MYSTERIOUS MIND- A GREAT CURSE & A GREAT BLESSING /

MIND- A KEY TO EVOLUTION FROM SELF-FORGETFULNESS TO SELF AWARENESS

Spiritual master Swami Sivananda once conveyed to his disciples that the mind is a wall that separates man from God and you have to break down the wall to attain the Divine. Spiritual masters also say that the mind is a wonderful gift by which one has to seek and find God. It is mysteriously both and one has to find one’s own formula to deal with it advantageously.

The normal human mind has deeply embedded impressions (samskaras) and tendencies called vasnas that are full of tamas (inertia) and rajas (activity) and has a distaste for higher divine principle and such a mind becomes a barrier, particularly in spiritual progress. But a mind awakened by spiritual practices which is full of sattva reflects the inherent divinity and becomes a link with the divine. The mind stands in between the physical aspect of human nature and higher spiritual nature and has the potential to become a block or a passage like any door. On our part, we should thank Lord for giving a precious human life with the versatile body-mind-intellect apparatus and pray to Him to transform the mind from dual nature into a purely positive factor to realize the lower and higher ends of life referred to as dharma- artha-kama and moksha.

The conquest of mind has been regarded as the greatest conquest by philosophers of the Near and far east. Lord Buddha told his monks that he has conquered the world who has conquered the mind. The wars and quarrels that we witness today can be attributed to the failure of mankind, in general, to grasp the nitty-gritty of the human mind and control them. Buddha advised his disciples to become Light unto themselves- Atma Deepo Bhav.  The Bhagavad Gita dhyana verse also exhorts us to lighten the lamp of Knowledge. The prerequisite for this is controlling the mind through repeated practice and dispassion as explicitly said in Bhagavad Gita.

The Indian view is that man is a spiritual entity (Atma) with a gross physical body, a subtle body comprising vital, mental, and intellectual (pran, mind, intellect) parts, and a subtler (causal) body that is the source of mind and mechanism of thought process. The mind is one of the cosmic principles that became projected as a phenomenal universe and the human mind is an individualized nucleus of the cosmic universal mind. It becomes a medium to express all impressions accumulated deep within through previous experiences. Mind precedes the human individual and cannot be equated with the brain. Mind and body belong to different planes and are related only so long as the body lasts. The body is a receptacle through which the mind manifests in the form of thoughts, determinations, and feelings through different centers in the brain. The objective of these perceptions is not just to deal with the phenomenal world outside but to dive deep within and evolve.

Mind is a supra-physical aspect of the human individual, that is subtler to the body but grosser to the spirit (soul). Mind is therefore a subtler matter that is generally intangible, invisible, and incomprehensible and it pervades the whole body. The mind-stuff has three characteristics: it moves outward away from the center; it readily objectifies itself and it is restless and in a state of fluctuation. Each human mind is unique and the seeker has to carry out a study of one’s own mind to cleanse it from various afflictions. As the mind is cleansed, many new and higher aspects of one’s own self emerge that usually remain latent.

In the waking state the mind is located in the astral body in the center corresponding to the physical space between eyebrows ( Ajna Chakra), in deep sleep state it is located in the astral body in the center corresponding to heart (anahat chakra) and in the dream state, it is located in the astral body in the center  corresponding to neck in the physical body (Vishuddha chakra)

The mind plays a very mysterious dual role and it is both at the giving and receiving end. It is both the initiator of the activity and the recipient of all experiences. First, an idea arises in the mind, it transforms into thought, then determining faculty intellect decides and gives order through ego to body senses, the sensory stimulation goes to the brain that is received by the mind as perception. The ego then presents it to the intellect which makes a meaning out of perception and formulates it into a concept. This is experienced by the self within that either likes or dislikes it and stores it as a dormant seed deep within.

Unlike a Western psychologist, an Eastern seeker comprehends the process of perception and knowledge beyond mind and intellect to an entity as a thinker beyond thought, who gathers all experiences and utilizes them for his mission on earth of Self-realization, knowing the true self. All experiences are deemed to be an educative process that brings inner transformation and takes one closer to one’s true self which is beyond all adjuncts. Our thoughts, feelings, sentiments, and emotions of the present are building blocks of the future. Choosing the right type although our life is a process of spiritual unfoldment and evolution.

We are in a state of self-forgetfulness of submerged awareness. One can come out of this ‘self-dementia’ state through the righteous use of physical body and mind instruments gifted by God and proceed to a state of Self-awareness. The mind is the key here and the body is subservient to it. This is a Yoga pathway practice. Vedanta teaches the other extreme of renouncing body, and mind apparatus at a certain point of spiritual practice as the true self characterized by pure consciousness and bliss is self-existent and self-revealing. Both are complementary pathways. (Some inputs from teachings of Swami Chidananda- The Divine Life Society)

Jayant B Dave

Above article was published with some change in TATTVALOKA Magazine published by Chennai based education trust and patronized by  Jagadguru Sri Sankaracharya of Shringeri Sharda Peeth