Purity of Heart, and Determined Nama-smarana
Eschew the idea that you have yet something to do. "I have dedicated myself to God, and now there is no longer anything else that I have to achieve or strive for", this should be the attitude of your mind. You will certainly win tranquillity of mind if you solemnly promise to God, "Lord, henceforward I live only for Thee; nothing else now claims my attention except remembering Thy name."
It is incorrect to say that old age makes the mind weak and therefore unable to repeat the holy name. While enumerating His manifestations, Lord Krishna says, in the Bhagavadgeeta that, among the organs and faculties of the body, He is the mind. The mind, we imagine, becomes helpless at the last hour of life; and yet the Lord exhorts us to remember Him till and at the last moment of our existence. It cannot, therefore, be that the mind must lose awareness of Him. Of course, advanced age may mean loss of ability to sit up in meditation for as long as in younger age, or that sleep may overtake one during meditation; but it cannot happen that the mind may lose awareness of God and the divine name. What actually happens is, not weakening of the mind, but its preoccupation and loading with thoughts about extraneous worldly matters. What is required, therefore, is disengaging the mind from those extraneous matters and concentrating it on God. If we dissociate the mind from money and such other worldly matters, then we cannot miss our goal.
Hankering after money and popular esteem or recognition, drive a person away from the divine, so one should avoid falling a prey to such hankering. One cannot avoid the possibility of coming across it in worldly life, but one who aspires to love of God should be on guard to avoid its evil effects.
Righteousness, devotion to God, remembering and repeating nama, and company of saintly persons, are the means of purifying the mind. In brief, close association with the saintly is the surest remedy. An obvious sign of a pure mind is a desire that the whole world should be as happy as ourselves. To foster this desire, one should make it a practice to pray for peace and happiness to all in the world; then God will in His grace certainly purify the mind.
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