3. Mind Matters
In this chapter, questions covered are centered on various issues associated with the human mind. As everyone knows, the mind is the most complex sense organ and it often works in mysterious ways. It is said that The Gita is as much a psychological manual as it is a spiritual guide. It provides a comprehensive explanation for complex human behavior and more importantly equips one with the understanding of workings of the mind which eventually helps in developing counter strategies to manage mind matters. Gita clearly explains how the mind moulds our behavior and spells out specific ways to modulate the workings of the mind. The complex relationship between the mind, the intellect and the external sense organs are beautifully explained. Finally, the aspects of ‘memory’ an essential temporal component of the mind are explained.
3.1 Impact of Mind on Human Behaviour
Q: Why are the sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) difficult to control?
A: All sense organs constantly crave for pleasure and are never fully satisfied. For example, the tongue is very difficult to control as it constantly craves for tasty food. As the body ages, most sense organs lose their effectiveness gradually (eye sight weakens, hearing weakens etc), but the tongue remains fully active till the very end. Even when someone is unable to digest food, the tongue still craves for taste. The only solution for keeping the tongue under control is via the mind which in turn can only be truly stabilized by intense practice and the grace of God. Likewise, the skin which is constantly craving for touch is also very difficult to control as it pervades the entire body. Even if someone is handicapped with loss of sensitivity on a limb, the skin in other parts of the body still craves for touch.
Q: How do sense organs lead one astray? Is there a method to the madness?
A: Excessive indulgence in sensual activities leads one to be shackled by the so called ‘six enemies’, namely lust, anger, greed, attachment, arrogance and jealousy. The typical procedure for the six enemies to control a human being is as follows:
Mind comes in contact with sense pleasures by constant exposure
Mind develops attachment to sense pleasures
Attachment leads to desire to satiate the thirst
Anger sets in when such desire is not fulfilled
Anger clouds mind’s judgment
Clouded mind is unable to differentiate between right and wrong things leading to errors in judgment
Error in judgment leads to intellectual failure
Intellectual failure leads to destruction
Q: How can one then avoid getting shackled by the ‘six enemies’ and get liberated?
A: The first step would be to immerse oneself in performing naturally chosen duties without expecting any gratification. (The analogy quoted is ‘detachment like drops of water on lotus flower’. Water drops can never stick on the petals of the lotus, and in the same way the mind should never get attached to any work or its outcome). In parallel, meditate on the Lord, which helps to calm the mind. A calm mind is a fertile platform for gathering noble thoughts which allows the mind to grasp spiritual studies. This leads to mental equanimity and a strong mind can withstand and repel the attack of the six enemies and move towards God.
3.2 Relationship between Sense Organs, Mind and Intellect
Q: How does desire arise in a person?
A: Sense organs such as eyes, ears etc, the mind and the intellect together determine the need and extent of desire in a person which often clouds the mind’s clarity of thought and leads a person astray.
Q: How does desire lead a person astray?
A: The addictive attribute called desire finds home in a person’s sense organs, mind and intellect. The external sense organs are the first entities which by way of perception creates desire in a person. For example: the desire to taste food upon seeing or smelling tasty food. Once a person yields to the desires of the sense organs, such desires takes root in the mind and gets stronger. Once this stage is reached, the intellect whose job it is to reason and rationalize issues develops the conviction that the particular desire is indeed worth pursuing and fulfilling. At this stage, it is too late to control the desire which would have taken over the person. Any obstacles in fulfilling these desires result in anger which causes one to commit undesirable and dangerous activities. So, it is better to handle desire at the first stage itself by minimizing or avoiding initial contact.
Q: How can one control or conquer desire?
A: The sensory organs (eyes, ears etc), the mind and the intellect are involved in the activities of perceiving, capturing, distilling and storing knowledge. The sensory organs, mind and intellect themselves are inert objects but are activated and controlled by various deities. The Almighty God is the controller of all deities. The deity who controls the intellect is superior to and more powerful than the deity who controls the mind which itself is superior to the deities who control the sense organs. Thus, to control the sense organs (which actually implement any activity desired by a person), it is necessary to control the intellect which can then control the mind. Since God is the controller of all in the universe the surest way to control desire is to focus the mind on God and perform one’s naturally chosen task without any mundane expectations. This helps one to control and conquer desire.
