Have you ever doubted your own mind?
If you have understood everything in life but not the ways of the mind (मन की चाल
), you have understood nothing. Real transformation begins the very moment you start to doubt the mind itself. The irony is that while the mind doubts everything, our faith (श्रद्धा
) in it remains unshaken. Even when it deceives us daily, we continue to trust it. People may claim that faith has vanished from the world, but if we observe closely, faith is abundant—especially in one’s own mind.
Every human being is faithful (श्रद्धालु
)—either toward the mind or toward the soul (आत्मा
). If your trust lies in pure consciousness (शुद्ध चेतना
), untouched by thought, there will be no pitfalls in your life. However, if you continue to trust the mind, wandering and suffering will follow naturally—for that is the mind’s way.
Let us explore the three great traps of the mind and its crooked pathways.
Trap 1: The Smoke of Thoughts and Blindness
The first and greatest trick of the mind is to prevent you from seeing. It keeps your inner vision clouded with the smoke of thought (विचार
). Thoughts swirl so intensely that there is no space left to observe reality as it is.
Thoughts are toys (खिलौने
)—illusions that keep you busy. Just as a child is given a toy to distract from pain, the mind gives you endless thoughts. Before you tire of one, it offers another. It keeps generating new complications (उलझनें
) and disturbances (उपद्रव
) so frequently that you never find a pause—a window—to see what is actually happening in your life.
Trap 2: Focus on the Other and Escape from Self
The second trap lies in the mind’s habit of always looking outward. It never turns its gaze upon itself. The mind seeks happiness from the other, blames the other for sorrow, and looks for peace or unrest (अशांति
) in others.
But the truth is simple—both joy and sorrow arise within you. Heaven and hell exist inside yourself. The “other” is not responsible; your inner state is. The mind, however, keeps the spotlight on others, pushing you into endless efforts to change them—your partner, your family, your surroundings. But the other is independent, formed from their own source.
Real freedom begins when you look inward and realize that your happiness or suffering stems from within. The moment this shift happens, the mind loses one of its strongest delusions.
Trap 3: The Formula of Duality and Crookedness
The third and most subtle trap is the mind’s half-vision. It always perceives one half and hides the other, creating duality (द्वैत
). When you see two where there is one, illusion is born. The mind divides existence into contradictions—friend and enemy, good and bad, sorrow and joy.
It forgets that the enemy is hidden in the friend, and love contains its seed of hatred. The wise see the unity behind opposites. When one realizes that both sides of experience are two faces of one truth, all conflict drops away.
The Union of Joy and Sorrow
For the seeker who looks inward, it soon becomes clear that every joy conceals its sorrow. Every flower comes with a thorn, and every day hides its night. The mind tries to preserve happiness and reject sorrow, but wisdom lies in transcending both.
When you recognize that joy and sorrow are inseparable, they dissolve together. What remains is liberation (मोक्ष
)—the bliss of pure being.
The Crookedness of Logic
Another trap of the mind is its obsession with logic (तर्कनिष्ट
). Logic argues and questions endlessly, but Existence (अस्तित्व
) is beyond logic. Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived.
The mind asks, “If God exists, show Him.” But the Divine (परमात्मा
) is not something to be seen—it is the Seer (द्रष्टा
) itself. You cannot see consciousness (चेतना
); you can only become it. Logic is like air—it has no substance to live upon. And yet, the mind thrives on it, moving crookedly, exactly as the mystic poet Kabir once asked: “O Mind, why do you walk so crookedly?”
The Impossibility of Quieting the Mind
People pray for peace of mind (मन की शांति
), but that very phrase is the mind’s final illusion. The mind can never be peaceful—for the mind itself is restlessness (अशांति
). Asking for a peaceful mind is like asking a storm to become still.
Peace arises not by calming the mind, but by transcending it. When the mind ceases to be the master, and awareness takes its place, serenity blooms naturally. To understand the mind is to understand everything. As long as you follow it, you remain its prisoner. But when you trust in pure consciousness, life finally unfolds without pitfalls.