Mansukh in his early twenties walks a mile to seek advice from a mahatma for the problems he was facing.
Mahatma ji was a good artisan and was busy working, on arrival Mansukh pleads for his time and advice to overcome the Mann Ki BAKBAK happening all the time in his mind. He tells mahatma his mind keeps wandering, always on the run generating thoughts of no relevance. He would start doing one thing gets distracted and starts another, often wondering if he was doing it right, or in failure what will people say, thereby either leaving the task undone or wrongly exercised. Lately his few friends started making fun of him, Mansukh now in tears said that makes me feel more useless, insecure, a failure bothering him even more. Help me mahatma ji empty my mind pleaded Mansukh.
The mahatma asks have you ever tried understanding your mind, well my mind is far too occupied to get time understanding it, replied Mansukh. To treat a problem one must get to its root cause and so the Mahatma gives Mansukh an empty container asking him to go fill it with stones. On return Mansukh is told to consider the container as mind and stones as thoughts. Mansukh was then asked to fill more stones, he tried and only a few could be added the rest kept falling. Mansukh draws mahatmas attention and says that’s all the container can take, if I have to add more then I need to remove a few and replace them and suddenly loudly says hey that’s what I am asking you, how to empty the mind.
The mahatma replied the container gets full but mind is the opposite, it always remains empty. I am confused says Mansukh if mind is empty how come I feel it full. Empty the container said the mahatma and that was easy for Mansukh. The mahatma now asks Mansukh to put one stone and remove three. Mansukh replies you cannot put one stone and remove three. If you say so, then you can put three stones and remove six said the mahatma. Mansukh reacts it seems you have lost it, this is no miracle container put three and remove six stones.
Smilingly Mahatma says the container is no miracle but your mind is. You start with one thought soon conceive two more. You hold those two and they churn out many more, soon you choose to continue with having more thoughts. The container gets filled up but the mind is never mindful. Now fill the container with some stones again. I know you have skills of a sculptor, here are some tools carve a statue from one stone for me. Mansukh picks a stone to start, didn’t quite like the first stone, picks another and replaces that too. The third was also rejected and soon over a dozen other options he chose rejected them all. Before Mansukh picked the next stone mahatma emptied the container throwing all stones away, however picked the 1st rejected stone by Mansukh and puts it in the container and sternly tells Mansukh consider this the only option and work on it.
In an hours’ time Mansukh carves a beautiful statue and the smiling mahatma tells Mansukh Mann ki BakBak me kuch Chaka Chak. Mansukh in smiles and pleased but before he could ask a question Mahatma said enough for the day come back tomorrow, also see if you can figure out what happened in the last one hour. To be Continued
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