What about controlling the mind when you're trying to meditate? I close my eyes, I try to picture Krishna, and my mind goes here and there. What to do about that? How to gain mastery over the mind? Well, one big thing we can do to help us with the meditation is to add kirtan into it. Although I told you kirtan is an external form of meditation, so the kirtan on its own won't solve our problems.
But if you're trying to do roopdhyan, which is the internal meditation, you'll find that if you do it in silence, just doing roopdhyan, you'll only be able to do it for a few minutes before you get bored or distracted. But if you add kirtan to it, now you have a way of enhancing your meditation. The kirtan, the chanting of God's name, is the best external devotion to support your meditation. All forms of external devotion are good. They can all help you focus your mind on God, as long as you keep in mind that the main goal is to remember God. However, the best of all of these is kirtan.
So, you can use kirtan to help keep your mind focused, and know that it's natural for the mind to wander. The mind wanders because it's accustomed to seeking happiness in worldly things, and it's developed big attachments in the world. So, wherever you're attached, that's where your mind is going to go. It's natural. We shouldn't expect anything else. What ends up happening is the more you practice this roopdhyan, your mind gets more and more attached to Krishna. He starts becoming a part of you. Just like the ones you love, they live in your heart. The more Krishna starts living in your heart, the more your mind is going to come under control.
Right now, all the desires and attachments you have related to the world, those are pulling your mind here and there when you try to meditate. The more you do roopdhyan, so it's just a matter of practice, the more Krishna enters your mind. In other words, the more you get attached to Him, that means the worldly attachments start reducing. So naturally, the mind is going to come under control. The more you reduce those worldly attachments, the more your mind comes under control. More worldly attachments, less control over the mind.
Reduce them, more control over the mind. How to reduce them? You can't reduce them by saying, “I want to remove my attachments.” It doesn't work.
You reduce them by doing roopdhyan. That's it.
