The act of controlling is to keep within limits. The mind has to be controlled by way of keeping our thought process within limits. The well being of a person is inseparable from mind control and people all over the world are interested in the same. Ways of controlling the mind are open to all kinds of people (atheists, believers, agnostics and those indifferent to religion). The true believer in God may be at an advantage in that genuine love of God can to a considerable degree simplify his problems with the mind. Vedanta and Yoga have much to teach about the nature of the mind and the ways of controlling it.
Control of mind is an inner game. If you have a sportsman’s attitude you will thoroughly enjoy it, even while apparently losing. In the playing, this game takes a great deal of skill, alertness, sense of humour, goodness of heart, sense of strategy, patience and some heroic flair which makes it possible not to get disheartened in the face of a hundred failures. Our will to control the mind can never be strong until and unless we have deliberately and irrevocably renounced pleasure as one of the main pursuits of our life. By renunciation of the pursuit of pleasure is not meant renunciation of the pursuit of joy or bliss. It is the enjoyment of the sense pleasure from which we have to get ourselves detached.
Non-control of mind effectively obstructs integration of personality. A person of uncontrolled mind will always have a tendency to abnormal developments or to mental disintegration through internal conflict. Even under the most favourable circumstances he will not realize his potential or fulfill expectations. One who has no control over his mind cannot have peace of mind. One, who has no peace of mind, cannot have happiness. If he is the head of a household, indiscipline, disorder, delinquency, and wretched human relationships leading to family misfortunes are likely to prevail. On the other hand a controlled mind can easily be concentrated. Through concentration of mind one gains knowledge and knowledge is power. To develop a strong will to control the mind, we must teach our own minds that, without it, we are nowhere.
Vedanta traces the pleasure-motive in man to his metaphysical root, ananda or bliss, the ultimate fact of existence from which man is essentially non different.
Control of mind is an inner game. If you have a sportsman’s attitude you will thoroughly enjoy it, even while apparently losing. In the playing, this game takes a great deal of skill, alertness, sense of humour, goodness of heart, sense of strategy, patience and some heroic flair which makes it possible not to get disheartened in the face of a hundred failures. Our will to control the mind can never be strong until and unless we have deliberately and irrevocably renounced pleasure as one of the main pursuits of our life. By renunciation of the pursuit of pleasure is not meant renunciation of the pursuit of joy or bliss. It is the enjoyment of the sense pleasure from which we have to get ourselves detached.
Non-control of mind effectively obstructs integration of personality. A person of uncontrolled mind will always have a tendency to abnormal developments or to mental disintegration through internal conflict. Even under the most favourable circumstances he will not realize his potential or fulfill expectations. One who has no control over his mind cannot have peace of mind. One, who has no peace of mind, cannot have happiness. If he is the head of a household, indiscipline, disorder, delinquency, and wretched human relationships leading to family misfortunes are likely to prevail. On the other hand a controlled mind can easily be concentrated. Through concentration of mind one gains knowledge and knowledge is power. To develop a strong will to control the mind, we must teach our own minds that, without it, we are nowhere.
Vedanta traces the pleasure-motive in man to his metaphysical root, ananda or bliss, the ultimate fact of existence from which man is essentially non different.
The Upanishad teaches:
That which is known as the self-creator is verily the source of joy; for one becomes happy by coming in contact with that source of joy. Who, indeed, will inhale, and who will exhale, if this Bliss be not there in the supreme space (within the heart). This one, indeed, enlivens (people). Taittiriya Upanishad.
Certainly all beings here are, indeed, born from Bliss (ananda); having been born they remain alive by bliss; and on departing they enter into Bliss.
The very root of man’s existence being bliss, it is but natural that he should instinctively seek to feel identified with it. But when he is ignorant and is identified with body and mind, he seeks it ignorantly in the body and mind and not where it is – in the spirit. This wrong seeking of bliss in a wrong place gives rise to our pleasure-motive and its resultant bondage. Matter (food) is convertible into mind, though we may not have realized that this is so.
