What is the mind?
Does anyone truly know the mind? The mind works mysteriously The mind is a part of the gross body and a subtle entity capable of thinking, feeling, and willing.
As per Wikipedia, The mind is the set of faculties, including cognitive aspects such as consciousness, imagination, perception, thinking, intelligence, judgement, language and memory, as well as noncognitive aspects such as emotion and instinct.
All of us are aware of our mind, but done nothing practical to control or take care of the problems related to the mind.
How the mind works
All of us have consciousness and this consciousness leads to attitudes. The attitude leads to a certain kind of perception. Perception leads to behaviour and this behaviour leads to memory and memory leads to thoughts. And that in turn determines the consciousness, and this is like a cycle. This has to be understood properly.
Here is an example for you to catch up on.
Everyone has a close friend who you know very well, their behaviour and so much more. Suppose one day, someone comes and tell you that beware of that particular close friend, he is involved in a scandal. Be very careful in dealing with him.
Post this your close friend comes along. The words said to you earlier and playing on your mind and that changes your attitude momentarily with your close friend. You are not able to behave as you did before because your recent perception of him is that, maybe he is a cheat.
And then the first thing he says is I want to borrow ₹100. Immediately you remember what the friend had said and you are not ready for it because now your perception of this person has changed because of the information, you have just heard. And therefore this behaviour will in turn determine the kind of memories and thoughts we have for that person.
In this way every moment we are accumulating millions of various though, which are just getting deposited in the repository of our mind. Therefore, we need to go through a process of purification of the mind because it is just accumulating all of these various thoughts at a rate that we cannot deal with.
A strange reality
India is the ultimate abode of spirituality. A country that has accepted various religions and has religious establishments all over the country. Yet spirituality has been turbulent in India.
To iterate, here is an example. When you go to your workplace, you know you are there to work. When you are at a shopping mall, you have decided that you are going there to shop with a list mind.
But if we ask you, why do you go to a temple, what would your answer be?
– Going to the temple with parents, as they go there.
– Examinations are close or already completed.
– The results have come out.
Everyone goes to the temple with a different purpose, some desires, some frustration, and different types of activities one is performing but do you know for what purpose? It is amazing that throughout one’s life, there is this one place we are regularly going without knowing the absolute reason.
We ask the question to every youngster – why are you going? The synonymous answer procured would be – I don’t know, my parents were going and therefore I should also go as well.
Hospital for the Mind
Temple can be compared to a hospital. A safe place where treatment is given to the sick mind. The mind is the connecting interphase between the body and the soul and therefore we come here to get treated.
First to get the understanding knowledge and then go through the treatment procedure and put our trust in it. Therefore, we have to understand first the relevance of a temple like this. It is a place where you get information about your diseases. It is the place where the medicine is distributed. It is the place where understanding is given as to how you can actually regain your mental and spiritual health.
Conclusion
Bhagavatam describes the way to deal with the mind is very specific. And in general, you have to know what kind of cure you are going to apply. Therefore it is a very great deep science and there is no room for speculation.
yāvan nānārtha-dhīḥ puṁso
na nivarteta yuktibhiḥ
jāgarty api svapann ajñaḥ
svapne jāgaraṇaṁ yathā
This line has a simple explanation – If we follow the process that is not recommended in the scriptures specifically as the ultimate best cure and remedy, it will be extremely difficult to cure the mind, to purify the mind of all of these negative thoughts. There is so much more to the mind that can be done and tame the mind.
