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Dealing with baka like mind
As per the desire of his mother Kunti and also in order to reciprocate with the hospitality of the Brahmana, Bhima proceeded to meet the Rakshasa Bakasura, carrying with him a cartload of food. As soon as he reached the outskirts, Bhima shouted the demon’s name. Simultaneously, Bhima started eating the food meant for Bakasura. Bakasura saw Bhima eating his food and became infuriated. Bhima ignored him and continued with his meal. Baka tried to beat Bhima with his fists and hurled trees, Bhima persisted and went on. Bhima finished the meal. Being satisfied with the sumptuous meal, Bhima advanced to face the belligerent Baka. They had a terrible fight hurling trees, pounding each other with their fists. Slowly Baka was tired and Bhima overpowered him. Then with a final blow, Bhima finished him. Like the residents of Ekacakra, we are also haunted by a Bakasura within with no exception. It is our uncontrolled, restless and raging mind. Let us discuss how to subdue this enemy within.
Noticing our uncontrolled mind
We resolve that we will do it today. But we fail again. We ended up surfing the net, having an unnecessary chit-chat or spending several hours at an eatery on the way. We miss an assignment submission, a project deadline, an important flight and many. Why does it happen all the time? It is as if an unseen force within is pulling us away helplessly – something we cannot resist or even recognize often. It is our mind – our uncontrolled mind. This mind is the real culprit(BG 6.6). Often we tend to blame the people, circumstances and destiny. But often it is only our mind and nothing else. But why does it behave uncontrollably in the first place? Mind, by design is calm and focused. When it is filled with selfish, sensual and worldly desires, it becomes uncontrolled and unruly. These desires get accumulated through our education, entertainment and exploration in the course of our life. The more we feed in such desires, more stronger becomes our mind. It twists, tortures us and torments us like the Bakasura. How to get rid of these and restore our mind to its natural state? The first step is recognize the problem – our mind. Then we need to reduce our exposure to the sources of these unhealthy desires – the books we read, the videos we watch and the people we interact with. But there are many within already, what to do?
Nourishing our intelligence
Our intelligence is the one that receives data and processes it. It creates and instills various new desires in our mind from time to time – “what is the best thing to do?”, “what makes us happy”, “what really matters?”. The intelligence needs to be refined and reoriented in the right direction. This can be achieved through reading wisdom literature and spiritual texts like Bhagavad Gita. These texts educate us about the anatomy of our inner world (BG 3.42), the role of mind and intelligence, the fickle nature of mind and the ways to detach ourselves from our mind. This is like Bhima eating food. This is the right nourishment for the intelligence (BG 3.43). The Baka like mind is likely to resist even at this stage. The examples of successful spiritualists and our own education and experience can help us persist in further educating and enlightening our intelligence. The stronger the intelligence becomes, it becomes easier to resist our mind’s attempts to dissuade us from these endeavors. When the intelligence becomes reformed and robust, it is ready to deal with the unruly mind.
Negating and nurturing the mind
The intelligence is no longer wooed by the fickle mind. Once, our intelligence is clear and convinced, we can easily deny the distracting proposals of mind and engage it in the task at hand. This indeed adds efficiency to our life. But still the mind’s pranks persist – it offers sensual proposals, it complains and it becomes complacent. Trying to drag it always indeed takes a toll. The Baka within is getting defeated but is not yet destroyed. The solution is to engage the mind in spiritual activities. This is done through mantra meditation, spiritual music and spiritual service. This cleanses the mind of its fickle and obstinate tendencies. It becomes pure and calm. The Baka within is ultimately slain. Our life becomes more efficient, effective, focused and fulfilling (BG 6.5).