Mind: How to control it

VI

Human birth is a rare privilege and one must make the most of it.

This is what every Saint has emphasised from personal experience. The greatest advantage that we can have is to realise the self within. This is the be-all and end-all of human existence. Is not flesh more than raiment and life more than flesh?

We must know how to save life that is dearer than pranas, vital airs, which are sustaining the body. Self-realisation and God-realisation come before everything else. On the contrary, we are engaged in useless pursuits of the world. 

What does it profit a man if he gains possession of the whole world and loses one’s own soul.

Weeping we came into the world and weeping we go. Death does not spare anybody, and death knows no calendar. Why not make hay while the sun shines. To fall from the top rung of the ladder is a sad fall indeed and often proves fatal. 

There is a great gulf between a man and an animal. A man is gifted with the power of discrimination. He can judge right from wrong and is free to choose between the two. The Vedic Rishis always prayed: 

Lead us from darkness to Light, from unreal to the real, and from death to immortality.

One can achieve this and much more in human life: 

By a great good fortune thou has got a human birth; this is the only opportunity for thee to contact the Lord, all else in the world will avail naught, seek ye the company of the Saints and learn to commune within.

Human birth is a rare privilege to which one comes by an immense fortune. He is the roof and crown of creation and has great possibilities in him, which he can develop to any extent he likes. He can become really great in the human life if he realises himself and the God-Power in him. The human spirit is of the same essence as that of God. It is a pity that one with blue blood in his veins has chosen the company of mind and matter and is dancing in tune with the senses. Hence, the Master emphasises on this point. Now the question arises as to how one could get to the crest-jewel of his life. 

The Eternal Life which thou seekest so much, you can have it (the Holy Word) from some Saint.

Guru Arjan

What is Ram Naam? It is the All-Pervading and All-Pervasive Power of God. To get to this Power we must leave all else and seek the association of some Saint; for all else in the world is naught. 

Christ says: 

Leave everything and follow me.

Lord Krishna advised his warrior disciple, Arjuna, thus, 

Leave all the philosophies aside, take refuge unto me, and do what I bid you to do. 

So, we have to understand all values of life – social, ethical, and spiritual. All around perfection is the goal of life, and it is the highest education that one must take. No one wants us to leave our hearths and homes and go into the wilderness. All that is required is to give some time to Spirituality; that should take priority over everything else. The riddle of life has got to be solved one day, and the sooner it is done the better it would be for us herein and hereafter. 

Therefore, the Great Teacher says: 

It is in the fullness of time that one meets a Perfect Master.

What does He do? 

He links us with the Power of God.

Thus, we see that one comes across a Purnapurush, or Teacher of the highest grade, only when one is destined as such. And when we meet such a Teacher, He puts us in tune with the Holy Word and we begin to practise the same. As Guru Arjan says, this All-Pervading Power can only be had from a Word-Personified Saint, for Satguru is the Manifested Pole of Sat or Truth and revels in Truth and can make us do likewise: 

The whole world is in deep slumber; and we, too, are asleep; how can one who himself is asleep wake us up?

A Liberated Soul alone can liberate us. One has to go to a Liberated Being, take counsel from Him, and by working out His behests, gain liberation for himself. 

Those Who have communed with the Word, Their toils shall end, Their faces shall flame with Glory; not only shall They receive salvation, but many more shall find freedom with Them.

Jap Ji, Finale