The human mind is a mysterious phenomenon. In general, people are not happy because their minds constantly crave worldly comforts and luxuries. The mind becomes impure when it is involved with mundane things, and it becomes pure when it becomes desire less. The impure mind suffers, and the pure mind enjoys bliss. It is very difficult to give the mind to God if it is preoccupied with many worldly possessions. Gopal-ma’s mind, however,was always God-centred. Just as the needle of the compass always points to the north, so also her mind was always directed towards God. Mercilessly she would drive away all distracting thoughts. Swami Ramakrishnananda related the following incident:
One day, after Sri Ramakrishna had passed away, some of his disciples went to see her and found her room full of mosquitoes and other troublesome creatures. Although she did not appear to mind them and kept on repeating the Name of the Lord, it distressed them to see her in such discomfort, so the next day one of the disciples brought her a mosquito curtain. That night when she sat down to repeat the Name, she found her mind constantly wandering to the curtain, thinking whether a cockroach or a rat might not be eating off a corner of it. Seeing this she said, “What! This wretched curtain thus to take my mind away from my Gopala!” and without ado she made it up into a bundle and sat down again to her devotions with the mosquitoes all about her.
The next morning we were just getting up at the Math when Gopal-ma appeared. She had walked all the way [at least five miles] and must have started at 3:00 a.m. She laid the bundle down. “What is it?” someone asked.
“It is the curtain you gave me yesterday. It takes my mind away from God. I don’t want it,” was her answer; and nothing could persuade her to take it back. (Source: They Lived with God by Swami Chetanananda)