Instead of going to a solitary place, it is better to be in a crowd. Questioner: But how can one get rid of the mind?ĭadashri: You cannot get rid of it. There is solitude for as long as there is some peace. When you use the restroom (toilet) do you have to sit in it forever? That is how it is with solitude. This is because the mind will ‘ring’ all kinds of ‘bells’ in solitude. A passerby tells him, ‘It must be the rat that ruined the plant.' He asks the passerby, 'So then what can I do about it?' The passerby tells him, 'Get a cat and raise it.' You fool! You abandoned (renounced) four ‘bells’ at home and now you are collecting new ones here! A ‘bell’ of tulsi, a ‘bell’ of rose and a ‘bell’ of a cat! That is why ‘we’ tell everyone, ‘do not look for solitude’. So the man becomes perplexed and wonders what happened. He would use two tulsi leaves for his early morning drink. After a while the tulsi plant and the rose bush grow big and he feels happy. So then he plants a rose bush and then does his sadhna. So he asks, ‘Will I be able to find a rose plant?’ and the man tells him, ‘Yes, I will get it for you’. Then someone comes along and tells him that it will look beautiful if he were to plant a rose next to it. Then he plants tulsi (a holy plant of the basil family regarded sacred and noted for its medicinal properties) outside his hut. Then he sits down to do some rituals ( sadhana). So there is no problem if he builds a hut. Does he not need a hut to live in? That is a necessity and so there is no problem with necessities. He does find solitude there, but then what happens? There, he builds himself a hut. He thinks he will find God if he finds solitude. He gets tired of the attachment to his children, the wife and father, and so he runs off to the Himalayas (and becomes a hermit). Attachment ( mamta– my-ness) towards all the worldly things is not the hindrance it is one’s attachment to his home (family) that hinders him. If you do not keep it on the flower garden, it will run off into the gutters (sexual thoughts)! Such is the nature of the mind. What should you keep your mind on? Look if you do not keep it on the temple, it will run away to a garden. If it becomes absent, then that is the end of it! It will make ‘us’ absent if it becomes absent. Questioner: Yes, that will definitely happen.ĭadashri: And it (the mind) should not be absent. What is the mind like now? Does it jump around? It is staying still for now, is it not? Is it not better if it sits still like this? Yes, will you not have happiness that comes from reigning over three worlds ( triloka)? How can you call them humans when their minds leave their own abode and go somewhere else? If they were to go somewhere else, to other religious functions or discourses, they may be physically present there but their minds will be involved in thinking about their home. It is good that everyone is sitting here in my presence and so their minds remain here. The Mind can start a worldly life even in the jungle

Dada next train out of mymind