Evolve and Elevate: What does forgiving mean; Who is a “Muni”; Your mind is your best friend and biggest enemy.

Idea of the Week

What does forgiving mean?

“Do not fall prey to the false belief that by forgiving someone you’re letting them off the hook.  Because when you forgive someone you let yourself off the hook.” ~ Jen Sincero

Lesson of the Week

Who is a “Muni”?

Bhagavad Gita says:

The word “Muni” means the one who can push his mind to think in various ways for mental speculation but does not come to any factual conclusion.

It is said that every Muni has a different perspective and unless a Muni differs from other Munis, he cannot be called a Muni in the strict sense of the term.

But a stitha-dhi-muni is always in Krishna consciousness because he has completed all his creative thinking. He has surpassed the stage of mental speculations and has come to the conclusion that Lord Sri Krishna is everything.

He is called “A Muni fixed in Mind”.

Such a fully Krishna conscious person is not at all distracted by the attack of the miseries for he accepts all the miseries as Lord’s Kripa/mercy.

And because of past sins, he considers himself worthy of more troubles and he sees that his miseries by the grace of Lord are minimized to the lowest. Similarly, when he is happy, he gives credit to the Lord thinking himself unworthy of happiness.

He realizes that it is due to only the Lord’s grace that he is in such a comfortable condition and able to render better service to the Lord.

And for the service of Lord, he is always daring and active and is not influenced by attachment or aversion. Attachment means accepting things for one’s own sense gratification and detachment is the absence of such sensual attachment. But one who is fixed in Krishna Consciousness has neither attachment nor detachment because his life is dedicated in the service of the Lord. Consequently, he is not at all angry even when his attempts are unsuccessful.

A Krishna conscious person is always steady in his determination.

Inspiration of the Week: 

Your mind is your best friend and biggest enemy

I am a sucker for self-improvement. No matter how many times I break the order and discipline I had tried to build, I keep coming back to build it all over again.

Ever since I changed the trajectory of my life from being a microbiologist to becoming a writer, I have had a myriad of epiphanies and revelations about my life and myself.

Now when this writing journey demands a lot of discipline, I got to know I was lacking so much.

The beauty of passion is, that it makes you change everything in your life that does not support it.

I held hands of my passion, and my passion moved me in the best direction.

From better sleep cycles to waking up before sunrise, from yoga to skincare, from cutting the cheap dopamine to minimizing notification anxieties, and going from a non-reader to a bookworm, I grabbed everything in my capacity.

But there was something that I still wasn’t getting my hands on.

My Wanderer Mind!

Any external disturbance meant a hijack and my mind would be in a mess, no longer supporting my well-being. Instead choosing the vicious cycle of time squandering in the irrelevant stuff.

Checking my phone now and then is one such that hinders my concentration and I have been constantly trying to grapple with it.

So, today I decided to give this wanderer mind a tough fight.

I told my mind, “Listen Shut up and take my orders now.”

My mind replied, “Sure, I am always at your service, but I have this fidgety nature of poking into things that give me instant pleasure.”

I said, “Fine, I’ll make a system to give you your required pleasure at a specific time, is that fine?”.

My mind replied, “Woo-hoo, sure sure, I’ll not utter a word even, but I’ll keep waiting for my treat and if you break the promise, I’ll mess up with your concentration even more”.

I exclaimed, “Deal Done”.

I kept my phone at the farthest corner of my room at around 7a.m and told my mind that I’ll be treating you with all the pleasurable stuff (Checking WhatsApp messages and statuses, watching an Instagram reel, looking for a skincare DIY, online shopping, blah blah) at around 12 p.m but kindly don’t come in between.

My Mind waved at me: Promise Promise, I am sitting for meditation until then.

This little parenting session with my mind blew me away with the concentration I achieved in these few hours.

I was thrilled to see “My Mind” sitting silently like a good baby and I could do the work faster and better.

This is just the beginning; I am hoping to mentor it daily and protect myself from the unnecessary stuff that my mind gets attracted to.

Well, we all go through this.

All we need is not to beat ourselves for not giving our best but to parent our minds to support us in doing our best.