Submitted by Praveen Shanmugam
By Chaitanya Charan das
Question: To progress towards self-realization, we need to understand that we are neither our body nor our mind. Understanding that we are not our physical bodies is relatively easier: we are conscious, whereas the physical body isn’t. But how can we understand that we are not our mind?
Brief Answer:
By trying to do an activity regularly that the mind doesn’t like to do. The best such activity is mantra meditation.
Full Answer:
The mind, like our physical body, is material. So it is non-living and unconscious. When the mind appears to be conscious, it is simply prompting us towards actions that we have repeatedly done in the past. Thus its actions are similar to the actions of a competent software program that remembers our past choice among multiple options and prompts us towards making that choice again. When we make that same choice repeatedly, the program may make that choice as our default option. Then, even if we don’t choose that option consciously, still it gets chosen automatically. Eventually, we may feel that the computer program is conscious and is choosing on its own. We may even feel that its choice and our choice are the same. But neither of these feelings is true. And we can realize their falsity by consciously stopping the default choice and consciously making an alternative choice.
The same principle applies in our dealings with our mind. When we repeatedly respond to particular stimuli in the same way, the mind makes that response as our default option. So, for example, when we let our mind go towards thoughts of sex whenever nothing urgent occupies it, then carnal thoughts become our default thoughts. This may give us the misperception that we are innately lusty. But we aren’t. All of us, as souls, are innately spiritual, and the spiritual soul has nothing to do with physical lust.
To correct our misperception, we need to consciously say no to the default option and say yes to an alternative option, that is, we need to take our mind away from its habitual object of thought and fix it on some other object. Many such alternative objects of thought may present themselves before us, but we will soon discover that fixing the mind on them is not easy; redirecting the mind involves dragging and wrenching that strains and drains us. After some struggle, we may even feel that disciplining the mind to be an exercise in self-torture and futility. While this vehement opposition that the mind presents to our plans can be discouraging, it can also serve as undeniable confirmatory evidence that we are different from our mind.
Vedic wisdom facilitates and accelerates the process of redirecting the mind by offering us an object of thought that is empowering, purifying and fulfilling. That object is Krishna – especially in his form of the holy name. Let’s see how chanting the holy name and becoming mindful of Krishna empowers, purifies and fulfills us:
- Empowering: When we attentively chant the holy names of Krishna, we gain access to the supreme power of God manifesting through his name. That divine power empowers us to curb and counter the power of the obstinate mind.
- Purifying: Just as sunrise drives away darkness, the rising of the sun-like and supremely pure Krishna in our hearts drives away all the impurities from there. The empowering and purifying features of Krishna consciousness make it easier for us to check the mind from going on its default path of impure materialistic contemplation.
- Fulfilling: Krishna is a reservoir of happiness, so when we connect with him through contemplation, we slowly start sensing a deep ineffable satisfaction pervading our heart. The fulfilling feature of Krishna consciousness makes it easier for us to direct the mind on the new path of contemplation on the divine.
As we practice Krishna consciousness more and more, we will periodically be amazed to witness how our previously restless mind stays at rest in Krishna even amidst restive circumstances. Experiences like these will give us confirmatory realizations of both the difference between ourselves and our mind and the difference that Krishna consciousness has made in our lives.
I very much like topics like this. I have always conceived best about these things using the example in the Upanishads: The 5 horses are the senses (interacting with sense objects), and the reigns are the mind. The intellect (mattah smritir jnanam…) comes from Krishna and is higher than the mind. The jiva soul is passenger in this chariot, and the Supersoul is beside the jiva soul. When we chant the Holy Names we can easily distinguish our “conscious self” from the flickering, changing mind. Detachment comes with the chanting process.
However, the mind is subtle. The subtle body leaves the gross body with the soul at death and an appropriate environment, body, is given to the mentality that has been so cultivated in life. Krishna consciousness is the process of becoming like fire, so that we can enter the fire of spiritual consciousness. If we are so fortunate to awaken love for Krishna, we may be blessed to interact with Krishna in the future in the spiritual realm.
Thus, from this understanding, we can know that the mind is different from the brain. The brain is left behind at death, but the mind, more subtle, carries on. Everything proceeds from the most subtle to the gross. Consciousness is the most sublime.
These are wonderful topics for the inquisitive seeker. Hare Krishna.
