Master the Mind…
Junaid, a famous mystic, was walking through the market-place with his disciples. They saw a man dragging a cow by a rope. Junaid told the man to wait and asked his disciples to surround them.
“I am going to teach you something” and continued, “Tell me who is bound to whom? Is the cow bound to this man or the man is bound to the cow?” The disciples said without hesitation “of course the cow is bound to the man. The man is the master. He is holding the rope. The cow has to follow him wherever he goes. The man is the master and the cow is the slave.”
“Now watch this” said Junaid and took scissors from his bag and cut the rope. The cow ran away from the master. The man ran after his cow.
“Look, what is happening.” said Junaid. “Do you see who the Master is? The cow is not at all interested in this man. The cow in fact, is escaping from this man. This is the case with your mind.
“All the nonsense that you are carrying inside is not interested in you. You are interested in it. You are identified with it and because you are attached to it, you are keeping it together somehow or the other. You are going mad trying to keep it all together under your control. The moment you lose interest in all the nonsense filled in your head, the moment you understand the futility of it, it will start to disappear. Like the cow, it will escape and disappear.”
There is no need to stop the mind from thinking non-essential things. All one needs to do, is to become disinterested in its mumbo jumbo, that is, to be detached and dis-identified with the contents of the mind. Then the rope will be cut. That is the real meaning of sannyaasa (renunciation), to become dis-identified with the mind and its contents. That is the real meaning of vairaagya (dispassion). It has nothing to do with renouncing the world, but everything to do with the “cutting of the rope to the mind”.
We suffer more in life only due to our attachment to and identification with the contents of the fickle mind.
Mind is a good servant, but a dangerous master.
Master the Mind, master your world and be Happy.
