A cart can move only when two bullocks are yoked to it… when the bullocks are trained to pull carts and when they are used to the road on which they have to walk. Instead, if they are ignorant of the process of pulling carts, if they have not walked on the road, or if they have always moved only round and round the post to which they have been tied, in their own mire, the journey cannot proceed. And the cart will itself face danger. So also, the anthah-karan, inner consciousness, cannot move of itself; it must be attached to the externally related bullocks, the buddhi, intelligence, and manas, mind. Then only can it move forward, following the bullocks’ tracks.
So, earlier than the journey, the bullocks – intelligence and mind – should be conversant with the road to the village that the inner senses are eager to reach. They must be trained to proceed in that direction.
Instead, if the draught animals have no knowledge of the pathways of satya, dharma, shanti, and prema – truth, righteousness, peace and love – and if they have never once trodden that path, the cart, the inner senses themselves, might come to grief. Therefore, intelligence and mind have to be taught the art of pulling the cart and moving steadily along the road. This has to be done by japa, repetition of the Lord’s name, and dhyana, meditation.
-by Sathya Sai Baba