Attach to the Higher - I

Another important and powerful way of dealing with the lust-filled or egotistic mind is to attach yourself to something greater—a higher goal, a larger ambition or achievement, one that benefits as many other people as possible, not just yourself. Best of all, attach yourself to the Lord in devotion. When you act to genuinely please God, you naturally seek to serve Him through your interaction with others, and so your ego is bowed. He and His righteousness come first, before your self-centred, shallow desires. The mind is already a little quieter… Remember how as a teenager you loved being fashionable and going to parties and movies? Now, as an adult, you have more important things to do—you are devoting time and energy to bringing up your children. This is the power of love for something higher; this is another way to develop vairagya. Vairagya is a growth process; allow yourself to expand to embrace something higher, so you can easily give up the lower.Likes and dislikes produce strong desires in us. An unfulfilled desire leads to irritation and anger. By contrast, a fulfilled desire fosters attachment and dependence on the object; left unchecked, it develops into greed. The more we possess, the more egotistic we become. An egotistic person is very self-centred and lonely. Isolation and insecurity cause us to create a web of innumerable imaginings, fantasies and temptations in the mind. Thereafter we push ourselves into frantic activity, generating more results (positive and/or negative) and, by the same token, creating new physical and mental habits. We suffer and make others suffer. Truly, how can we conquer the intoxicating forces that eventually create so much turmoil in our mind?

Attach to the Higher - I

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