Pusta Krishna das
Bhagavad-gītā As It Is 6.6
bandhur ātmātmanas tasya
yenātmaivātmanā jitaḥ
anātmanas tu śatrutve
vartetātmaiva śatru-vat
SYNONYMS
bandhuḥ — friend; ātmā — the mind; ātmanaḥ — of the living entity; tasya — of him; yena — by whom; ātmā — the mind; eva — certainly; ātmanā — by the living entity; jitaḥ — conquered; anātmanaḥ — of one who has failed to control the mind; tu — but; śatrutve — because of enmity; varteta — remains; ātmā eva — the very mind; śatru-vat — as an enemy.
TRANSLATION
For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.
PURPORT
The purpose of practicing eightfold yoga is to control the mind in order to make it a friend in discharging the human mission. Unless the mind is controlled, the practice of yoga (for show) is simply a waste of time. One who cannot control his mind lives always with the greatest enemy, and thus his life and its mission are spoiled. The constitutional position of the living entity is to carry out the order of the superior. As long as one’s mind remains an unconquered enemy, one has to serve the dictations of lust, anger, avarice, illusion, etc. But when the mind is conquered, one voluntarily agrees to abide by the dictation of the Personality of Godhead, who is situated within the heart of everyone as Paramātmā. Real yoga practice entails meeting the Paramātmā within the heart and then following His dictation. For one who takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness directly, perfect surrender to the dictation of the Lord follows automatically.
From Sri Manah-siksa — Instructions to the Mind — by Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami
In spite of having subdued the enemies of lust and anger, one may not have conquered the great enemy of deceit. This sixth verse instructs us how to gain victory over this powerful enemy:
O wicked mind! Although you adopt the path of sadhana, you imagine yourself purified by bathing in the trickling urine of the great donkey of full-blown deceit and hypocrisy. By doing so, you are burning yourself and scorching me, a tiny jiva simultaneously. Stop this! Delight yourself and me by eternally bathing in the nectarine ocean of pure love for the lotus feet of Sri Radha-Krishna Yugala.
Purport by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura on Sloka 6 ~ Anvaya
The overt deceit and hypocracy which are present in a sadhaka even after adopting the path of sadhana are compared to the urine of a donkey.Considering oneself to be intently engaged in bhajana while remaining devious and hypocritical at heart is like considering oneself pure by bathing in the filth, burning urine of a donkey. A sadhaka should carefully abandon this pitfall.
There are three kinds of Bhakti-sadhakas…
1- svanistha
2- parinisthita and
3- nirapeksa
The first (svanista) completely discards the rules and prohibitions prescribed within varnasrama and endevours incessantly simply to please Bhagavan, Sri Hari.
The parinisthita – sadhaka performs all his activities in accordance with the rules and prohibitions laid down for the service and attendance of Bhagavan. Both these types of sadhakas are grhasthas.
The nirapeksa-sadhaka is a renounciate.
All three are benefited only when they become thoroughly honest. Otherwise, by resorting to deceitfulness, they are surely vanquished. The hypocrisy demonstrated by these three is described below:
1) Deceit of the svanistha-sadhaka —
(a.) indulging in sense-enjoiment on the pretext of sadhana-bhakti,
(b) serving wealthy and influencial materialists instead of unpretentious devotees,
(c) accumulating wealth beyond one`s needs,
(d) having great enthusiasm for futile, temporary enterprises,
(e) indulging in illogical arguments on the pretext of cultivating knowledge, and
(f) adopting the dress of a renounciate to get material prestige.
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2) Deceit of the parinisthita-sadhaka—–
(a) making an external show of strict adherence to rules and regulations but remaining inwardly attached to material subjects, and
(b) preferring the association of philanthropists, jnanis, yogis and materialistic people to that of resolute, loving devotees.
3) Deceit of the nirapeksa-sadhaka—
(a) to maintain pride by thinking oneself to be an elevated vaisnava,
(b) to adopt the dress of a renounciate and due to false ego, regard other sadhakas as inferior,
(c) to accumulate wealth and materials beyond the basic necessities of life,
(d) to associate with woman on the pretext of sadhana,
(e) to keep close contact with materialistic people with the intention of collecting funds and donations instead of going to the temple,
(f) to worry about collecting funds on the pretext of performing bhajana,
(g) to enffeble one’s attachement for Krsna by attributing importance and respect merely to the external dress and symbols of the renounced order and by being overly attached to the rules and regulations of renounciation.
Therefore the defects of mundane arguments (kutarka), false philosophical conclusions (kusiddhanta) and anarthas, all arising from deceit in the domain of bhajana, have been compared to the urine of a donkey.
Many sadhakas consider themselves purified by bathing in this unholy urine of the donkey of deceit, but in reality it only consumes their soul.