Q: What different practical ways can one follow in order to gain control over the sense organs so they do not lead one astray?
A: There are three ways that one can follow to help gain control over the sense organs. For maximum effect, one can simultaneously follow all three ways. Firstly, it is important to minimize or avoid indulgence in activities which feed the senses. For example, to gain control over excessive eating, one should resort to periodic fasting. Secondly, one should indulge in spiritual activities which prevent the mind from wanting to indulge in activities to please the sense organs. The third and most important way is to surrender completely to the Lord with full confidence that He will help one overcome addiction to sensual pleasures. It goes without saying that a combination of these three ways will surely help one gain firm control over the sense organs.
3.3 Mind Control
Q: While it is easy to say that one should control the desire for sense objects, how can one do that in real life?
A: Slowly and in steps. The key to controlling the desire for sense pleasures is to control the mind. This is done by slowly withdrawing the mind from thinking about sense objects and replacing those thoughts with the focus on God. Scriptures give the example of a tortoise that can withdraw its four limbs and head into its shell with ease. Similarly, the learned ones are able to withdraw their five sense organs inwards (i.e., focus them within and not get attached or perturbed by external stimuli). Over time, one can experience self control and such a person ends up seeing God in all beings and in all things and will have surrendered to the Lord unconditionally.
Q: Mind is an extremely difficult entity to control as it is always wandering. How then can one focus continuously on God and meditate, as the mind will invariably stray towards extraneous thoughts:
A: While sense organs have limited scope, mind has an almost infinite area of coverage and is constantly wandering. But it can be controlled and moderated by sheer practice as evidenced by many great souls whom we have seen in human history. There are abundant examples in scriptures also. There is no short cut, but a sincere effort goes a long way.
Q: If someone is sincere in intentions, but is unable to control the wavering mind and hence unable meditate on the Lord and gather spiritual knowledge, what then happens to that person? Is that soul destined to fail?
A: No. Anyone with sincere intentions but unable to focus the mind will not experience negative consequences. Such souls will in future births be born in better circumstances with easier access to more spiritual education and knowledge and move towards activities leading to a more fulfilling life.
Q: How does one control the desire to eat delicious foods? Does fasting help?
A: No. Fasting only weakens sense organs and their ability to enjoy food, but does not itself help quench the desire for tasting food, which can only be controlled by the mind. So, it goes back to controlling the mind. Ultimately, it is only by the grace of God that one can hope to control the sense organs.
3.4 Memory Management
Q: What role does memory play in mind control?
A: A very important aspect of the mind is memory which has the capacity to store events from the past and recall them based on need. Memory is a capability that the Lord has given to living beings to help them in their conduct of daily life and their spiritual journey. The importance of memory in one’s life cannot be overstated. One cannot even imagine how life would be if there was no such thing as memory. Memory (or Smriti in Sanskrit) is a direct mental perception of the past. The past can be just the previous second or an event that happened years back. Events recalled by memory as just as valid and true as events currently witnessed by the sense organs.
The Gita teaches us memory management which is an important and integral part of mind control. In general, happiness or sadness caused due to an event that occurred in the past should have no bearing on our current situation. Yet many of us ‘live in the past’, unable to let go of past events. True memory management means that one should capitalize on the beneficial aspects of memory and discard the harmful aspects. This means one should not dwell on ‘what should have been’ based on previous choices made in life as we cannot alter those. Of course, positive aspects of memory such as remembering the lessons learnt in life, memorizing spiritual texts for later recall etc are extremely beneficial and help one lead a purposeful life. Memory is thus a vital tool that the Lord equips living beings with and it is up to us to put it to good use.
3.5 Takeaways
The sense organs, the intellect and the mind together instill desires in humans and control them
Mind is extremely difficult to control and is always wandering
The only way to control and moderate the mind is by constant focus on the Lord which only comes through practice and patience
No sincere effort in controlling the mind will go unrewarded. It may take many lifetimes for a soul to achieve the state of self realization
Memory management is an important aspect of mind control and involves capitalizing on the positive aspects of memory such as recall of learnt lessons and discarding of dwelling on past negative experiences