A treatise on mind
- Part 2 -

Kakchingtabam Brajamani Sharma *

Each mental state can change the behaviour of the individual. When there is no good mood in the mind, the person has no willingness to act, though having enough strength and ability. Impulses are stimulators, activators and hammer the individual to thing and act on the direction of the impulse. Emotions soften the mind and make the reconsider any decision already adopted.

It is a valuable mental state, for it, sometimes sways the rational resolutions to nothingness. Sentiment is the thought occasioned by feeling. Feeling has a great power to a person in taking decision for any event. Brotherly feeling, ill feeling, passionate feeling, friendly feeling, elderly feeling etc. are all forms of sentiment.

For a sentiment, one can desert even the precious life. Similarly, Whims are powerful mental state. Unexpected feelings may be expressed due to whims. It is a form of caprice. The act of a whimsical person cannot be easily known. Sometimes furious or very mind within seconds. Fancies are also forms of imagination. Imagination may be with a purpose. Fancies can change an individual in his career or way of living.

Instinct is an innate impulse. It may be an innate propensity in lower animals and an intuition to a man of highly cultured or controlled mental state. Generally, there are two important instincts in human being and also in animals. They are, the instinct of self-preservation and the instinct of reproduction.

No parents instruct their offspring to have the above two instincts, but the impulse is already in the being. Eating-drinking, resting and protection are the three main processes given by the instinct of self-preservation.

Without food no one can live, without rest there will be no energy and without protection from unwanted aggression, there will be no life. From these three, art and culture, believes, traditions, social norms and other necessities for happy living are coming out. On the other hand, the instinct of reproduction in living beings makes the world continue to exist.

A man with defected eyes sees wrongly a thing and it can be corrected by using a proper lends, so also, the same thing can be perceived in different ways to different defected minds. Mind is defected by several reasons and are categorized into three heads, viz. impurity, tossing and ignorance which are known as mala, vishepa and avarana in Sanskrit respectively.

Passion, anger, jealousy and others make the mind impure just as water is polluted with dust, leaves and others. An impure mind always marches towards the hell through the various roads to the hell called sin. It can be corrected by means of selfless service or Nishkama karma Yoga, as rightly instructed in the Gita.

A feather flies from this to that in a whirlwind. It is called tossing. Moving but not covering a distance, enjoying but not pleasure, only pain and another pain, causing the body decay is the result of tossing the mind between the actions of like and dislike, love and hatred, success and failure caused by Nature.

Such a disease of the mind can be cured by worship, practice of Pranayama and other items of Raja Yoga. Ignorance is veiling the real. If a transparent particle, say a piece of glass, be placed before a beam of light, the rays are either deflected or diffused and if an opaque body is placed, no light is emitted,

So also, if the mind is veiled by any object, opaque or transparent, the reflections from the objects of senses to the mind have to be diverted from the real. An object can be perceived differently due to the veiling. A woman is the protector of her child, an object of enjoyment a well as a life partner to her husband and an object of prey to a hungry man-eater.

Such a process is going on to a man living in this world or a worldly man. Whatever we see, hear, taste etc. are but reflection from the mind and if the mind is covered by anything called like, dislike, agreeable, attachment etc. are not real. This is a disease of the mind.

We are advised by experts in this regard, to do Brahma Vichara, considering the nature of Real and Unreal, to study the scriptures like the Gita, Upanishads, Brahma Sutra and other, to listen to the pragmatic treatise of the experts etc.

If we want to know about the mind, the system of making whirl-pool in the mental substance which is call Vritti, is needed. Because, we live on the series of thoughts. Such thoughts are originated from the so called Vrittis and hence, the formation of Vritti and the function is to be understood clearly.

A blacksmith makes a knife from a bar of iron. The bar is heated and the portion of the iron bar which is supposed to become the size of the knife is cut off and then heated, hammered and so on. This may be taken as an example of making vritti in the mind substance.

When a man sees or hearts or touches, the form, the sound or else enters the mind substance and the form of the incoming thing is wrapped all around by the mental substance there by disturbing the equilibrium and peaceful state of the mind.

The mental substance forms of its own particle the form of the incoming information as sound, smell, taste, etc. and can be understood in the same mental plane. The process of forming new forms in the plane of mental substance disturbs time and again, the by a whirl-pool is continued. If it becomes too much, the man cannot bear the load and may have collapse. Generally, the vrittis give rise to thinking.

In the process of vritti, the mind substance, if related to the things outside the body, it is said as Vishayakara Vritti (whirl-pool related to objects) and when it is related to the inner being, it is said to be Brahmakara Vritti (whirl-pool related to infinity).

When the mind created the form of the object outside, it remains even when the real object is practically removed. The mind thinks of the object and creates related possible other things and the totality of which is called thought.

As men follow the track of thoughts, it is wisely said that thought created the world. According to the Seers, world is nothing but a creation of thoughts and also mind is a bundle of thoughts. When there is not thought, there is no world. Yoga aims at the nothingness of the world and existence of the Brahma, or the Supreme Lord, that is, to stop making whirlpools in the mental substance.

Now we see that, the function of mind is so great in a living being. Moreover, thoughts have forms, colours and productivity. A happy man shows bright face whereas a worried one has gloomy face, an angry man shows furious acting while a steady and peaceful man has an innocent face, and so on. This is the proof of having forms, colours and productivity of thought.

A thought may produce another thought. Thoughts are termed as positive, negative, provocative, creative, etc. in accordance with the purpose and mode of thinking. It is said that, a spiritual thought has yellow colour, a thought charged with anger and hatred is of a dark red colour, a selfish thought has a brown colour, an intelligent one has green colour and so on.

A yogi can easily see such colours of the thought by means of concentration and meditation. We can do this easily, if we practice a little in Yoga system. This is called yogic eye or inner eye. Again, men have different languages but, thought is one only. Therefore, mental image remains the same. When there is calm to a man, there is no thought.

As soon as any thought enters the mind, it takes a shape, colour and gathers power of doing further action. The same breath is blown to different pipes and the sounds produced are different. A flute, a clarionet, a brass band etc. have different sounds, though the same breath is blown through, So also the same sound comes out through different lips in a variety of sound forms which we call language,.

Hence, languages may be different but the mental image will remain the same. If anyone can read mental image, then he can understood the language or wishes of the persons in his contact. Such a power is called antaryami or all knowing or clairvoyance. Here is the precious gem of human being which can be offered by Yoga only.


to be continued .....