Mindfulness- rule of pure intellect

Dashratha was the king of Ayodhya. He had a chariot that was capable of traveling in all 10 directions. In fact, he helped Devas in their battle against the Danavas. It is said that while fighting the battle, one of the wheels of his chariot got damaged, and at that time Kaikeyi, his queen held the wheel with her finger and helped Dashratha win the battle.

Our mental kingdom is also ruled by our intellect which is capable of moving in all 10 directions. 8 directions in the physical domain, the ninth direction into the inner world, and the tenth direction into the cosmic world. The intellect is able to make sense of all the ten worlds. We make different decisions while living in this world using this intellect which is so powerful. However, still, at certain points in time, it becomes weak and in those moments, our mana supports the intellect, as Kaikeyi supported Dashratha. This is the purest state of mind when our Chitta is pure and the center of our existence is pure consciousness.

However, while living in this world, we get distracted from the center of life. When Dashratha announced the coronation of Rama as the king of Ayodhya, Kaikeyi was quite happy. However, Manthara convinced her that if Rama became the king of Ayodhya, it would be a great injustice to Bharata and Shatrughana. That is how old samskaras of cravings and aversions stored in the Chitta take over the Mana and the Mana in turn asks the two boons granted by the intellect, as Kaikeyi asked from Dashratha. 

As Dashratha made the decision to send Rama to the forest, he became full of grief and died due to the grief. Similarly, when intellect gets disconnected from consciousness, it becomes full of grief and slowly loses its strength. Slowly Mana takes over and becomes the king like Dhritrastra. The intellect becomes a weak minister like Vidura who keeps giving advice to the king Dhritrastra, which is hardly ever considered by the king. The king keeps dancing to the tunes of Chitta, as Dhritrastra used to dance to the tunes of Duryodhana. 

So long as the center of the mental world remains Rama and Krishna, the consciousness, intellect will remain strong and will make the right decisions. As cravings and aversions, stored in the Chitta, take over the mental kingdom, Rama is thrown out of the kingdom and Krishna is tried to be imprisoned by Duryodhana. 

In sum and substance, probably, there is only one thing we need to work on. That is to re-center our mental kingdom around the consciousness. The moment Rama returns to Ayodhya and the Pandavas win the battle under the guidance of Krishna, the rule of intellect, centered around consciousness, is re-established. Mana also gets centered around the same consciousness like Hanumana, ever ready to fight for his cause. Chitta too gets centered around the consciousness like Vibhishana ruling Lanka with complete devotion to Rama.