Thought 72: Your mind

All of us think; and we think all the time. But rarely are we conscious of our thoughts. All thoughts get generated in the mind; mind is the medium for thoughts. Mind is in fact a train of thoughts. Mind modifies itself into thoughts. These modifications do not follow any pattern – they are always random and unrelated to one another.

The tendency of the undisciplined mind is to be divided and scattered. The scattered mind is completely uncontrolled. A scattered mind cannot see clearly. It has no power of foresight. It cannot retain and learn from the experiences of the past. Experience is the basis of all knowledge. It is only when we retain what we have learnt through experience, can we progress.

Mind is described as your shadow. You cannot get rid of your shadow. Neither can you get rid of your mind. Mind follows you under all conditions - except when you are asleep. Action always happens in the present time. But mind always roams – either in the past or in the future - but never in the present (for long). This roaming results in wastage of the mental energy. When the mind is not in sync with the action, the effort is not going to be efficient.

Your body is your external personality and your mind (and Buddhi) constitutes your internal personality. Body provides the ID for your internal personality and it also transports the internal personality to wherever you wish to go.

Anything that you do with your body is driven by your mind. Without being prompted by mind, your body does not do anything. Mind is the controller of the body. Whatever you feel in your mind, for instance, your face reflects it. They say that face is the index of the mind. Some times you are sad; actually, when the mind is sad, you are sad. Sadness shows in your body postures, in your speech and in your facial expressions. Some other times, the mind is happy. When the mind is happy, you are happy. This happiness shows in your body postures, in your speech and in your facial expressions. By observing your face and other body postures, one can read the mind or what is going on in the mind. Thus, there is a connection between your mind and yourself. Some people are very good at reading the body language.

Because of the body-mind connection, if the body is healthy, mind would also be healthy – and vice versa. A healthy body houses a healthy mind. Those who have healthy minds are happy persons. This is the reason why I always say to my children, “What you put in your mind, what you put in your mouth and what you do to the body (outer gross body) determines your health and happiness.” But where is this mind in the body?

The modern man wants everything to be concrete, perceptible (visible or audible, etc) and measurable before he believes in its existence. Some things like space for instance do not conform to such norms – but we know that they exist. We know that the space exists – although we are unable to perceive it through any of the instruments (internal as well as external) that we possess.

Mind is also like the space – like space, mind also does not conform to the norms (“Concete, perceptible and measurable”) that the modern science stipulates. Neither does Aatma (Aatma is what people call the soul). If you scan your body (through Cat Scan or MRI), you will not find the mind or Buddhi. You will only find the brain – which is not the mind or the Buddhi. It is so even with the Aatma too. That is because, mind or Buddhi or Aatma are subtle – Aatma being the subtlest of the subtle (Anor Aneeyam). Subtle means not perceptible to any of your five senses (Pancha Jnaanendriyas – which are eyes, ears, nose, skin and tongue) which are the only instruments we have for perception; this is because subtle substances are formless (Niraakaara). We know where the brain is located in the body – but we cannot say where the mind is located in the body. Subtle substances have no fixed location; they are all pervasive, which means that they are everywhere. For instance, space is everywhere; so is the Aatma. Mind and Buddhi are everywhere in your body. The term “Vishnu” means all pervasive; that is to say that the Lord Vishnu is available everywhere - but you cannot see him because he is “Niraakaara”; He is the subtlest of the subtle. (Anor Aneeyam). The formless Vishnu is the Brahman (Paramaatma)

All knowledge is in the mind (and in the Buddhi). Mind and Buddhi are really two aspects of the same thinking faculty. While feeling emotions or vacillating, it is called the mind. While determining the course of action or discriminating between right and wrong, it is called Buddhi.

The next thought is about “Your Buddhi”