Question: How can we bring the light of the soul into the mind so that we constantly have love, devotion and surrender?

Sri Chinmoy: When we think of the light of the soul, immediately we have to feel that what we get from this light is illumination and transformation. Otherwise, the soul’s light will remain vague to us. We see the light of electricity, but no matter what voltage we use, this light cannot change our nature. It will not be able to offer anything to our inner life. But when we become conscious of the light of the soul in our spiritual life, we feel that this light not only illumines our lives but also convinces us that the soul’s light alone is real; all else is unreal. If the mind feels that it has no reality unless and until it is flooded with the light of the soul, then only is the mind sincere and aspiring.

How can you bring the light of the soul into the mind so that you can have constant love, devotion and surrender? Please feel that the mind is your possession and not that you are possessed by the mind. You are the possessor of your finger, it does not possess you. You have full control over your finger. Similarly, you possess money and you use it in your own way. But if the money possesses you with its material power, then it will corrupt your nature. You will be caught by greed and attachment. Money itself is not bad, but it is misused to such an extent that very often a wrong force operates through it. The same is true of the mind. If you feel, “Oh, my mind is using me all the time and I cannot do anything,” then you are helpless. Your mind should be like your finger. Your finger cannot utilise you if you know that it is yours, that it is under your control. Similarly, with your conscious will you have to make the mind your servant.

You can meditate and tell your mind, “I shall not allow you to go in your own way. Now I want to think of God.” Repeat the name of God inwardly or aloud. The next moment say, “I want to have purity in my whole existence. Then repeat ‘purity, purity, purity.’ At that time you are not allowing your mind to think of impurity or of some other person or thing. Don’t give your mind a chance to wander; simply utilise your mind for your own purpose. You have millions of things to accomplish in and through the mind. But the mind is so naughty and mischievous that if you don’t utilise it, it will utilise you.

So I wish to tell you from now on please make the mind feel that it is your slave, that it is at your command. Do you want to use your mind for a divine purpose twenty-four hours a day? Then do so. Each time you want to achieve something, just catch the mind and say, “Do this, do this, do this.” Utilise the mind for the divine purpose of thinking of God, meditating on God and concentrating on God. In this way you can easily bring the mind under your control. Once the mind is under your control, you can then offer it to the Supreme. And the moment you can offer the mind to the Supreme, you will see that the soul’s light has already entered into the mind and has started illumining the mind. When the mind is illumined, love becomes absolutely pure, devotion becomes absolutely intense and surrender becomes complete, unconditional and constant.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Eternity's Soul-Bird, part 2, Agni Press, 1974
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