Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10, Text 11
Few things make us as self-conscious as a mirror. The sight of a mirror often makes us involuntarily check and adjust our hair, our dress and our overall looks.
However from the Gita perspective, few things make us as self-unconscious as a mirror. Glancing at a mirror usually aggravates our bodily misidentification and thereby our forgetfulness of our spiritual identity.
Of course, the path of devotion doesn’t require us to give up mirrors; we just have to take care that we don’t let them steal our spiritual awareness. More importantly, the devotional path doesn’t require us to give up our concern about how we look; it simply urges us to redirect our concern to the real me. The real me refers not just to the soul, but also to the real state of our consciousness beyond our externals.
For this, we need a special mirror: the mirror of Gita wisdom. When we study the Gita, seeking not just information but also introspection, then different Gita verses will speak to us at different times, according to the state of our consciousness. This will help us detect and eradicate our hidden material desires, and also arouse and energize our dormant devotional desires.
