Food for the Mind

The mind is like a tool and it needs to be frequently sharpened. In bhakti, in order to cut through illusion, we sharpen our mind and intelligence by regularly hearing philosophical discourses and instructive stories from Vedic literature, particularly Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Lets practice that by reading and then summarizing the following text.

“On a cloudy day, even if we cannot see the sun, we can nonetheless understand it is day by the presence of light in the sky. Similarly, we can understand that the soul is present in the body by the presence of consciousness. Consciousness is the symptom of the soul. When the soul leaves the body, we call this death and we understand this by the absence of consciousness. Consciousness is something we can perceive just like the light of the sun on a cloudy day.

Our consciousness is individual and extends as far as our own body. Take a moment to think about it. If I tap your friend on the shoulder, do you feel it? If I tap your friend on the shoulder and you are in a different room, are you even aware that I did that? Thus, our consciousness is limited. But, the Vedic literature talk of a consciousness that is unlimited and it is called the Supreme Consciousness. Just as you are an individual and conscious of only your body, the Supreme Consciousness is also an individual, but is conscious of all bodies at all times. A drop of water in the ocean has the same quality of saltiness as the ocean, but the quantity of salt in the ocean is much greater than a single drop. Similarly, we are the same in quality with the Supreme, we are both conscious, but we are different in quantity.

Our consciousness and individuality is only a part of the whole, the Supreme Consciousness. Just like the hand is a part of the body. A hand can't nourish itself separately. Only when the hand serves the body by putting food in the mouth, is the hand, along with the whole body, nourished. Similarly, the individual consciousness is part of the Supreme Consciousness and can only be truly happy by serving the supreme. This service is called bhakti and is the eternal natural tendency of every living being.”

Each of the above paragraphs should be summarized into one sentence.