My mind, my enemy

Anxieties

Adhyatmika miseries are those caused by the body and mind themselves. Suppose I lose someone who is dear to me. Then my mind will be disturbed. This is also suffering. So diseases of the body or mental disturbances are adhyatmika miseries. (Journey of Self-Discovery 3.1)

Burning Heart

Everyone has a blazing fire within his heart a blazing fire of anxiety. That is the nature of material existence. Always, everyone has anxiety; no one is free from it. Even a small bird has anxiety. If you give the small bird some grains to eat, he’ll eat them, but he won’t eat very peacefully. He’ll look this way and that way(“Is somebody coming to kill me?” This is material existence. Everyone, even a president like Mr. Nixon, is full of anxieties, what to speak of others. Even Gandhi, in our country(he was full of anxiety. All politicians are full of anxiety. They may hold a very exalted post, but still the material disease anxiety is there. (Journey of Self-Discovery 4.2)

Kill and Die

The material world is itself a place always full of anxieties, and by encouraging animal slaughter the whole atmosphere becomes polluted more and more by war, pestilence, famine, and many other unwanted calamities.  (Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.7.37), purport)

Lamentation a Gift from Politicians

A godless civilization arises from illusion, and the result of such a civilization is lamentation. A godless civilization, such as that sponsored by the modern politicians, is always full of anxieties because it may be crushed at any moment. (Sri Isopanisad 7)

Big money, big tension

Everyone is trying to accumulate big bank balance and big house, big family, big motorcar… But with death, everything is finished. So that is great distress. Sometimes one cries. You will find at the time of death, in coma, tears are coming out of his eyes. He is thinking, I made so many things so nicely to live comfortably, and now I am losing everything. Great distress. (Lecture on Bhagavad-gita (2.14), 21 June 1974, Germany)

Those who are considered materially powerful and rich are always full of anxieties because of governmental laws, thieves and rogues, enemies, family members, animals, birds, persons seeking charity, the inevitable time factor and even their own selves. Thus they are invariably afraid. (Srimad-Bhagavatam (7.13.33)

Drinks do not drown distress

No one, however, knows how to get out of the material concept. Taking an intoxicant doesn’t help; the same anxieties are there when you are finished being drunk. If you want to be free and want life eternal with bliss and knowledge, take to Krsna. (KC, The Topmost Yoga System, Chapter 7)

The Age of Anxieties

The people of the world in this Age of Kali are always full of anxieties. Everyone is diseased with some kind of ailment. From the very faces of the people of this age, one can find out the index of the mind. Everyone feels the absence of his relative who is away from home. The particular symptom of the age of Kali is that no family is now blessed to live together. To earn a livelihood, the father lives at a place far away from the son, or the wife lives far away from the husband, and so on. There are sufferings from internal diseases, separation from those near and dear, and anxieties for maintaining the status quo. These are but some important factors which make the people of this age always unhappy. (Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.6.19), purport)

Destiny and Distress

You are destined to have some portion mixed up with happiness and distress. That is the nature. (Lecture on Bhagavad-gita (1.23), 19 July 1973,  UK)

We have got our destiny. So much happiness, so much distress we must have. You cannot have unadulterated happiness. (Lecture on Bhagavad-gita (2.11), 17 August 1973, London)

Solution to Anxieties

Anxieties

The purpose of Bhagavad-gita is to deliver mankind from the nescience of material existence. If one properly follows the instructions of Bhagavad-gita, one can be freed from all miseries and anxieties in this life, and one’s next life will be spiritual. (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Introduction)

Adoption of bhakti-rasa, or Krsna consciousness, will immediately bring one to an auspicious life free from anxieties and will bless one with transcendental existence, thus minimizing the value of liberation. (Nectar of Devotion, Preface)

Krsna is called Mukunda because as soon as one comes in constant touch with Krsna or sees Him in full Krsna consciousness, one immediately becomes freed from all material anxieties. Not only that, but one is immediately blessed with all spiritual bliss. (Krsna Book, Chapter 58)

Therefore, in the Brhan-naradiya Purana it is said that in Kali-yuga(the present yuga, or age, when people in general are short-lived, slow in spiritual realization and always disturbed by various anxieties, the best means of spiritual realization is chanting the holy name of the Lord. (Bhagavad-gita 6.11-12, purport)

You should take up this chanting of Hare Krsna mantra very seriously. In this way you can become cured of any mental anxiety.(Letter to Gargamuni, 4 November 1975, Bombay)

If one wants to get free from mental disturbances, one has to worship Aniruddha. For this purpose, worship of the moon planet is also recommended in the Vedic literature. (Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.26.21), purport)

According to Srila Sridhara Svami, by meditation on the Supreme Lord one can overcome lust and other mental disturbances, and by following in the footsteps of great transcendentalists one can overcome hypocrisy, false pride and other types of mental imbalance. (Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.28.40), purport)

The Vedic  system of varnasrama-dharma [four  social orders and four  spiritual orders] is so scientific that everything is automatically adjusted. Life becomes very peaceful, and everyone can make progress in Krsna consciousness. If the Vedic system is followed by human society, there will be no more of these mental disturbances. (Journey of Self-Discovery 7.3)

A Place of No Anxiety

Anxieties

The whole world was in anxiety, Prabhupada explained to the devotees gathered in his room that evening. Only in the spiritual world was there freedom from anxiety. Becoming free from all anxiety and returning to the spiritual world was the purpose of Krsna consciousness. (Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita 26)

One is not disturbed with this outwards happiness and distress, hes eligible to become immortal. Sah amrtatvaya. Eternal. And that is perfection. (Room Conversation, 18 September 1973, Bombay)

“Although the two birds are in the same tree, the eating bird is fully engrossed with anxiety and moroseness as the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree. But if in some way or other he turns his face to his friend who is the Lord and knows His glories(at once the suffering bird becomes free from all anxieties.” (Munhaka Upanisad (3.1.2) and Svetasvatara Upanisad (4.7)

Rama-rajya

During the time of Maharaja Yudhisthira or Lord Ramacandra, people were free from all anxieties. There was not even extreme cold or extreme heat. The three kinds of miserable conditions(adhyatmika, adhibhautika and adhidaivika(miseries inflicted by the body and mind itself, those inflicted by other living entities, and natural disturbances(were all absent during the reign of Lord Ramacandra or Maharaja Yudhisthira. (Srimad-Bhagavatam (4.25.13), purport)