Talks Excerpt 298. Swamiji says: The mind is your friend and your enemy.

From Mother Radha’s notes, written at Swamiji’s feet.

The Sun is a round ball of hydrogen atoms and so on. Its nature is to give off heat and light. A tree is a plant with a trunk and branches. What is its nature? To give shelter and food. The body is a body of clay. What is its nature? To house the jiva, the doer, the enjoyer.

The Self is the ‘I’, the Witness Consciousness or Soul. What is its nature? Bliss, love, peace. Why do I not leave the jiva to act through this body, and carry on manifesting my true nature? Then I will know what is Reality.

Do not let others affect you.

The intellect speaks through the mouth, the heart speaks through silence.

Thought binds and thought liberates. It ends in work (much work – karma) or meditation (being indrawn).

Sri Ramakrishna wanted one boon from the Divine Mother: ‘Pure love for Thy Lotus Feet.’

When bad thoughts arise know that you have experienced these things, or someone near you has. It is good to watch them arise and let them float off, or think, ‘I am only the Witness Consciousness.’ Let all thoughts come and go. Remind yourself: ‘I am not thought. I am the Atman (Soul).’

You must manifest OM [the Pranava] every second. Yesterday’s anger and gossip should be left behind, then only is there satsang, and this satsang bears fruit.

The mind is your friend and your enemy. The mind leads to destruction or liberation. The mind leads to bondage or to God. Control your own mind first. Make this your whole life. Only then can you help others.

The free-to-read or download, 396 page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE.

These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.