The Sinfulness of the Mind

Oh brave one, listen to this element of mind and, with the help of the Guru, distinguish between the thief and the man of wealth. Mind is the horrible Kal who makes the Jivas dance and makes their condition terrible. When a beautiful woman comes in his sight, the mind becomes excited, and lust troubles the body. Mind takes him there by its strength, and the knowledgeless Jiva gets deceived. Making him involved in sexual pleasures with woman, the Jiva takes the blame. Looking at others’ wealth, mind becomes happy: 'I’ll take it!'– and thus desire comes. When he takes others’ wealth, the Soul is blamed for that sin.

This crazy mind develops this karma and the innocent Soul obeys its orders. Criticism of others and taking their wealth are traps of the mind. Becoming hostile to the Saint and criticising the Master – these are the karmas created by the mind which puts the Soul in the trap of Kal. Being a married man, he desires another woman: in this way the mind sows the poison of deep karma. Mind makes the Soul, in an excited state, kill others. He makes the Soul suffer hell because of that sin. Deceiving the Souls, the mind makes them serve gods and goddesses in pilgrimages and fasts. The mind itself introduces bad habits, and involving the Jiva in them, it spoils her. 

He may have one birth as a king – and then he will go and suffer in hell. Or he may be incarnated as a bull who becomes the husband of many cows. Karma yoga is a trap of the mind: when one becomes without karma, only then his pain and sufferings go away.

Hymn

Oh Dharam Das, listen to the constitution of mind. How long should I describe it to you? Three gods, thirty-three lesser gods are in his trap; Shesh Nag and other gods are defeated by it. Without the Satguru, nobody can understand the mind and will fall in its snare. Only the rare Saint has recognised it through discrimination, and has left it.

_______________

Illustration:

He may have one birth as a king:

Thus, in following the almost universally acknowledged, widely believed and generally accepted path of good deeds, one ultimately finds himself, once more, caught in the web of insatiable desires and ambitions and with this glittering and ever-elusive firefly in front of him, he still remains an unwitting captive in the iron grip of Karmas. To achieve his objective, he performs Tapas – various kinds of ascetic austerities – which may bring him better lives. Even when he attains the sovereignty of a kingdom, his mind runs riot, he gives himself free reins and commits mighty deeds of valour and prowess, most of which are evil enough to earn him hell. Again, after taking a bitter lesson from the hell-fires in which he is plunged, he tries to seek solace in Tapas. Thus he is ever caught and moves entangled in the vicious circle of temptations and lures from hell to contrition and from contrition to sovereignty and from sovereignty to hell again – one after the other – in an endless cyclic order, up and down the Wheel of Life. Thus, everyone for himself makes his own heaven and hell and remains through his own volitional deeds entangled in the gossamer web of life prepared by him.

The Wheel of Life (First Edition, 1965) –
IV. The Way of Saints,
by Kirpal Singh, 1894–1974

Shesh Nag and other gods: In Dwapar Yuga Krishna defeated the thousand headed hydra – in the Anurag Sagar equalised with Shesh Nag – in the river Yumna – also known as Yamuna. Krishna however is one with Kal (see also the subsection 'The character of Dharam Rai' in the illustration to 'The Character of Niranjan') and thus he is the mind.

Fear of birth and death: It is not sufficient to be faithful to one’s Master in thought and word and to adjure that Naam is the Highest. To really accept Naam steadfastly means to live in such a way that one becomes Naam – i. e. to become One with the Sound Current. Only then one becomes a servant.