Who is our greatest enemy?

Any agent that harms us is termed an enemy. Some of them are bad people: our egos, anger, hatred, pride, greed, etc. But who is the greatest enemy? Actually, our own mind is our greatest enemy. How? It will be explained in detail below. How we can win over this mind will also be discussed in this article.

MInd

Reality of our mind?

There are three kinds of things. They are God, the soul (we), and Maya. Actually, all living beings are souls, but from eternity on, we have forgotten God. After we forgot God, we fell under the influence of Maya. Maya is the main reason for ignorance. What did Maya do to us? Maya cast her illusion over us, and we forgot who we truly were. We forgot that we are the soul; rather, we regard ourselves as our body and mind. This mind is the son of Maya, whom we regard as ourselves. But in reality, it is our greatest enemy. So generally, people say that we are our own worst enemy because we regard ourselves as our minds. Thus, this mind is actually not myself but rather it is the son of Maya, while we are the soul, which is the son of Shri Krishna (God).

man with bicycle

What is the work of our mind?

Have you seen a bicycle? Until and unless the pedal is moving, the cycle is not falling. But when we stop pedaling, then it will fall down. Similar is our mind; our mind is active 24 hours a day. It can never be idle. And what is the job of our minds? Its main job is to contemplate or think. It cannot do physical work; it can only imagine, think, and attach itself. There are two areas of attachment. One is the world, another is God. Since our mind is the son of Maya, and Maya created this world, our mind is naturally attracted to worldly pleasures and does not like the remembrance of God.

hell and heaven

How mind is our greatest enemy?

Our mind loves to attach itself to worldly pleasures. Like we want to earn lots of money, then after we will buy many luxurious things that will help us gratify our senses while drowning ourselves in worldly pleasures. But the result of engaging ourselves in worldly pleasures is going to hell. After our deaths, we have to go to hell and get different kinds of dreadful punishments. Like drinking the molten lava, being burned alive, being tied with rope, being hungry and thirsty for weeks, etc. Thus, our mind enjoys the worldly pleasures, but it will eventually take us to hell, where we will suffer very miserably. Thus, it is considered our greatest enemy. Now, how can we defeat this enemy?

Krishna Arjun Gita

How to win our mind?

Once Arjun asked in the Gita to Shri Krishna how to win this mind because it is very difficult to control. Then Shri Krishna said that there are two weapons, which are abhyas (practice) and bairagya (detachment). Let me explain this thing in detail. Our mind has been attached to worldly pleasures since eternity; now we must practice detaching (bairagya) it from the world. Then what happens? It will again run toward the world because it has been attached to worldly pleasures since eternity. Then again, detach it from the world. It will again go back to the world, and we will again detach. By doing this continuously, we can control our mind.

Just like we control a horse, we try and try and try until we control it. Similarly, we can win over our biggest enemy. But as previously stated, our mind is always active and running, it cannot be idle for even a fraction of second. After detaching our mind from the world, if we do not give it a place of attachment, then it will again return to worldly pleasures. How can we solve this problem? It is explained in the next few points.

Detach your mind from the world and attach it to God

We have detached our mind from worldly pleasures, but now where will we attach? We will attach it to the lotus feet of Shri Krishna. It is pretty easy to tell, but when it comes to the practical, it is pretty hard to detach our mind from worldly pleasures and attach it to God. Who wants to leave all their luxury and love God in reality? Why would this happen? This will happen only if you are aware of the realities of the world and God. It is explained below.

worldly pleasures

Reality of world

Our world is actually made up of Maya, which is one of the powers of God. While we are the soul who is the son of Shri Krishna (God). Then how can we (soul) be happy from these worldly pleasures. Actually, all these worldly pleasures seem like nectar at first, but after we experience them, they become like poison. For example, a person might want to earn a lot of money and buy different luxurious items. Fortunately, he got all those.

But he cannot get the real happiness from it. Only his mind is happy, while his soul (the true him) is unhappy because the soul wants the pleasure of God. Thus, we must first realize that we are the soul, not the mind, and our subject is God, not worldly pleasures. Worldly pleasure is the subject of our mind, which is not me. Rather, it is our biggest enemy. So why serve our greatest enemy.

Shri Krishna

Reality of God

Now that we know the reality of the world, it’s time to know who God is. Actually, God is the supreme personality who is the master of these infinite universes. Nothing is beyond him. Our soul (our true self) is also a part of God. The soul gets all its power from Shri Krishna. Shri Krishna is the one who is always residing inside our heart and providing us with the power to do different things all the time. Shri Krishna never leaves us alone. Even after our death he will never leave us alone. No matter where we move to in hell, he will also move along with us, residing inside our heart. Shri Krishna is residing inside the heart of all living beings and helping them all the time.

He is the one who has created this world for our survival with the help of his power, Maya. He is the one who produced different foods from the land for our survival. He is the one who has actually placed us in the womb of our mother. He is the one who created the milk inside the mother to feed the child. He is the one who is giving us all the power to do all our work.

He is noting all our deeds, and he is the one who will give us the result of all our karma (deeds). He is the one who is sending so many saints, along with him, into this world to rescue us from Maya and put us under his eternal protection. So He is the only true friend of ours. He is so merciful that if we surrender ourselves to him, then he will forgive all the sins we committed in our past lives since eternity. Such merciful he is.

Finally, defeat your greatest enemy mind

Now it is clear who we are. What is the world, and what is God? Actually, we are the soul, and the subject of the soul is not this world but rather God. After understanding this, detach your mind from worldly pleasures and immediately attach it to God because our mind cannot be idle. Then, as a result of our previous lives’ habits, it will return to the world. Then don’t worry; it’s a normal process. Again, calmly remove it from the world and attach it to God. Again, it will go back to the world. You again take it back to God. Similarly, if we do this repeatedly, our mind will be permanently attached to God, and we will have defeated our greatest enemy, our own mind.

Radha Krishna

Practical ways of attaching the mind to God

Generally. Singing the names and virtues of Shri Krishna along with his sweet remembrance attaches our mind to god. So we must daily chant his names, remember his virtues and mercy, and meditate on his form inside our mind.

In this way, we can win over our greatest enemy—the mind.

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