It picks up fights with people around or even with our own
self. It causes us great misery in our daily lives at home and at work place. We
are unable to maintain steady relationships or good friendship. A steady mind
with a purpose to achieve and goals in life is essential for success in any field –
including spirituality. Our mind is the cause of our hell and heaven. The story of Pitambar and Kishan teaches us great lessons
regarding the mind:
Pitambar and Kishan were
disciples of a great Guru. Both of them were beloved to their Guru and he
showered his grace equally on both. But their thoughts, actions and karmas were
different. At the end of their lives, it was declared Pitambar’s total karmas
were extremely good and that he would
rule as an emperor for a thousand years but because of one misdeed, he had to
have a short birth and live in the body of a lizard. Kishan karma’s resulted in
the total of one day as an emperor and a thousand years in hell. Both were
given a choice regarding which experience they would like to undergo first.
Pitambar chose to suffer for
short time as a lizard and then rule uninterrupted for a thousand years as an
emperor. So he became a lizard. Immediately he began to dart here and there in
search of food. His mind was as restless and fickle as his tongue. So he moved
around in many places catching and eating insects. In that short period of
time, his mind changed many thousands of times and he committed endless sins by simply catching insects even though he was not hungry. As a result, all of his
good karma got wiped out and he was doomed to many thousands of years in hell.
Kishan looked back on his life
and was very sorry that he had committed many blunders. He yearned for a chance
to redeem himself. So he chose to have a day as a King first and then suffer
the thousand years of hell. As soon as he was crowned King, he gave orders for
distribution of food and clothes for the poor in the land. He sat with his ministers and gave orders for
immediate execution of digging more wells, laying roads and build shelters for
the travellers. Then he participated in a yagna conducted for the welfare of
all his subjects. By the end of the day, he had done enough good karma to get
an extension of the post of King for a hundred years. Kishan spent every day of
his life as a King working for the welfare of the people and worshiping God
for welfare of his subjects and kingdom.
His growing deposits of good deeds wiped out the thousand years in hell
and ensured him a long and successful life as a benevolent monarch.
When our mind is fickle, we commit
many blunders. Our judgement is not right and our decisions are not stable. We neither stick to our values of ethics or principles but sell them to anyone who is ready
to appease our ego with material things or with false sweet words. We are not
true to ourselves or to anyone else. We don’t belong to our family or friends
or guru or God. We distance ourselves away from the life of a decent human
being with our fickleness. Let us not forget the fate of the lizard or the
redemption of the man who performed good deeds in the short time allotted to
him. Let us make our minds stable, determine our goals and be firm in our value of ethics and principles in life.
Regular mantra japa and
meditation and following of the teachings of the Guru stabilises the mind. Then
we can wipe out the fickle aspects of our mind (as exhibited by the lizard) and bring out our divine nature.
Living with steadfastness and purpose in life, we can achieve the goals of
life - artha, dharma, kama, moksha- earning
of wealth in right way and fulfilment of desires and finally achieving
salvation.
So check yourself out... are
you a fickle minded?
