How to Control Your Instincts?
Listen to the nectar-like words [...] Perform aarti to Brahma [singing voice] of the eternal religion of the true, blissful Lord. The body may feel pain and not be distracted by the pain. This is possible only after very rigorous practice. [nasal sound] But it is comparatively easier to not feel sorrow. The more one's mind is filled with attachment and hatred, the more one cannot control one's tendencies. But if there is no attachment and hatred, it is easier to control the tendencies and become self-contained.
In our daily interactions, if gradually there is no attachment, no hatred, or no action with any specific desire, and if we remain selfless, the mind will become pure. [nasal sound] And the ancient world guru Shankaracharya has said that selfless action is not for attaining the soul. The mind is for the purification of pure karma. Neither is the object available. Meaning, the soul is not for attaining the object in the form of Brahma. The mind is for purification. How will you obtain the object? If your mind is pure, simply listening to the elevated versions of the Guru will lead to the attainment of the object. Why? The object is already attained. Because of desires, attachments, and aversions, our minds are constantly chasing other things, wandering outside their home. Therefore, even when the soul attains the object, it doesn't seem to be attained.
So, when we consider Maya in our soul form, Lord Shankaracharya calls it Maya. Some call it Shakti, while materialists call it Prakriti. This duality is merely Maya (a nasal sound). That is, the seer and the seen in the conscious being. The distinction between "I" and "this" in the conscious being arises from Maya. Therefore, many people call Lord Shankaracharya a Mayavadi (a Mayavadi), not a Mayavadi (a Mayavadi) but a Mayavadi (a Mayavadi). Due to Maya, the conscious being itself becomes egoistic, idam (I), "I" and "this." This also happens.
The seer, the seen, the knower, the knowledge, and the meditator, meditate, these three appear to be three. However, just by considering Maya, there is only one mind element, the one without Maya. He is neither the Seer, nor the Act of Seeing, nor the Seen. He is neither the Knower, nor Knowledge, nor the Object of Knowledge. He is neither the Meditator, nor Meditation, nor the Body. There is but one fundamental Essence.
Many thinkers have proclaimed: Hari-eva jagat, jagat-eva Hari-Hari alone is the world, and the world, too, is Hari. Yet, this does not seem so to us; to us, the world appears real, while the Supreme Reality (Paramatma) remains elusive. However, once that realization dawns, one must then observe: at what moment does Hari begin to feel like the world, and at what moment does the world begin to appear as Hari? When does the clay begin to feel like a pot-a mere vessel-and when does the vessel-the pot-begin to feel like clay again? This shift in perception-this feeling-is the key.
