Mind Control is Self Control
Divine Life
Society Publication: Chapter 21: True
Spiritual Living by Swami Krishnananda
Control or restraint, as we
understand it, is the exercise of a power upon something which is external to
us. The act of control requires a distinction between the controller and the
controlled. We are not different from ourselves. How can we influence or control
our own selves? What is control and what does the yoga actually mean by saying
that there should be self-control, or control of the modifications of the mind?
People speak of control of
mind, control of the vrittis etc., as
if they are going to control servants or like a boss exerting pressure upon his
subordinates, etc. All this is not simple as it appears to be because the
modifications, or vrittis, of the
mind are not capable of observation, because the observer has identified
himself with the modifications themselves. One who has to control the mind has
become one with the mind. No distinction exists between us and the mind, though
we generally say: “I am thinking”, “this is my idea”, “my thought”, “my
feeling”, etc., as if thought, feeling etc. are outside us. They are only ways
of expression. Our feeling is us only. The feeling is not outside us, external
to us, and different from us. Therefore, we cannot do anything with it, because
we cannot do anything with our own selves.
And since the mind does identify
with our own personality and vice versa, we cannot deal with the mind as we
deal with the body (by asanas) or even with the pranas
(by pranayama).
If the policeman himself has become the thief, how will he detect the thief? He
himself is the culprit, and he is also the policeman. The judge himself has
become the client, a very difficult situation indeed.
The consciousness, which is
our essential nature, animates the modifications of the mind in such a manner
that we cannot know which is the modification of the mind, and which is us. By
way of analogy, they give the instance of a heated iron ball or an iron rod.
When a ball of iron is heated until it becomes red-hot, we cannot see the iron;
we can see only the fire. When we touch a heated iron ball, it may burn us, and
we will say, “Oh! This iron ball has burnt me.” What has burnt us is the fire,
not the iron ball. But we mix up one with the other. Consciousness cannot be
the modifications of the mind, and the modifications of the mind cannot be
consciousness, because consciousness has no modifications; It is indivisible
eternity. Then, what is it that is modified?
The whole process of yoga is
nothing but a series of self-control from the lower stage to the higher in an
appropriate manner. The achievement in yoga becomes a sort of awakening rather
than an activity. We enter a new world altogether when we wake up from dream or
sleep. The achievement called ‘waking up from sleep’ is not the result of an
action. This is why Acharya Sankara tirelessly hammers upon the idea that
liberation is not an action, and it cannot be achieved by any kind of action. Moksha is nothing but an awakening
into a wider reality which is already planted in us and is not external to us. Yoga
is a process of awakening, rather than an activity in an empirical sense. It is
not a work that we perform. And this awakening is brought about by control of
the mind.
All activity is an
externalised movement of consciousness towards an object outside. But here the
object is ourself, and therefore there cannot be such a movement of our
consciousness. The nature of truth requires a purification of the self, which
is the means of self-awakening; and this purificatory process is analogous to a
gradual rise of the soul from one stage of self-identification to another stage
of self-identification.
The whole of life is nothing
but an awareness of selfhood. If we properly and deeply think over the matter,
we will realise that there is no such thing as an object in this world; there
is only a self. There is no such thing as a self getting connected with an
object, ultimately speaking, because the moment the self gets connected with an
object, it ceases to be an object. It becomes a part of the Self itself. There
is no such thing as love of an object, because the moment we love the object,
the object ceases to be the object; it becomes the Self. This is why it is said
that what we love is the Self only. And when we extend our selfhood, what we
are doing is not the action of the love of an object outside, but only another
form of the Self. We love the bodily self if we are utterly selfish – only this
body. Otherwise, if we are more altruistic and civilised, we become a family
self, a social self, a political self, an international self, a human self. We
may become even a world self. But, it is after all the Self. There is nothing
but that.
Thus, yoga takes us to the
root of the whole matter, and wishes to disillusion us of all our prejudices
and old notions of things, so that we may know what it is to control the mind,
what is meant by all this. To control the mind and to control the self are the
same thing. Mind control is self-control. Chitta nirodha is
atma vinigrahah; they are
identical. Inasmuch as it is difficult to understand what the Self is, what the
mind is, what its modifications are, yoga practice becomes difficult; and,
therefore, with tenacity of purpose and incisive understanding, we have to take
to the various prescriptions given by the Yoga Sastra in a methodical manner.
Continue to read:
Mind Control is
Self Control by Swami Krishnananda
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