The mind has the power of looking back into itself. With the help of the mind we can analyze the mind, and see what is going on in the mind. The mind is a compound of three substantive forces called gunas, Viz sattva, rajas and tamas. These gunas are also the basic constituents of the entire universe, physical and mental. Sattva is the principle of poise conducive to purity, knowledge and joy. Rajas is the principle of motivity, leading to activity, desire, and restlessness. Tamas is the principle of inertia resulting in inaction, dullness and delusion. Tamas causes the mind to move on a low level; rajas scatters the mind and makes it restless and sattva gives it a higher direction.
The constitution of individual minds is determined by the various combinations and permutations of these gunas. This explains the varieties in human nature and also the vacillating nature of the mind. The three planes of conscious, subconscious and superconscious all belong to the same mind. There are not three minds in one man but three levels on which the mind operates. The question of controlling the mind relates only to the conscious plane, where the mind is normally accompanied by the feeling of egoism. We cannot directly control the subconscious mind unless we are established in Yoga. The question of controlling the mind on the superconcious plane does not arise. But the superconscious plane can be reached only by those who have controlled their minds on the conscious and subconscious planes.
By practicing the disciplines of yoga the same mind can be ‘gathered’ and made ‘one pointed’. The whole purpose of mind control is to make the mind one-pointed. When such a mind is applied to any sphere of activity, in that it shines. A businessman with a one-pointed mind will prosper in business; a musician with a one–pointed mind will become a great musician; a scientist with a one-pointed mind will become a celebrated scientist. Through the practice and development of one-pointedness, the mind reaches the fifth or highest condition, called ‘concentrated’. In this condition superconciousness is attained.
To succeed in controlling the mind one must have, in addition to a strong will, faith in one self. Sri Krsna says in the Gita that one must oneself subdue one’s weakness and raise oneself by oneself. This teaching must be practiced by one who intends to control his mind. Thus the mind will have to be controlled by the mind itself. The difficulties which we experience in controlling the mind are created by our own mind. Mind cannot be controlled by artificial means for any length of time. Deliberate, patient, intelligent, systematic hard work according to tested and suitable disciplines is needed.
To be able to practice the disciplines leading to the control of the mind we need to create a favorable inner climate by consciously accepting certain inevitables of life. As per Buddha’s teachings (Anguttara Nikaya) the five things that must be contemplated by all men and women, householders as well as bhikkus are as under.
1. Old age will come upon me some day and I cannot avoid it.
2. Disease can come upon me some day and I cannot avoid it.
3. Death will come upon me some day and I cannot avoid it.
4. All things that I hold dear are subject to change and decay and separation, and I cannot
That which is known as the self-creator is verily the source of joy; for one becomes happy by coming in contact with that source of joy. Who, indeed, will inhale, and who will exhale, if this Bliss be not there in the supreme space (within the heart). This one, indeed, enlivens (people). Taittiriya Upanishad.
Certainly all beings here are, indeed, born from Bliss (ananda); having been born they remain alive by bliss; and on departing they enter into Bliss.
The very root of man’s existence being bliss, it is but natural that he should instinctively seek to feel identified with it. But when he is ignorant and is identified with body and mind, he seeks it ignorantly in the body and mind and not where it is – in the spirit. This wrong seeking of bliss in a wrong place gives rise to our pleasure-motive and its resultant bondage. Matter (food) is convertible into mind, though we may not have realized that this is so.
The mind has the power of looking back into itself. With the help of the mind we can analyze the mind, and see what is going on in the mind. The mind is a compound of three substantive forces called gunas, Viz sattva, rajas and tamas. These gunas are also the basic constituents of the entire universe, physical and mental. Sattva is the principle of poise conducive to purity, knowledge and joy. Rajas is the principle of motivity, leading to activity, desire, and restlessness. Tamas is the principle of inertia resulting in inaction, dullness and delusion. Tamas causes the mind to move on a low level; rajas scatters the mind and makes it restless and sattva gives it a higher direction.
The constitution of individual minds is determined by the various combinations and permutations of these gunas. This explains the varieties in human nature and also the vacillating nature of the mind. The three planes of conscious, subconscious and superconscious all belong to the same mind. There are not three minds in one man but three levels on which the mind operates. The question of controlling the mind relates only to the conscious plane, where the mind is normally accompanied by the feeling of egoism. We cannot directly control the subconscious mind unless we are established in Yoga. The question of controlling the mind on the superconcious plane does not arise. But the superconscious plane can be reached only by those who have controlled their minds on the conscious and subconscious planes.
