Mind control - Article from Ramakrishna Mission magazine
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MIND CONTROL - Difficult but possible
MIND CONTROL - Difficult but possible
Control of mind is an interesting inner game. There three facts about mind control as per Gita:
(a) that it is a difficult task,
(b) yet it is possible to control the mind,
(c) that there are well defined methods for controlling the mind.
Practice & dispassion give the whole secret of controling the mind. This is also called
Abyasa yoga or the yoga of practice.
How to Strengthen the will to control the mind.
Everyone has will to control the mind. But in most cases this will to control the mind is not very strong.Our will to control the mind can never be strong unless We have deliberately renounced pleasure as one of the main pursuits of life.
By pleasure here we mean gratification from sense of pleasures.
What is at stake in controlling the mind?
After fulfilling the basic needs, other things may be important. But to attain highest objective in life.
spiritual Illumination nothing in life is important than to control the mind. One of the results of control of mind is integration of personality. Such a person succeeds even in adverse circumstances. A controlled state of mind leads to calmness and calmness leads to peace of mind. Peace of mind leads to happiness and a happy person makes others happy.
How to overcome pleasure motive?
“ Inthe infinite alone is bliss there's no bliss in
the finite"
To come to know this, man must learn to understand that bliss is different from pleasure and pain and to attain this he must control his mind and give his pleasure motive a higher direction.
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The will to control the mind is not enough. We need to know the nature of mind.
Mind is a finer body within this gross body. The mind being a finer part, the one affects the other. It's the reason physical illness affects the mind and mental tension affects the body. Behind the mind is Atman, the real self of man. Body, mind are material while Atman is pure spirit.
To understand this, the difference between mind and matter is only the rate of vibration. Mind at low rate of vibration is matter and at high rate of vabiration is mind.
Both mind and matter and governed by the same laws of time, space and causation. Matter is convertible as mind.
Though mind is not a free agent its powers are incalculable.
The source of all light is Brahman, the supreme spirit, pure consciousness. What is known as Atman, the knowing self of living being is identical with brahman.
That which is pure mind is also pure buddi, that again pure Atman.
How not to make mind control unnecessarily difficult.
(a) There should be strong will to control the mind
(b) By certain actions, we make mind control a difficult task to accomplish
What are they ?
(i) If we have strong likes, dislikes, attachments, aversions we shall not be able to control the mind.
(ii) if we have the habit of, deliberately harming, others.
(iii) if we live an immoral life
(iv) if we indulge in intoxicants
(v) if we habitually indulge in vain controversy
(vi) if we torture our bodies unnecessarily, spread our time in futile pursuits, force rigid silence, become egocentric.
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(vii) if we are overambitious
(viii) if we have feeling of guilt - Then how to escape guilt?
To repent for the sins committed and ask God's
help for stength of will so that they may notbe repeated
To succeed in controlling the mind one must have in addition to strong will, faith in one self.
The mind will have to be controlled by mind itself. Deliberate, patient, intelligent, systematic hard work according to tested, and suitable disciplines are needed.
The mind has to be gradually and systematically controlled, itis not a child's play.It is life's work. The end results is realisation of our absolute oneness with the Divine.
To be able to practice the discipline leading to control of mind we need to create inner discipline by accepting certain inevitable of life. Though they are inevitable, we often donot accept them with the result unnecessarily mental problems are created. Those who want to control the mind should practice the following five things which cannot be avoided.
(a) old age will come upon me some day
(b) Disease can come upon me
(c Death can come upon me
(d) All things I hold dear are subject to change and decay & separation
(e) I am the outcome of my deeds
By contemplating old age, pride of youth can be curbed by disease,the pride of health can be curbed. By the change or separation, the passionate desire for possession is curbed.
The practice of above will indirectly help purification of mind.
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Two sets of inner disciplines are--
How hard it is Control the mind--It is compared
to the maddened monkey.Monkey is restless by nature. If it drunk wine and stung by a scorpion - what can be said of the uncontrolled restlessness of the monkey.
The human mind is like that of the monkey.
To check the restlessness of the mind, we must know its causes. The causes are impurities of mind.
To control the mind, we have to develop certain inner disciplines.
"Life must be held in a proper frame of constructive
thinking. There should be a routine for daily life and
certain basic principles by which a sense of direction is given to whatever we do. There should be certain moral commitment by which conduct should be guided. We have to bring rhythm into life in order to control the mind"
The purer the mind the easier to control.
The control of mind depends on its purity. We are unable to control the mind because at present it is impure. In the present state, it is difficult to control the mind.
What we need is a system of discipline for controlling the mind which will obliterate (remove) its impurities.
What are the impurities?
They are urges, impulses, emotions like envy, hatred,anger, fear, lust, greed, conceit, temptation.
These impurities cause disturbance in mind by creating attachment and aversion and thus rob of its tranquility.
Changing the constitution of mind:-
The impurities of the mind can be gradually removed by providing the mind with wholesome food and by bringing about a change in the constitution of mind so that sattva predominates over other gunas.When the food is pure, the mind becomes pure. When the mind becomes pure, memory - becomes firm. According to
Gita, Rajasika and tamasika food cause attachment, aversion and delusion.
