A machine constantly engaged in production, a machine that is constantly working cannot get any time for maintenance or repair. Similarly, if we were to constantly engage or involve with external objects or perceptions, we would be unable to correct ourselves.
Every performing artist knows the importance and utility of a monitor on the stage. Whether it is the dance step, the cadence of one’s voice, or the right facial expression, every artist needs to know her or his performance even while it is going on. We need a monitor not unlike that on the stage, on the stage of our life too.
We need to be constantly on the alert and check on ourselves for problems, passions, troubles, and wrong perceptions. We would then also be able to better control our sense organs, we would be able to better maneuver these cameras and turn them in a diametrically opposite direction.
We would then be able to use these devices in a way we really need to and not get bogged down by the pulls of the externals but would be rooted in our internal being.
Then we would understand that it is not the things outside the train but it is the train and the window seat and us sitting on it, that are moving.
Source - Excerpts from Editorial Prabuddha Bharata June 2015