Q: You have stated that mahat totality, vasanas, and Purusha are superior to intellect. Whereas in mantra 9 states that intellect is given the highest hierarchy, which is contradictory. Please clarify?
A: Intellect is placed on the top in your life. You are not helplessly expressing your vasanas, but you have the choice. Even though intellect is grosser than vasana, it is purushartha free-will which gives advantage to the intellect to go with the vasana or against it. Purushartha is the only factor independent of vasanas.
Vasanas don’t influence your freedom or free-will. One could be a drug addict, yet he has the freedom of choice and ability to wriggle out of the addiction at any point. It is evident when you compare it with an animal. A carnivore will continue to be a carnivore even if it does not get its prey. It will die but not become herbivorous. An herbivore will not eat meat even if there is no vegetation. It will die as a vegetarian and cannot change its course of life or action. An animal is predestined, whereas a human being is free-willed. It is that free will that gives advantage to humans, superior to all other creatures. Intellect and free will give you the ability to change your vasanas, conquer them and nullify them, and realise the Self. Therefore, it is actually intellect that is controlling the mind, which is the pivotal tool.
As said earlier, the majority of humanity is caught up in senses and mind. If the control of the mind is addressed, then you can spiritually transform. Purushartha is the extraordinary veto power to do away with vasanas, without which we are victims of vasanas. It’s the purushartha which overrules and checkmates the vasanas. Therefore, Intellect is given importance.
“You conquer your mind, you have conquered the world.”
Swami Vivekananda
They regard the firm control of the senses; one should be alert as in Yoga. Then the Yogin becomes free from all vagaries of the mind; for the Yoga is subject to rise and fall.
Mind is the tool which controls the senses, and the senses do not misbehave when the mind is controlled by intellect. Intellect can only be developed between 4 am – 6 am by doing swadhyaya manana in the Brahma Muhurtam. Wisdom is expressed through the intellect.
Sense control is not sense-denial or abstaining from sense contact. If we abstain from food but keep lingering in mind, it does not account for sense control. Self-control is not just physical, but has to be mental control as well. If we are contacting sense objects but the mind should not indulge nor linger, but consume food with awareness that it is for the nourishment of the body, it is self-control. It is the mental attitude which determines self-control.
A person who is amidst sense objects but mentally withdrawn is a yogi, but the ignorant call him a materialist as we don’t have access to his mind. A person may be in an ashram with an ochre robe, but we cannot call him a saint as we have no access to his mind as well. Physically abstaining and mentally indulging is hypocrisy. Self-control is neither measured quantitatively or qualitatively but by the state of the mind.
- Denying the senses and sense objects is tamas.
- Revelling and worshipping the senses is rajas.
- Maintaining contact if required but yet total control over senses and mind is
Q: How does one know that the mind is under control or not?
A: When the mind ceases to have impurities, it is under control. If the mind still has impurities, then the mind is not under control.
Eg: When we are drinking water, we say that water is uncontaminated, as it has gone through a process of purification. Similarly, one has to see the impurities and imperfections of the mind.
Some of the impurities are:
- Selfish desires are to keep demanding and craving for things you don’t have for self-acquisition and enjoyment. It could be material, physical, emotional, or intellectual.
- Your mind is free from attachments to things you have, viz. success, name, fame, etc. Should drop the value for them. The mental binding is not there. Drop the possessiveness towards your possessions.
- Rambling nature of the mind of past worries and future anxieties.
- The impulsive nature of the mind is subdued.
- Mind is less agitated because it is more established in sattva.
When all these impurities of the mind are extinguished, your mind is under control. You cannot deny these symptoms. These are spiritual parameters of mind control.
Eg: You may say you are healthy, but the truth is revealed through a simple blood test.
One doesn’t have to be physically sitting quietly with eyes closed and say he is meditating. Is his mind cleansed of impurities? If not, he cannot sit in silence mentally.
When all these characteristics of the mind change, it is then that the quality of the mind has changed for the better. If any one of these is lurking, then the mind is still impure and is unfit for yoga spiritual practise.
Whatever wisdom you acquire does not get erased. If I have 30% wisdom, I will not lose that 30%. Wisdom acquired is like a man walking on the bridge. Every step he takes, the bridge behind him collapses. So, one doesn’t fall back; after acquiring the wisdom, one only goes forward.
Never ever have arrogance that you can control the mind, because the mind is a formidable foe. We do not know how the mind will drag and distract you. So, there is always a potential for fall. The mind has got desires, and the world is always enticing the mind.
Sage Valmiki, through his life, conveyed to mankind that beware of the mind and the fall.
Eg: While driving, you need to be alert all the time. The moment you get distracted, there is potential for an accident.
Eg: When a ship is in water, a tiny hole is sufficient for the water to seep into the ship and sink it.
One has to be alert in the mind all the time, with the intellect endowed with wisdom.
