Selfless service is the cleanser of the mind. Work done for oneself produces both positive and negative results. Results are not produced when work is done for others, as the emotions are not involved. While doing selfless service, the mind is occupied as monotony and tension are released. A person can never acquire control of the mind until he shares the sorrow and suffering of others and considers their misery to be his own.
It is not easy to conquer the mind, and a person should not fight with it, as ultimately he will be the loser. The only way to deal with the mind is to give it a proper and sound job that it likes. The mind likes to serve humanity, to help the poor, feed the hungry, nurse the sick, take care of orphans, and go from door to door finding out the problems of others and rendering whatever help is needed there.
The transformation in the mind will be seen, like carbon which becomes a diamond. One may practise raja, jnana and bhakti yoga as much as one likes. However, they only pacify the mind for the time being as a first aid treatment. One can never deal with the mind, whether one is young or old, rich or poor, capable or incapable, unless one can think and aspire passionately to help others. The mind can only be dealt with by a sattwic programming of dedication and self-sacrifice. The vedic, Vaishnava, Christian and Muslim traditions make the same statement. By fighting with the mind, one creates psychological problems and becomes sick.
The only way to conquer the mind is to dedicate it to the service of an ideal that will make it happy. Work done free of charge is necessary for self-transformation, as it cleans the rajo and tamo gunas of the mind. Nishkama karma does not just mean work; there has to be a feeling in one’s heart. In India, if a person visits forty odd houses, he will come across scarcity, dearth, suffering, poverty, darkness and dejection. He may come across a house where it is different, but that is an exception.
An aspirant is wasting time if he just grapples and wrestles with the mind twenty-four hours a day. He boxes with it, he gives it the slip. In his combat with the mind sometimes he falls and sometimes the mind falls, but neither can attain a decisive victory. The head and the tail win equally, half and half, and the wrestling ends in quits. In the evening he is fagged out. He begins to moan with a headache and takes a tranquillizer or opens a bottle. Some people opt to visit a temple or church for respite. Some go to a discotheque to refresh themselves. Some decide on a session of yoga nidra and play a tape. Nobody thinks of going to the house of a poor man and lighting a lamp. Nobody thinks of visiting the have-nots.
Seva alone changes the inner programming of the mind. When one removes the pain and helplessness of other people, one’s own pain will be removed.