Nature of Mind

“To me the very essence of education is the concentration of mind and not the collection of facts. If I had to do my education over again and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment and then with a perfect instrument (mind) I could collect facts at will.”

-          Swami Vivekananda

The essence of all yoga and spiritual education is the control of mind. It is a must not only for ascending the ladder of spiritual life but also for achieving success in our day to day practical life. Once you control your mind, happiness and peace come as a natural consequence.

Almost all our agonies and pains are due to our not having proper control over our mind. Instead of becoming master of our mind, we have become its slave. It makes us dance from here to there according to its whims. Instead of us dictating upon it, it is dictating on us and pulling and pushing us in various directions. The servant has become the master and the master has become the servant. We have to restore our master status and place the servant in its proper position if we want to be really happy and peaceful again. This means that we should be able to put our minds where we want and keep it from running here and there. Unless we control and overcome our mind, we are bound to be unhappy and stressed. We can’t avoid it. In fact it is the difference in the ability to control the mind that makes one different from another.

An uncontrolled and unbalanced mind also gets constantly torn apart by various emotions, viz. likes, dislikes, love, hatred, jealousy, revenge, anger, grief, pride, fear etc. Which are generated because of the inability of the mind to face life or world as it really is. It gets carried away by the dualities of life like gain/loss, success/failure, praise/insult, life/death, pleasure/pain, union/separation, etc. Because of which it is overjoyed and excited at one moment while in the next moment it is highly frustrated, depressed, and tense.

Once you conquer your mind, you become a totally transformed person, always peaceful and cheerful. Nobody and no situation in the world can deflect you from your state of equilibrium. You reach a stage where all external circumstance lose hold over you and surrender themselves to your feet. You can stand like a rock amidst severest opposition and obstacles. You are the king of the kings and have the power to move the whole world, if you desire so. You are a source of light and power for whoever comes in contact with you. Power of a controlled mind increases manifold in the same way as the power of running water increases when it is controlled by constructing a dam.

Although difficult yet by constant practice and firm determination, it is definitely possible to conquer your mind. It may require a life long practice but considering the rewards, it is worth.

                                                     Nature of Mind 

What is Mind

Mind is that faculty by virtue of which we are able to be conscious and aware of ourselves. Consciousness and awareness of self and others are the basic characteristics of mind which distinguish sentient or living things from insentient or non living things. A stone is not conscious of itself, as it has no mind. Same is the case with all physical objects. Since they have no consciousness, they can’t think, analyze, reason, and feel good or bad, sense pleasure or pain. It is the mind which thinks, reasons, analyzes, discriminates, feels good or bad, senses pleasure and pain, imagines and worries etc. An inanimate object doesn’t have all these faculties.

Your mind or soul is the real you. Your body is in your possession just like you possess a house, a car; that is why you refer to the body in the same way as you refer to your car or house, i.e. my body, my car, my house etc. The body is the instrument of mind through which it (mind) acts in the world and also suffers or enjoys.

It is the mind which sees, hears, smells etc. Through respective sense organs and through the mechanism of the brain. It is the mind which feels the pleasures or pains of the body. If mind is off or disconnected from the body, you will feel no pain. For example, while sleeping a person feels no pain of a physical injury because at that time his mind is dissociated from the body. It is also the mind which speaks, eats and works through respective physical organs.

Mind is Different from the Brain

The brain is a physical organ like any other organ of the body while mind is a non-physical entity. The brain can be compared with a sophisticated computer through which mind controls and connects itself to the body. Thus the brain acts as a link between the mind and the body.

Thinking, reasoning, feeling, imagining etc are all attributes of mind only. The brain as well as the body being physical and inanimate by nature can’t think or feel. The body and the brain are made alive and animated by the entry of mind or soul only. At the time of death, when mind (or consciousness or soul) leaves the physical body, the brain as well as the body fall dead and become like any other physical object of the world. The brain and the body, thus, are simply instrumental of the mind.

Mind Has No Weight or Measurement

Being non-physical, mind can’t be weighed or quantified in any measurement nor can it be chemically analyzed in any laboratory. These are all the attributes of physical objects only.

Mind Is Eternal and Immortal

The brain and the body, being physical in nature, are subject to decay and are perishable in nature, while mind or consciousness or soul never dies. It survives the death of the physical body. With the passage of time, mind, instead of decaying, grows with the experience and maturity. To put in short, mind or soul is without a beginning, or an end. It is immortal. There was never a time when it was not there and there will never be a time when it will not be there. It is beyond creation and dissolution, beyond time and space and is eternal. No external violence, murder, fire, accidents or bombs can touch it.

Mind Is Self Luminous and Self Energized

Unlike physical objects which require a source of energy, mind or conscious doesn’t require any outside energy to function. It is self energized and self luminous, and goes on functioning till eternity. It is the brain which needs energy for its functioning.

Mind Can Exist Independent of the Body

Mind is much superior to the body. Mind acts as a master and the body as the servant of the mind. After death the body dies, but the mind continues to exist as one’s basic identity.

There are some persons who develop their mental powers to such an extent that during their life time itself, they can leave their body at will and travel as far as they like and then come back to their body. During this travel, they (i.e. their minds) remain connected to their body by a fine silver cord. This is called ‘out of the body experience’ or ‘astral travelling’. Sometimes we can have this experience without any conscious effort when we have a near miss with death or near death experience.

In the event of death, this silver cord gets broken so that the body and mind become totally separated and the body falls dead.

There are other mental powers, e.g. telepathy, clairvoyance (perceiving distant scenes by mind), clairaudience (listening to distant sound by mind) etc. In all these phenomena, body or our physical senses are not involved. These phenomena are directly manipulated by our mind only.

Also during deep stages of meditation one becomes totally oblivious and detached from one’s body. At that stage if someone talks to you or touches you, you don’t notice it because mind has almost disconnected from the body and the outer world, and has turned towards the inner world.