Q: Guruji, when we sit for meditation, some thoughts pass by just like clouds, but there are others that make us go on such a long trip. Suddenly I realized I am on a trip. What is the mechanism that sends you off on that long trip, and why can they not all pass by like clouds?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: That is how they are. Some thoughts are like this, some are like that. Some bother you, some do not. That is why there are so many techniques and so many ways to bring your mind to the centre. See, in the recent poojas, why have they used so many musical instruments? A huge noise was being made by the cymbals, the naadaswaram(a classical South-indian musical drum) was being played, the chanting was going on, someone was banging. A lot of noise was being made on the outside so that the mind stops thinking inside. So there are many ways. It is with the use of some skill that we have to bring the mind to the centre. We cannot complain about this, for that is how the mind is. Sometimes it latches on to totally insignificant and silly things and that is how it is. That is why the mind is sometimes unfathomable. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna tells Lord Krishna, ‘This mind is like a monster. I cannot control it, it does not listen to me.' Lord Krishna says to him, ‘Definitely, I agree with you.’ But in the end He says that there is a way.