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October 4, 2008 
Human Mind is comprised of thoughts, has reasoning ability, is aware of itself (self image), relates to outer world through its senses, operates according to the pleasure and pain principle and has both conscious and unconscious needs, impulse and desires which influence, motivate and direct it toward gratification and is confined to the sensations of the outer world. Our mental activities depend upon such external sensations and our reasoning ability is unable to go beyond the limits of the physical world. Joy and sorrows of life are just the reflection of outward events. In the Upanishad it has been said
that, ‘The self born has set the door of the body outwards, therefore the soul of a man gazes outward and not at the self within him’ .Normally, the outward, physical eyes with which we observe our lives, the body is our chief support .In this mind plays such a prominent role that we find ourselves wholly entangled in outward activity and superficial good and evil. The result of such ignorance is life long slavery and subordination. Joys and sorrows, good and evil, affluence and danger, compel us to control our mental states in their own terms. Greedy of enjoyment and afraid of sorrow, we come to depend on others for them and suffer endless misery and humiliation. Whoever or whatever is able to exercise control over our body and thought, we submit to their influence. Here the body is the prison, the body -centered intelligence, and the reasoning ignorance is the enemy, that prisons. This state of Imprisonment is our perennial condition, notwithstanding the irrepressible eagerness and enthusiasm on our part to gain freedom. Whatever be the religion, the aim is always the victory over the body, getting rid of the domination of the physical, the freedom of the inner self .The object of spirituality (religious seeking) is also the object of evolution. It is here that we differ from the animals .A complete submission to the body is what constitutes the animal state, while in the conquest of the body and the effort at inner freedom lies our manhood. Through knowledge we try to find out the mental guide of the body and life who lives within, or through action - devotion we try to surrender to it our body, mind and life. This freedom in Gita is referred as’ Fixed in Yoga do the action’ (Gita, II.48). Yoga sees the mind as an obstacle to higher consciousness, and agrees that mind is an invaluable tool for operating in the outer world, but, up to a point and considers the removal of desires rather than its gratification for evolution of consciousness leading to the awareness of real self. When the inner joys and sorrows, instead of depending on external good and evil, well-being and danger, become self bound, inward looking, the bondage of action is slacken.
that, ‘The self born has set the door of the body outwards, therefore the soul of a man gazes outward and not at the self within him’ .Normally, the outward, physical eyes with which we observe our lives, the body is our chief support .In this mind plays such a prominent role that we find ourselves wholly entangled in outward activity and superficial good and evil. The result of such ignorance is life long slavery and subordination. Joys and sorrows, good and evil, affluence and danger, compel us to control our mental states in their own terms. Greedy of enjoyment and afraid of sorrow, we come to depend on others for them and suffer endless misery and humiliation. Whoever or whatever is able to exercise control over our body and thought, we submit to their influence. Here the body is the prison, the body -centered intelligence, and the reasoning ignorance is the enemy, that prisons. This state of Imprisonment is our perennial condition, notwithstanding the irrepressible eagerness and enthusiasm on our part to gain freedom. Whatever be the religion, the aim is always the victory over the body, getting rid of the domination of the physical, the freedom of the inner self .The object of spirituality (religious seeking) is also the object of evolution. It is here that we differ from the animals .A complete submission to the body is what constitutes the animal state, while in the conquest of the body and the effort at inner freedom lies our manhood. Through knowledge we try to find out the mental guide of the body and life who lives within, or through action - devotion we try to surrender to it our body, mind and life. This freedom in Gita is referred as’ Fixed in Yoga do the action’ (Gita, II.48). Yoga sees the mind as an obstacle to higher consciousness, and agrees that mind is an invaluable tool for operating in the outer world, but, up to a point and considers the removal of desires rather than its gratification for evolution of consciousness leading to the awareness of real self. When the inner joys and sorrows, instead of depending on external good and evil, well-being and danger, become self bound, inward looking, the bondage of action is slacken.
Patanjali, who is known as master of Yoga and is attributed to have purified the mind of its impurities by Yoga through “Samadhi Pad” or illumination and “Sadhna Pad” or Practice. The samples of some of the rules or aphorisms are:
Illuminations
Yoga is controlling of the activities of the mind (chitta).
When the mind is controlled, the self remains in its native condition.
If not controlled there is constant movement (the speed of mind is unlimited).
Experience comes perception, inference, and evidence.
Perversion is an idea of an object not conforming to the nature.
Delusion is an idea (in words) without reality.
Sleep is a cessation of perception.
Recollection is the remembrance of past experiences.
Practice is efforts towards concentration.
Detachment is a deliberate renunciation of desires.
GOD is one unique personality, untouched by desire, affliction, action or its results.
In GOD lies the seed of consciousness.
The mind is distracted by disease, lack of enthusiasm, doubt, irregularity, lethargy, a yearning for sensual pleasure, hallucination, pain, nervousness, sulkiness, and irregular breathing. To destroy these, meditate on a single object.
