Atmodhara: I am my own friend and my own enemy

Let us take the key word ātmodhāra आत्मोधार for Psychological analysis here.

उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् ।
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मनः ॥ गीता ६- ५॥

At times do we feel like, I have been my own best friend and I have been my own worst enemy. Yes, many of us feel like that. Many people say, I have made a mistake because of which I am experiencing these difficulties. People make such mistakes only when they do not have full control over themselves.

Day in and day out, our own teeth works along with the tongue and help chew and digest the food. But at some moment, when we lose focus, the same teeth might bite and cut our own tongue. When mind gets distracted, we would end up in such situations. Why does it happen? In such situations, mind would not be there in present; either it would have gone back to the past or thinking about future.

Once there was a Saranga (male deer) in the forest. It had big and beautiful horns with multiple branches. It was very proud of its horns. It used to go to the lake all the time and look at its own reflection and feel proud of its horns. While doing so, it also used to look at its feet and feel disgusted about them. Long slender feet, most of the time smeared with mud and not at all looking good. Once, while this Saranga was at the lake, a hunter came to shoot it. The Saranga got a sense of it and started running, the hunter followed, he never let go of it. This running and chasing went on. With the help of slender legs, Saranga was able to run for a long distance quickly. After some time, it became overconfident that the hunter cannot travel such a long distance and then relaxed for a moment. A little while later, the hunter covered the distance and came chasing the deer. The very next moment Saranga started running again; there was a small crevice between the trees which it wanted to jump through. While jumping, its big, beautiful horns got stuck in between the trees.

Saranga tried all means to escape, but the sharp branched horn had got stuck deeply in between the trees. At that moment Saranga felt the irony, “All along I had been cursing these long slender legs, which today helped me escape from the hunter, but I was proud of these horns, which themselves have become a death trap for me”.