During the course of his travels, Richard had become quite attached to the spiritual books he carried. He had gradually gathered a small library in a cloth bag. Many times he considered reducing the weight of this burden, but every time he looked through the books, trying to decide which ones to give away, he found he could not part with a single one. Among them were the Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Upanishads, Autobiography of a Yogi, books on Buddhism, one by Shankaracarya, and the Krishna book personally given by Srila Prabhupada. He lugged this bag of books wherever he went, and was often exhausted from the load. One day near Connaught Circus in New Delhi, he set the books down on a street corner, waiting for the traffic light to turn green. When he reached down to lift his bag of books—it was gone. Richard frantically searched the four directions, and finally came to grips with the reality that his books had been stolen. Terribly sad, hopeless of their recovery, he walked away. But now he became aware of how easy it had become to walk. The heavy burden of the bag of books that had troubled him for so long was gone. Richard felt liberated and he reflected:
“The nature of the mind is to interpret nonessentials essential. The mind creates artificial needs, believing it cannot live without them. In this way we carry a great burden of attachments throughout our life. Attachment is itself a great burden on our minds. We may never understand the extent of the burden till, like my books or the earwax, we’re free of it. But if we find joy within, we can live a simple life, free of endless complications.”
This reminds me of the strategy of a hunter in catching a monkey. He makes a hole in a coconut shell and fills it with peanuts. A monkey puts its hand inside, and collects all the nuts. However he is then unable to take his hand out because his fist is closed. If he lets go the nuts, he could be free, but the nuts are precious for a monkey. He clings on to the nuts and simultaneously tries to pull his hand out. The hunter quickly catches his prey. We may have our own precious nuts in the form of non essential attachments of this world. This burden of attachment may then be the biggest hurdle for us in obtaining God’s mercy. As Richard experienced, letting off these attachments of desires gives us the freedom from unending muddles.
Material desires push us to seek more and more, and they also pull us further away from God. This reminds me of an ancient saying from the Niti shastra– the book of Indian wisdom, “Oh these ropes of desires are strange indeed. One tightly bound by them runs all around seeking happiness. One freed from these ropes stays calm in one place.” Talking about non spiritual ropes of desires and ambitions, Radhanath Swami quips, “Once our dreams are fulfilled, misery begins.”
The selfish desire of the mind, driven by our false sense of identity keeps us miserable. To save ourselves from the mind’s constant harassment, Radhanath Swami offers a simple solution, “There is a spiritual principle for controlling the mind. Completely give your mind to God. This means to become so absorbed in God that you completely transcend any false egoistic identity that I am this body, I am this particular sex or particular race or particular color, particular religion or nationality or any other thing.” If instead of offering our mind to God we seek to satisfy its material desires, happiness eludes us. As Radhanath Swami says, “Mind always searches for some reason to be dissatisfied.”
Table of Contents
Founder-acharya of the International Society For Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
“Go to India” a sweet but commanding voice; spoke up in the heart of young Richard (later Radhanath Swami) who was immersed in meditation, his search for meaning in life has brought him to the Isle of Crete. Today he was ordered to go to India. Born and raised in the middle class suburbs of Chicago, Radhanath swami grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s era when popular musicians protested war, prejudice and social injustice. Radhanath swami would listen to these songs again and again, but their lyrics referring to God stirred his soul. Peter, Paul and Mary- the folk trio from Greenswich village sang in their debut album
“Early in the morning, about the break of day
I ask the Lord, to help me find my way”
This simple prayer was to guide Radhanath swami in the coming years of his life........
Because of his experiences as described in his autobiography, Radhanath Swami has developed a wonderful understanding of the mind. Thanks to Radhanath Swami for sharing these precious lessons with the rest of the world. A big thanks to the authors for sharing their realizations from the book as well. These are such nice reminders of what I read in the book.
View Comment“Mind always searches for some reason to be dissatisfied.”
View CommentThis burden of attachment may then be the biggest hurdle for us in obtaining God’s mercy. This is the root cause of our repeated suffering birth after birth. Thankyou Radhanath Swami
“Once our dreams are fulfilled, misery begins.”
View CommentWords full of wisdom.
Oh! When will I be relived of the burden of attachments and become attached to Krishna!
View Commentvery interesting!!
View CommentEye opener statement – “The mind creates artificial needs, believing it cannot live without them….”
View CommentBest is to give up our mind to God, because burden of attachments is the biggest hurdle in our path for obtaining Lords mercy.
View CommentThank you for sharing.
View CommentRadhanath Swami Maharaj gives such a deep analysis of everything. Amazing!
View Commentvery nice article…..truly, one’s mind is one’s greatest enemy & one’s greatest friend…….what one wants it to be depends on oneself……
View CommentRadhanath Swami has wonderfully explained the reality with thought provoking examples.
View CommentVery wonderful article.MInd can be our greatest enemy or our greatest.we need to train it.we should hanker for unnecessary things.
View CommentOne of the most insightful and profound truths! Here we come face-to-face with the stark reality that WE, through our minds, are the cause of our misery or happiness. There is no one else to blame.
View CommentThanks for this enlightening post. I would like to carry following statements of Radhanath Swami Maharaj 1) Mind always searches for some reason to be dissatisfied. 2)There is a spiritual principle for controlling the mind. Completely give your mind to God. This means to become so absorbed in God that you completely transcend any false egoistic identity that I am this body, I am this particular sex or particular race or particular color, particular religion or nationality or any other thing.