The mind attains peace by associating with the happy, compassionate, virtuous, and by avoiding the vicious .It can attain peace through ‘Pranayam’.
Meditation leads one beyond sorrow or grief.
When the mind’s activity is controlled, illumination results.
The mind, rather than gaining knowledge through evidence and inference, reveals direct.
Knowledge of objects and their meaning in entirety.
Practice:
Ignorance, egoism, desire, aversion, and fear are afflictions.
Ignorance is the cause and others are the effects.
The ignorant call a perishable as imperishable, view the pure as impure, pain as pleasure, and non-self as self.
Desire is longing for pleasure, aversion to recoiling from pain, and fear is a constant natural terror of death.
The finer afflictions disappear when the mind is in illumination.
The grosser ones disappear through meditation.
Karma is rooted in afflictions. To the discriminating mind all karma is painful.
The link between the observer and the observed should be broken.
YAMA, NIYAMA, ASANA, PRANAYAM, PRATYAHARA, DHARMA, DHYAN, SAMADHI, ARE YOGA’S EIGHT STEPS.
Yama or rules mean non-violence, non-stealing, truth, greedless ness and celibacy. Purity, austerity, containment, repetition of sacred words, devotion to GOD is Niyam or regulations.
Next is asana are the postures. These are practiced to prepare the person for yoga. Today asana serve as a form of therapy, and if yoga can make the body there should certainly be no scope for disease. It is important to remember that some postures are harmful in certain conditions such has blood pressure .Asana (84 types) are practiced for the relaxation of muscles along with the relaxation of the mind, for improved coordination of muscles , and to maintain the stability of the body for a prolonged period of time to enable to initiate and sustain its activities. There are specific asana for pranayam and dhyan (meditation).The asanas control physical, mental and visceral functions . Asana implies steadiness and comfort, and requires relaxation and meditation on the immovable. (AphorismII, 46,47)
The fourth step is pranayam or control of the breath. It includes controlled exhalation, inhalation, and holding the breath. These may be short or long according to the length, duration and number of breaths. Prana means breath and ayana means pause.
Power
Attention focused upon an object is dharna.
The union of the mind and the object is dhyana.
Samadhi is the condition of the illumination.
The power of knowledge are obstacle to illumination, which otherwise brings success
.
Liberation
The dissolution of qualities at their source, when nothing remains to be achieved, is liberation, the revelation of the power of self, the foundation of the beauty of self.
The aim is to achieve total freedom
Let us look at spirituality’s attitude and approach to mind through the teachings of Sia Baba, in order to gain deeper appreciation of minds limitation.
The study of the mind has and the science of perfecting consciousness has not developed because man seeks peace and joy in external things and objective pleasures. The attention all along has been on the outer sense and the methods by which they can be used to collect information and pleasurable experiences. The vast regions of inner consciousness have been left untouched; the fact that mind is the creator of the multiple worlds of the senses is ignored. When the thorn enters the sole, it has to be removed by another thorn, and after that is done, both thorns are thrown away. So, too, the world of the things that the mind has projected has to be negated by clarified and concentrated mind, and then both the universe and the mind disappear. The thorn it is that pricks; the thorn it is that removes the thorn. The mind binds the mind releases.
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Transform the mind into an instrument of progress for liberation. Clarity of mind can be earned only by withdrawing it from external objects and teaching it through meditation on the One behind the many. When you see the One and not the many, you are liberated from the coils of delusion. Egoism is a doctrine that binds; but the ego as reflection of God in you liberates. However many trials and tribulations come in the way, look upon them as an unconcerned witness, with detachment, and do not let your mind be effected. Teach it this witness attitude .Man has all the capabilities in him, but he is unaware of his glory; he knows only a fraction of his power, and even that faintly and falteringly. He is degrading himself by yielding himself to three temptations: physical, worldly and scholastic. The scholastic temptation attracts people who are learned; it prompts them into controversy and competitive exhibitionism and ruins them by bloating their ego. The worldly temptation leads man to seek cheap popularity and gain fame and favor through all mea s available. The physical temptation insists on beautifying the body and resort to measures which will hide the oncoming of age.
Foster divine thought; cultivate non attachment; remember the fleeting nature of the things .Then the work of resistance will be easy. So in order to subdue it and shape it into a useful tool, reduce desire. The pull of the mind must also be reduced, controlled and finally destroyed to get rid of delusion.
Refrences
1.Patanjali Yoga.
2.The Life Divine by Shri Aurobindo
3.Tales of Prison Life Shri Aurobindo.
4. Spirit And The Mind Samuel H. Sandweiss MD
5.The Divine Romance Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.
6. Taken from the discourse by Sia Baba delivered on Feb 2,1959 named ‘The Moon and the Mind’.
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