How to keep the mind centered?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Acharya Prashant (AP): (Reading question) “Acharya Ji, please show me the light, so that I could be at my center. Sometimes, I feel, when I listen to you or when I read the verses, a certain centeredness within me. What is that? And, how can I remain centered? Please explain how to remain in just Peace and in the Loved One? Thank you, Guru Ji”.

You say that you get glimpses of centeredness in the sessions when I speak or when you read the Scriptures. My words are not very important. The verses too are not very important. What is important is your condition when you are listening to me or reading the verses. See how you are when you listen to me. See how you are when you are with the great books. Remain that way.

I repeat, there are two things happening when you are with me. One, I am sitting in front of you. Second, you are respectful, disciplined, loving, meditative, silent, and admissive of something beyond you. When I’m sitting in front of you, do you bother about the miscellaneous little petty things of your life? You don’t.

That’s the condition of your mind. My presence in front of you does not matter so much, that condition of your mind matters. You can even call it a coincidence that that condition comes to you in my…