By practicing the disciplines of yoga the same mind can be ‘gathered’ and made ‘one pointed’. The whole purpose of mind control is to make the mind one-pointed. When such a mind is applied to any sphere of activity, in that it shines. A businessman with a one-pointed mind will prosper in business; a musician with a one–pointed mind will become a great musician; a scientist with a one-pointed mind will become a celebrated scientist. Through the practice and development of one-pointedness, the mind reaches the fifth or highest condition, called ‘concentrated’. In this condition superconciousness is attained.
To succeed in controlling the mind one must have, in addition to a strong will, faith in one self. Sri Krsna says in the Gita that one must oneself subdue one’s weakness and raise oneself by oneself. This teaching must be practiced by one who intends to control his mind. Thus the mind will have to be controlled by the mind itself. The difficulties which we experience in controlling the mind are created by our own mind. Mind cannot be controlled by artificial means for any length of time. Deliberate, patient, intelligent, systematic hard work according to tested and suitable disciplines is needed.
To be able to practice the disciplines leading to the control of the mind we need to create a favorable inner climate by consciously accepting certain inevitables of life. As per Buddha’s teachings (Anguttara Nikaya) the five things that must be contemplated by all men and women, householders as well as bhikkus are as under.
1. Old age will come upon me some day and I cannot avoid it.
2. Disease can come upon me some day and I cannot avoid it.
3. Death will come upon me some day and I cannot avoid it.
4. All things that I hold dear are subject to change and decay and separation, and I cannot
avoid it.
5. I am the outcome of my own deeds and whatever be my deeds, good or bad, I shall be heir
5. I am the outcome of my own deeds and whatever be my deeds, good or bad, I shall be heir
to them.
By contemplating old age the pride of youth can be curbed, or at least reduced; by contemplating disease the pride of health can be curbed, or at least reduced; by contemplating death the pride of life is curbed, or at least reduced; by contemplating the change and separation of all things dear, the passionate desire for possession is curbed, or at least reduced; and by contemplating that one is the result of one’s own deeds, the evil propensities of thought, word and deed are curbed, or at least reduced. One who contemplates these five things can curb, or at least reduce his pride and passion and thus be able to tread the path of Nirvana.
The practice of these teachings of Buddha will indirectly help in the purification of the mind.
There is no greater blessing in life than a controlled state of mind. Let us do our very best to acquire it, for this will lead us to the greatest of blessings. The entire secret of controlling the mind is given by Sri Krsna in the two words abhyasa and vairagya, practice and dispassion. Mind-control is greatly helped by the practice of meditation, and meditation by mind-control.
I am happy to share with all the readers that the control of the mind is not a problem peculiar to religious aspirants; people in all walks of life need to control their minds if they are to succeed in their work. For the uplift of an individual and the community it is necessary to have a controlled mind.
Hope you enjoyed reading this. Be blissful.
S.SEKAR
Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com
By contemplating old age the pride of youth can be curbed, or at least reduced; by contemplating disease the pride of health can be curbed, or at least reduced; by contemplating death the pride of life is curbed, or at least reduced; by contemplating the change and separation of all things dear, the passionate desire for possession is curbed, or at least reduced; and by contemplating that one is the result of one’s own deeds, the evil propensities of thought, word and deed are curbed, or at least reduced. One who contemplates these five things can curb, or at least reduce his pride and passion and thus be able to tread the path of Nirvana.
The practice of these teachings of Buddha will indirectly help in the purification of the mind.
There is no greater blessing in life than a controlled state of mind. Let us do our very best to acquire it, for this will lead us to the greatest of blessings. The entire secret of controlling the mind is given by Sri Krsna in the two words abhyasa and vairagya, practice and dispassion. Mind-control is greatly helped by the practice of meditation, and meditation by mind-control.
I am happy to share with all the readers that the control of the mind is not a problem peculiar to religious aspirants; people in all walks of life need to control their minds if they are to succeed in their work. For the uplift of an individual and the community it is necessary to have a controlled mind.
Hope you enjoyed reading this. Be blissful.
S.SEKAR
Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com