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Sattvika food helps a person to reduce attachment. So in moulding the conditions favourable for controlling the mind, judicious eating and drinking are of some help.
Equally important is the intake through: other senses.So, for those who want to control the mind, they should Know how to develop sattva guna.
What are the sattvika things and activities by means of which sattva guna can be made to predominate-
Sri Krishna says,
*Scriptures, water, people, place, time, work, birth,
meditation & purification"
These are the ten causes which develop gunas.
The importance of this verse is: follow scriptures that teach nivrithi, holy water only to be used, mix with good people, early hours are to be chosen for meditation,unselfish works only to be done, meditation should be on God, purification of mind is what needed and not trimming the body or beautification of mind.
Holy company greatly helps mind control.Most of our attachments are due to the preponderance of
Rajas in our nature.Sri Krishna teaches,
Yoga, piety, sites, study of vedas, charity, sacrificies none of these, I say bind me so much as association with saints, which roots out all attachments.
When we are in the company of perfected soul, the powerful vibrations of his holiness penetrate within us and bring about a speedy change in the guna composition of our mind.
Holy company makes our task of controlling the mind easier.
How is sattva purified--
The purification of sattva takes place through constant discrimination between real and unreal.
As per Sankaracharya's teachings,
"The desire of self-realization is obscured by innumerable desires for things other than the self"
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The yogi's mind dies the death of the mind doesnot mean loss of mind but perfect purification - being constantly fixed on his own self. Then follows cessation of desires.
And when all desires are eliminated, there takes place realization,As long as we have more desires than the one realize Atman, it is difficult to control the mind. If we seek anything less than the highest, the mind will be divided.
It is hard to control the divided mind.
In Vedanta, those who seek anything less than perfect realization, they are incapable of controlling the mind.
Such impure state of mind is identified with Avidya.
The practice of "Sadana Chatustayam" takes care of the problem of mind control. The four fold vedantic discipline are:
(a) Discrimination between permanent and temporary
(b) Renounce the enjoyment of fruits of action
(c) Restrain external sense organs, cultivate faith in
oneself and forbearance:
(d) Longing for liberation
Basic yoga disciplines for mind control:
Yoga says, "in order to control the mind, the aspirants must practise the disciplines of Yama and Niyama.
"Non-killing, truthfullness, non steading, self control,and non-receiving of gifts are called Yama.
Internal & External purification, contentment, study,
discipline and worship of God are Niyamas.
According to Patanjali "Undisturbed calmness of mind is achieved by cultivating friendliness towards happy compassion for unhappy, delight in the good, indifference to evil.”
Association with holy roots out all attachments.
Our attachments are the most powerful impediments to the control of mind.
Practice of discrimination helps-
In order to control the mind, one essential thing is to learn to discriminate between wrong & right, good &evil,real and unreal. This will save us from possible mental turmoil resulting from wrong, rash and foolish actions.
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But the mind is attached to sense objects and the sense objects influence the mind. If the mind is connected with sense objects, it is due to super imposition of mind on him.
Hence, by considering onself to be Brahman and reflecting on the unreality of sense objects, one should turn away from them and worship the Lord so that one can remain in one's true nature as the infinite self.
Training the mind to behave:
In one sense to control the mind is to train it to behave.
Swami Vivekananda says: "Hold fast to the idea, that I am the witness watching my mind drifting. The mind is not I “
I am not the mind, I,see that I am thinking, I am watching my mind act and each day the identification of yourself with thought and feeling will grow less until atlast you know it to be apart from yourself.
When this is done the mind is your servant to control you will.
The first stage of Yogi is to go beyond the senses.
when the mind is conquered he has reached the highest stage.
Practice Pranayama
When the mind is in disturbed state the breathing becomes faster and irregular. One of the ways to calm the mind is to regularize the breathing. Regular practice of deep breathing helps to develop a stable state of mind.
Pranayama is very helpful for controlling the mind.
Pranayama means restraining the breath in order to get control of prana or vital force.
Practice Pratyahara-
We are drawn to certain attractions in objects which
compel our minds to become fixed on them. In this way become slaves of tempting objects, we should be able to pur our minds on things at will. This can be done by practising the discipline of pratyahara.
Pratyahara is that absention by which the sense donot come into contact with their objects and follow, as it were, the nature of the mind.
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The link between sense organs ard sense objects is mind when the mind is withdrawn from the sense objects the sense organs also imitate the mind.
When the mind is restrained the sense organs are also restrained automatically.
"The secret of pratyahara is will power. practice of
pratyahara helps develop will power and will power helps develop pratyahara"
Importance of harmonious human relations.
Those who want to control the mind shouldn’t store ill feelings, grievances or wrong impulses in the mind. Through the practice of forgiveness, humility we must keep our human relations straight.
Healthy occupation of mind needed.
Idle mind is devil's workshop. This is very true.
There-fore the mind must be given healthy and creative occupation. It should be fed with high thoughts and noble inspiration. Otherwise it will drift to low things and become scattered. It is difficult to control the mind in scattered state. To steady the mind, we need to guard our thoughts with maximum steadfastness.
