From Lower Joy to Higher Joy

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Indeed, turning away from the junk food of worldly thoughts which makes one feel spiritually deprived and empty, one must enrich oneself by drinking honey from the lotus of divinity present in every heart. We are what we eat. We are, even more, what we think. There is no point in accusing others for what they are. We must look within to find out why we are harping on that so much. We must rather cultivate the taste for the honey of higher life. Sri Ramakrishna was very fond of a song by Ramaprasad, the celebrated Bengali saint-singer. Says the song, 'My mind-bee is absorbed in sipping the nectar of Divine Mother's lotus feet (majolo amar man bhramara shayamapada neela kamale).' Sri Ramakrishna would say,

'Ordinary people practice spiritual discipline and cultivate devotion to God; but they also become attached to the world and are caught in the glamour of lust and greed. They are like flies which sit on a flower or a sweet meat and light on filth as well. But the ever perfect are like bees, which light only on flowers and sip the honey. The ever perfect drink only the Nectar of Divine Bliss. They are never inclined to worldly pleasures.' (Gospel, p.196)

Chhandogya Upanishad (7.26.2) rightly points out:

'Through purity of food comes purity of mind; through purity of mind, comes a steady memory of Truth, and when one gets this memory, one becomes free from all knots of the heart.'

If one is to change oneself for better, he should become a seeker of Truth, rather than becoming a seeker of untruth by indulging in thinking unholy and raw thought. One must begin by changing one's mental food. No more junk food of anger, lust or greed or any such poisonous substance. We must make the mind healthy by having good food for the mind. While people are quite careful about the food they take through the mouth, they just do not care about the food for mind that they consume through their other senses—eyes, ears and so on. This has to change if one wants to become spiritually healthy again. When mind is healthy, our life and personality too become healthy. The mind, then, becomes discriminative as to what to 'eat' and what to reject.

A Vedic hymn aptly describes a mind which is healthy and well-nourished. It is a free mind, 'free from all knots of the heart'. It sees the Presence of Divine everywhere, and the sweetness (madhu) is the very essence of divinity. Called madhusukta, the hymn proclaims:

The blissful winds are sweet to us.
The seas are showering bliss on us.
May the corn in our fields bring bliss to us.
May the plants and herbs bring bliss to us.
May the cattle give us bliss.
O Father in Heaven, be Thou blissful unto us!
The very dust of the earth is full of bliss.
It is all bliss—all bliss—all bliss.