I do work on quora.com regularly answering questions and letting people have the benefit of my knowledge (such as it is).
While surfing the website I came across an excellent answer to the question:
What’s something your spiritual teacher said you always remember?
One lady called Parameswari Kumar gave an excellent answer that I would like you to read. The link is below:
https://www.quora.com/Whats-something-your-spiritual-teacher-said-you-always-remember
Basically she said is that we think all sorts of nonsense as we go through the day in any case. Instead of that we can make better use of our time by taking the name of God.
It is a very inspiring answer and gives a complete justification for Japa or the use of a mantra.
Basically her answer motivates us to keep our minds pure. But what does it mean to keep our mind pure?
According to one commentary on the Bhagavad Gita keeping the mind pure means keeping it free of desire, lust and anger.
This goal – if we will take it seriously – can give your life meaning and purpose. Maybe most people are so engrossed in their lives that they do not think of what gives their lives meaning and purpose. But in the life situation that I am in – middle aged, no job, no family – I have a lot of free time and this question assumes importance.
Dr. Viktor Frankl has written a classic book explaining why it is necessary for us to have a goal or purpose in life that gives our live meaning and purpose. You must have heard of the book – Man’s Search for Meaning. It describes his experiences while he was incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Dr Frankl why some people were able to survive in such horrendous circumstances while most others perished.
And having an impersonal goal for themselves was a key aspect that helped in their survival.
Keeping the mind pure is also more doable and inspiring than one other (Buddhist) teaching that I was trying to practice some years ago. According to Tibetan Buddhism the entire teaching of the Buddha can be summarised in four lines:
To abstain from evil.
To do good.
To tame this mind of ours.
That is the teaching of the Buddhas.
Taming the mind is an impossible ideal or goal – at least for me. I have tried various Buddhist meditation practices with some degree of sincerity at least for the past many years and my mind is still the mess that it is now.
Keeping the mind pure works – because you focus on only this one moment and have not given yourself any impossible goals that you find disheartening because you cannot attain them.
Lastly I am struggling a bit with having reverence for God. Reverence and humility is required for Japa practice. I suppose I should be able to figure out the way forward though. If you have any suggestions on how I can learn these two qualities please let me know.
I’ll end here. Please explore this website for more articles on Spirituality, Self Help and Politics. Please comment on the articles if you liked them or even if you didn’t. Feedback from my readers keeps me going.
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