View CommentMind always searches reason to be unhappy,however if same mind is engrossed in the worship of the god ,it becomes not only stable but also blissfull and content.
View CommentRadhath Swami reveals here the secret of blissful life – ‘To live a simple life, free of endless complications’
View CommentRadhanath Swami writes so nicely that the burden of attachment can become the biggest hurdle for us in obtaining God’s mercy.
View CommentWonderful principle explained by HH Radhanath Swami. Thank you for sharing.
View CommentNice analysis of nature of mind by Radhanath swami, mind interprets nonessentials into essentials.
View CommentThe nature of the mind is to interpret nonessentials essential.
View CommentVery True!
this so inspiring Maharaj is pointing out the simple living and high thinking philosophy, more we accumulate more we become attached to it and more difficult to give it up. This material attachments brings complications as mind always ponders how to gain something how to save what we have etc and our spiritual progress is checked.
View CommentSo many thoughts that we carry are the cause of our misery. Thus “we’re carring misery within.”
View Comment“The selfish desire of the mind, driven by our false sense of identity keeps us miserable.” Thank You Maharaj for showing us the way to be happy in life.
View CommentThe mind is the cause of bondage and liberation. Essential to fix the mind on god conscious activities in order to get liberation from material bondage.
View Comment“There is a spiritual principle for controlling the mind. Completely give your mind to God. Wonderful point by Gurudev!!
View CommentRadhanath Swami has the magic formula – to deal with the mind; not allow it to damage in innumerable ways but to empower it by connecting to Spiritual platform
View CommentSimply beautiful!!!
View CommentRadhanath Swami wonderfully explains about our good friend “Mind” who could as well turn into our worst enemy if not controlled. Great article
View CommentOur mind is very restless & always wants to engage in bodily sense gratification. Whatever we do, our mind tends to make us feel unsatisfied & it keeps demanding new objects for bodily pleasures. But if want to control our mind, then we need to follow the instructions of Radhanath Swami and engage our senses in devotional service to God. Only then can we attain true love for God and bring lasting peace & happiness in our lives.
View CommentVery nice artilce. Thank you very much for shairng the same.
View CommentRadhanath Swami has perfectly dignosed the problem.When dereams are fulfilled then miseries starts.We desire some material thing then overwork for it and after possesing it we find it difficult to maintain it.Therefore it is better to engage our consciousness in serving God.Thank you Radhanath Swami for giving us wise advice through your article.
View CommentWonderful Article! Thanx…
View Comment“The nature of the mind is to interpret nonessentials essential”
View CommentSo true, Maharaj has realized the nature of Mind through his experiences as well as from scriptures. This is quite essential to control it. Also thanks for the formula to control the mind.
Only souls like HH Radhanath Swami can free themselves of material attachments and help others to do so.
View Commentvery nice article, thanks for posting, regards, rajesh karia
View Commentvery beautifully explained by this article that how one must give up the artificial attachments of the mind and live with the basic desires, haribol, bhakti
View Commentvery true and very enlightening indeed!
View CommentTruly this pastime describes our predicament that we dont want to give the attachments of this world. It is just like that man who is holding the tree tightly and is begging people to help him to save him to get free of the tree. It is in our hands how we reduce our necessities and live a simple life.
View Commentwhen the mind is not trained properly, it has many lust desires and then it takes us from one activity to another promising us happiness. More we trust our untrained mind, more we will suffer. Than you Maharajah for guiding us.
View CommentThis is so true in our everyday life. We cling onto things which we feel are essential to our existence, but they are actually artificial attachments which our mind has created. As Radhanath Swami says, let go of them and you will have so much spare energy and time for spiritual pursuits.
View CommentIt is the mind that gives the so called pleasure and pain. In reality, there is only misery in this material world. But, we are in illusion that we can be happy by possessing this and that. But, this never happens. H.H Radhanath Swami has nicely expressed about this in His book “The Journey Home.”
View CommentYes, why limp when you can run? Lets do away with all the unnecessities of life and run our way to real freedom!
View CommentRadhanath Swami has precisely pointed out the situation around us. We make nonessentials ‘essential’. Thankyou for posting!
View CommentThis is a very true statement which is made by Radhanath Swami at the end of the article, “Mind always searches for some reason to be dissatisfied.”
View CommentIt is impossible to try and satisfy the mind and keep it calm. Only by the association of pure saintly souls like Radhanath Swami, reading this kind of crystal clear truths, can there be some hope for souls like me.
So nice of Radhanath Swami. A complex subject is presented before us in an easy to understand form.
View CommentAs Radhanath Swami says, “Mind always searches for some reason to be dissatisfied.”
This is very perfect. It always happens that mind just focuses on something that is not very imp and becomes dissatisfied.
View CommentMaharaj shows us how to get realization from each incident.
View CommentEverybody is stressed but nobody knows why. However Radhanath Swami provides a perfect answer from the Vedic scriptues about how not listening to the mind will help solve our problems
View CommentHow nicely Mharaj has explained that we craete unnecssary needs in our lives and then get attached to them,not ready to let go.Maharaj puts iy so nicely-The nature of the mind is to interpret nonessentials essential.
View CommentNice Article!!! Thank you Maharaj for teaching us that mind always searches for some reason to be dissatisfied, so Completely give your mind to God.
View Comment