Fill Your Mind with God: The Path of Bhakti

And this explains why teachings which I shared for so many years really never worked, which was like 'Don't believe your next thought,' you see? Just thought by thought, let it go. Because then so many of the kids started thinking about not believing the next thought, believing thoughts about not believing thoughts. So he said something very beautiful. He said that, okay, for those who are not able to let go of their mind—some are, and some are fighting valiantly and may they overcome the mind—but those who clearly get the sense that they cannot fight this battle in this way, then what they should do is fill their mind with God. Just fill your mind with God. Make everything about God.

Some of you may remember that one Swami Ji was here a few years back and he was just not getting the pulse of what was happening in Satsang here. So then one day he said, 'I'm going to go because I'm not really happy' or whatever. So I said to him, 'Okay, I told you to drop the narrative, you're not able to drop the narrative, but at least what you could do is change the central character, the central protagonist of the narrative, and make it God.' So that is the path of Bhakti: that if you cannot let go of the narrative, the story, the mind, then make everything about God. So then self-concern is replaced by God, by His light, by His story. And that's how it works.

That's why we hear or see the Krishna Leela or the Ram Leela, or watch 'The Chosen,' or do any of that work, because we replace—with as much openness as we have—we replace our petty worldly concerns by looking at the lives of these great ones. Even the lives of sages are worth contemplating because they teach us so much, they show us so much. So if you cannot drop the narrative fully, if it doesn't resonate to be empty, then just make everything about God. And this way of the heart has been shared from here by His grace; it is both, isn't it? So when you can be empty for Him, be empty. When you can't be empty for Him, love Him, serve Him, make it both about Him. Whatever remains, make it about Him in servitude to Him, and the rest of it, remain empty for His light to shine.