Words told by elders, teachers, or some respectable personality, should be always remembered, to keep the thought processes and moods positive.
Elders must have told you – be careful of such and such pitfalls in life; some things may appear harmless and attractive on the face but they do eternal harm to your personality and self. Hence, always keep yourself away from them.
These words should be firmly registered in the mind. One needs to develop a small mantra or prayer that can be used to keep the mind in control.
For peace and prosperity in life one should take interest in such activities as going to the temple, saying prayers to some divine power everyday in the morning, listening to scholarly discourses, associating oneself with nature, and righteous company.
Some people might think, why I should listen to the elders and the teachers, or do such divine activities; I have a mature mind and I will settle things as my own power of reasoning dictates. These tendencies indicate that such a person has not given up his sense of false ego and he is not conscious of his own limitations.
Such people should be told about the life of people who destroyed their life through ego; and they should be asked to read the Bhagavad Gita.
To achieve self-control a person should follow these:
- Take moderate and right food, which does not incite in your wrongful emotions and moods
- Never overeat,
- Spend at least 10-15 minutes daily in quietude, alone in solitude.
- Avoid sleeping too much and remaining awake during odd hours of night
- Never indulge in wrongful activities, which are likely to generate in evil thought processes like desire, lust, craze etc.
Developing habits of self-control is easy at young age. In our traditional families, in India, these habits are inculcated in an young age as a matter of routine and the discipline of the house.
Unfortunately, such a discipline is not available in our modern life. Today, we have accepted bad eating, wrong food, drinks, late dinner parties, disinterest in divinity, and habit of watching and reading things that incite lust, desire, passion and anger as normal. Places that promote violence and lust are frequented by people. These wrongful activities have turned our body into filth. One needs to turn the body back into the house of divine to enjoy bliss.
Hence, the first step in practicing self-control is to eliminate the wrong habits gradually.
One should realize that giving up wrongful indulgences does not imply giving up rightful devices of pleasure and enjoyment.
What Sri Bhagavad Gita recommends is precisely this. Give up wrongful indulgences through the practice of self-control and develop interest in the rightful devices which give you the real bliss and tranquility.
The word yoga is often given a very limited meaning. It does not refer to only some exercises to give you good health and cheerful moods. Some, even go to the extent of recommending yoga for good body building or for slimming. The real yoga consists of controlling the behavior of the mind. This is how Patanjali defines yoga in the very first sutra of Yogasastra.
If one wants to practice yoga, one must control the mind.
Sri Bhagavad Gita defines yoga also as efficiency in work. Yet at some other place, yoga is defined as the approach of balance and composure (as between success and failure, happiness and sorrow etc.)
He who is achieve control over his mind, would be able to achieve highest efficiency in whatever job he undertakes. He would be to face situation in life with calm, composure and dignity.
For a Blissful life:
- Keep your intellect, power of reasoning pure and unpolluted
- Develop the approach of courage and conviction by practicing self control
- Develop the habit of keeping away from the objects, which have a tendency to pollute the thought processes
- Anger, desire, lust, evil passion and hatred should avoided by staying away from such articles, music, videos and literature.
- Spend a couple of minutes in solitude may be under a tree and think about the direction we are heading.
- Develop the habit of living with minimum means; you may earn more, but your own wants should be to the minimum.
- Steer the course of your body, speech and mind in the right directions with the help of scriptures and positive literatures that extol universal truth.
- Never allow ego, pride and attachment to overpower you and your decisions.
- Develop the attitude of composure and balance.
If one practices the steps stated above, then one would be able to achieve the following results: Such a person would
- Get abundant peace of mind
- One would experience a kind of bliss, which is pure and unpolluted
- One would develop love, affection, empathy and proper understanding of life. There will be balance in life.
- There will be balance in life and blessings of God in all endeavors.
- Free from all bondages that is stopping us from achieving self-realization.
Originally Published: www.hindu-blog.com
