Winning over ones Mind

There was a Great King.  He had conquered many territories and people. 

One day the King met a rishi.  The used to be a great king a long time back.  He gave up everything and went to forest to meditate.  The king invited the rishi to his palace.  The rishi accepted the kings invitation and came to the palace.  The king wanted the rishi to come to his court in the morning.  The rishi refused to come because he had to perform his rituals.  The king tried to impose his commands on the rishi and the rishi refused to obey the king and went back to the forest to continue his peaceful, pious lifestyle.  This annoyed the king.  He wanted to power over the rishi and wanted to make the rishi obey his commands.  People in his kingdom thought it was strange that the king would focus on conquering a rishi who had neither property nor kingdom.

The king went back to the forest in search of the rishi.  He found the rishi in deep medication.  The King tried to attract the rishi’s attention.  He shouted,

“Oh Rishi!!  Come for a fight with me”  The King challenged the Rishi.

To this Rishi laughed out softly and said, “Oh Great King!! Fight! I have ran away from my worldly life because my fear of fighting my one great enemy.  My soul shudders and heart quivers when I hear the sound of my enemy’s name.

This annoyed the king and he asked the rishi angrily, “Tell me oh great sage!!  Who is your enemy?  I will fight and win him for you.  If I cannot win him I will consider myself a failure.”

The saint said, “The great enemy I am talking about is the mind”.

From that day on the king tried everyway to conquer his mind.  He tried all the possible techniques and could not conquer  the mind.  Finally, the king had to admit his failure and accept the mind is truly the strongest enemy.

The mind can be controlled only by way of meditation and it is not easy.  It will wonder in every direction possible while meditation.  The mind will find all kinds of excuses to keep us from meditation. 

Use this tendency of the mind to form positive habits.  The mind likes habits.  If we tell our mind that we need to sit for meditation each day at the same time and place, a habit will form.  Then if we miss meditation for one day, we will start to feel like something is missing.  When we leart to concentrate fully, wholly and solely, we will experience peace. 

The saint taught the king these ways of meditation to the king and he won over his mind.