Right introspection will reveal that inadyertance, is the root of much of our mental turmoil. inadvertance come to so naturally as we have not trained our mind for higher occupation.
Sankaracharya teaches :
“Inadvertance is death itself" There is no great danger than carelessness about his own real nature. From this comes delusion, then egoism; this is followed by bondage and then comes misery.
If the mind slightly strays from the ideal, it goes down and down.So cultivation of awareness of the highest objective of life is the potent method of steadying the mind.
Importance of right use of imagination:
Man is endowed with the power of imagination. A great deal of our mental troubles are due to wrong use of this power.
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Our expectation can be high but imagining wild and meaningless things bring us real disappointment. When this habit becomes hardened it is difficult to control the mind.
How to get rid of this habit--
A right imagination can throw a wrong one. Imagination properly used is our friend. The purest imagination is the thought of God. The more we cling to the thought of God,the less will be our trouble with the mind.
Importance of meditation:
Meditation on God is the most effective way of controlling the mind. in meditation whenever the mind strays one should bring it back and place it on the object of meditation.
Ramakrishna says: "Unless you meditate, mind caon't be controlled, unless mind is controlled, you cannot meditate".
You must do both at the same time - steady your mind and meditate.
Guard against dispondency(dejection):
The aspirant's motto should to struggle and never give in.Dejection or dispondency is the worst enemy. When we arein the worst mental frame and feel,we shall never rise tothe inner struggle, we are advised to stand behind the mind. We should never identify ourselves with the mental state for our real self is not the mind. Thus the low state of mind will pass away when we repeat wtih conviction that “I am divine, no misery can touch me. I am infinite, free and immortal"
Emergency control devices
When we correctly practise the basic disciplines, we come into clash with powerful, inimical forces, thoughts, urges and emotions which will hinder our progress. As per Patanjali, when thoughts obstructive to control of mind arises,contrary thoughts must be employed.
Like when anger is taking your control, you should pacify the anger with the contrary thoughts of love, the thought of purity should dominate. Contrary thoughts should be raised whenthe first sign of inimical ones appear. Other wise, it is difficult to use this method.
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When you catch the mind by its' throat and say, this inimical thought will ruin you and lead to
self-destruction,idea will impress the mind.
As long as we identify ourselves with the mind we cannot control the mind. So the effective way to control the mind is to disassociate ourselves from it.
Directed thought
There are other devices which can be employed in an emergency created by sudden rush of temptation, anger, lust,greed, hatred succumbing to any one of them will render control of mind impossible. As per a western philosopher in such cases one should turn to God to show mercy as a child would run to the arms of its father on seeing wolf or bear. Protest that you will never consent to the temptation. Turn your thoughts to some good and commendable matter when good thoughts enter. They drive away temptation and evil suggestion.
Ramakrishna teaches, All sins of the body will fly away if one chants the name of God.
taking All the above percepts imply the effectiveness of taking refuge in God.
Control of thought - the secret
One who knows how to regulate his thinking will know how to control his mind.
The only way to gain control over wrong thoughts is to root-out all that is evil and to cultivate all that is good.
Swami Vivekananda says: "We are what our thoughts made us"
Repetition of mantra greatly helps to control the mind.Inwardness of thought and concentration isattained when mind is controlled.
Control of subconscious mind:
We have all experienced this strange phenomenon in our life. We know what is right but we cannot act upto it. An examination of this situation will show that we are making resolutions with the concious part of mind and wrecking it with the subconscious part of mind and wrecking it with the subconscious part of mind This part of mind is not known to us.
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The moment we seriously try to control our mind, we are beset with inner difficulties.
What happens is this -- in the event of deliberately trying to control our conscious mind, we come into clash with the opposing forces of sub-conscious mind. These opposing forces are nothing but our stored up samskaras, past impressions and tendencies.
One way to clear the sub-conscious mind is to pour holy thoughts into our mind. If we persist in pouring holy thoughts, a time will come when we find holy thoughts coming out from within. Control of conscious mind will not then be difficult.
So to control the mind, important work need to be done in the subsconscious level. This can be done only when goal is to reach superconscious state.
Beware or the trick of the mind:
Sometimes mind plays a trick on itself, the sub-conscious mind on the conscious. When we are struggling to get over a temptation at conscious level, a much more difficult situation flashes before our mind. In worrying about future, our present topples over. The future nothing but maya, illusion. It is foolishness to worry about the future while allowing the devil to conquer that present.
The challenge of life is to be good, truly moral and master of ourselves. For only this moment, we should worry about outside this moment.
Belivers are at an advantage in controlling the mind.
Those who believe in God have a distinct advantage as far as mind control is concerned as we get potent help for controlling the mind. When lust, anger and other passions disappear the mind becomes purified. A pure mind is easily controlled. Take his name constantly. This will cleanse all desires for pleasures, lust and anger. One should practise japam with some devotion but if this is not done - nothing can be achieved.
One should begin modestly and through practise steadily increase the number.
Earnest prayer to God will help and sincere prayers are answered. Gradually we find the character of our prayer changing; it has become more God centred than object centred.
There is no greater blessing in life than controlled state of mind.
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