I.D Soni
(a) The Value of the Mind: First we have to understand the mind. The mind is infinitely valuable; only because it exists in our body and we are called human beings. If someone loses his hand, he can still live. If someone loses his leg, he can still live. If someone loses his eyes, he can still live a very good life. However, if someone has lost his mind, he is as good as dead. If the mind is gone, everything is gone. A man who happens to be of a great support many people, but because he has lost his mind, he cannot even support his own body.
No matter how much wealth a person has, if he has not received the blessings of his own mind, his wealth is of no use to him. No matter how many skills a person has, if his mind is gone, his skills have no value. Even if his body is very strong and healthy, if his senses of perception and organs of action function perfectly, if his mind is not well, his life does not work. A person may have a very young and beautiful body, but if his mind is sick, he is older than the most aged persons. On the other hand, his body may be very old, his outer circumstances may be terrible, his family life may be falling apart, but if his mind is strong and quiet, neither unhappiness nor grief can touch him. That is why, if someone were to ask me, “What is the most important possession in this world?” I would say, “A good mind.”
The ancient Indian sages and philosophers did a great deal of search into the inner worlds and composed many great scriptures and philosophical works. In all these lengthy texts, very little is written about God. Instead, it is the mind-the different means for purifying and stilling it- which is discussed. The sages discovered that the purer the mind is, the happier one feels. The minds of children are not stable, but they are very pure, and for this reason children are happier than most adults. However, greater happiness comes when one stills the mind. Although it is necessary to still the mind, there is no point in trying to subjugate it or still it by force. It is useless to chase after the mind, trying to quiet it forcibly.
All these senses, external and internal, must be under our control. By hard practice we have to arrive at the stage where we can assert our mind against the senses, against the commands of nature. We should be able to say to our mind, “You are mine; we order you, do not see or hear anything. Next, the mind must be made to quiet down. It is rushing about. We must have great power of endurance. Life seems comfortable; and we find the mind behaves well when everything is going well with us. But if something goes wrong our mind loses its balance. That is not good. We must bear all evil and misery without one murmur of hurt, without one thought of unhappiness, resistance, remedy or retaliation. This is true endurance.
All the knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind. The external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion, which sets us to study our own mind, but the object of study is always our own mind. All knowledge depends upon calmness of mind. It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our minds. Let us learn to see things in the proper light. All knowledge, therefore, secular or spiritual, is in our mind. We have in us all and a thousand times more than is in all the books. We must not lose faith in ourselves, we can do anything in this universe with the help of our pure mind.
(b) Let Us Train Our Mind to be Positive:
At a fundamental level, as human beings, we are all the same; each one of us aspires to happiness and each one of us does not wish to suffer. Today, there is increasing recognition, as well as a growing body of scientific evidence, that confirms the close connection between our own states of mind and our happiness. On the one hand, many of us live in societies that are very developed materially, yet among us are many people who are not very happy. Just under neath the beautiful surface of affluence there is a kind of mental unrest, leading to frustration, unnecessary quarrels, reliance on drugs or alcohol, and the worst case, suicide. There is no guarantee that wealth alone can give us the joy or fulfilment that we seek.
However, as human beings we are gifted with marvellous human intelligence and a capacity to develop determination and use it is positive ways. This will enable us to pressure our underlying mental health. Realising we have this great human potential gives us a fundamental strength. This recognition can act as a mechanism that enables us to deal with any difficulty or a situation without losing hope or sinking into feelings of low self-esteem. If the problem or the situation is such that it can be remedied, then there is no need to worry about it. The appropriate action is to seek its solution. Then it is clearly more sensible to spend our energy focussing on the solution rather than worrying about the problem.
Taking a realistic view and cultivating a proper motivation can also shield us against feelings of fear and anxiety. If we develop a pure and sincere motivation, if we are motivated by a wish to help on the basis of kindness, compassion and respect, then we can carry on any kind of work, in any field, and function more effectively with less fear and worry, not being afraid of what others think or whether we ultimately will be successful in reaching our goal. Even if we fail to achieve our goal, we can feel good about having made the effort.
(To be continued…)
