One is where one's mind is

 

Annamalai Swami on the hills of Arunachala

from ("Conversations with Annamalai Swami"):

The other day Swami was saying that someone may be living here at the foot of Arunachala, but if that person's mind is not here, he will gain nothing by staying here. The ‘Arunachala Puranam’ and Bhagavan both say that just the thought of Arunachala can take one to moksha. How should one understand these statements in the light of what Swami said?

Annamalai Swammi: ‘Those who think of Arunachala will gain mukti' - the scriptures say this. But even though one may stay at Arunachala, one may not feel any devotion towards this hill. One may not regard it as God. Many people are living here without giving more than a passing thought to the mountain. How can we conclude that such people are living in Arunachala? The truth is, one is where one's mind is.

If one is living here but the whole of one's mind is thinking of another place, one is really in that other place. There is a story which Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to tell.

Once two friends went to listen to a lecture on the Bhagavatam. As they were going there one of them thought, 'What is there in this Bhagavatam? Let me go instead to a prostitute and enjoy a little happiness.'  He went to the house of the prostitute while his friend went to  listen to the lecture. While he was lying with the prostitute the first man began to feel a little guilty about what he had done.  He thought to himself, 'How good it would be to use this  human life to listen to stories of the Lord and to meditate on the Lord. He began to think wistfully about some of the stories from the Bhagavatam that he had heard before.

Because of these feelings his mind was with the Bhagavatam even though his body was with the prostitute. The other man who had gone to listen to the Bhagavatam was thinking about what his friend might be doing with the prostitute.  He thought to himself, 'My friend must be having a lot more  fun than I am.’  His body was present at the talk but his mind was not on the  Bhagavatam. It was with the prostitute. The one who was with the prostitute got the punya of listening to the Bhagavatam. The other man, even though he was physically present at the talk, incurred the sin of having been with the prostitute.