Manah (Mind) part 1

Bhagavatacharya Prabhupad Sri Premgopal Goswami
Are we happy or distressed??? A great question and also a great confusion for us.
We may realize that sometimes we are happy and sometimes not. Why is this
happening to us? It was also the first question of Sri Sanatan Goswami to Sri Krsna
Caitanya Mahaprabhu. “ke ami, keno more jaare tapa traya?” According to
Shastras all this happiness and distress is nowhere, but in our minds. When the
mind says it is good , then we feel happiness, and when it says it is not good,
distress. For this there is no specific explanation of happiness or distress. Because
it all depends on our mind, it’s very personal. May be I like the bitter taste, but
someone else doesn’t like it. I like flowers, but, other one has allergy for flowers.
This means that that which is for me is pleasure may not be for others. Happiness
or distress depends on our mind. We can make it in our mind. The famous poet
Rabindranath Thakur also explained this one of his poem…”amaari chetanaar
ronge paannaa holo sobuj, chuni hoye uthlo ranga hoye….aami golaap ke bollaam
sundor, sundor holo se…… I said to the Rose you are beautiful, it became
beautiful” . I think He wanted to give us this lesson that we can make everything
by our mind. If we just think happy, we will be happy suddenly. For that we need
to control our mind. In the Upadeshamrta Srila Rupa Goswami said in the first
shloka, that we have to control our mind and the other five great natures of us.