Subtle Analytics Of Mind

Mind is such a subtle object that one can never see it but does fill it throughout life. It is as powerful and uncontrollable as wind. You must be at the helm of your mind. Instead, it drives us and forces us to act at its will. Thus, we become slaves because we cannot control it. The mind always remains unstable.

Modern science has carried out extensive study and research works on this particular subject for years by various means. But have not come to any conclusion. This process will continue for centuries.

Mind is also a reservoir of our past karmas. It is the unlimited storehouse of not only this life but many past lives. Present science and psychology might not accept and believe in it, but it is true. They make a big mistake by studying the brain as a mind because it always keeps on releasing waves.

They say that the mind is dependent on the brain, and we behave accordingly. But, it is a crucial mistake here. The brain stops working and dies with the body when the individual soul leaves, but the mind goes with the subtle body.

The mind separates from the gross body and transmigrates with the subtle body and stops functioning only when it transcends to the infinite.

But the Upanishads have the precise and perfect answer, with detailed description and reasoning. They are written some 7000 years ago with the practical in-depth analysis and several behavioural factors. Every Upanishad teaches about the self with different examples based on the nature of the mind.

When you study these scriptures in-depth and contemplate upon them, you will quickly learn that the mind is the foundation of the universe. There are five sheaths of a human personality. The meaning of personality here is not your physical or mental one. Certainly not how intelligent you are or how attractive your outer look is. But, the subtle and inner one.

Mind is the third sheath. Intellect is also a part of the mind but at a higher level. It is beyond the mind, even though it is connected. It is the fourth of the five sheaths in order according to the Upanishads. Where there is no mind, there is nothing. It is void.

While studying Upanishads or listening to lectures, a fundamental question always arises about the mind and its nature. It is complex and hard to understand. All the actions initiate in your mind first, and you behave accordingly. All the senses you experience are inside the mind, and the body is a physical part for expressing in the outer world.

The mind always flows outside. It is the natural tendency of the mind. Yet, there are other aspects of the mind; where it can see its own activities. The way you can see yourself in a mirror. It has its own mirror image.

If God or consciousness is beyond the body-mind complex and, if realisation occurs in the mind, how can it be a real experience? Since the mind is false or mithyä. This is the Upanishadic statement.

It requires careful consideration. When you experience or understand something in your mind, it often refers to the things beyond itself. For example, I say I am happy. When I say this, I speak with the tongue, the soundbox, the lungs and the entire vocal equipment.

My body uses the tongue to express my happiness, but it does not refer to the tongue. The pleasure is in my mind, and expression is in the tongue, with the activation of the entire sound system. It vocalises the sentiments loudly that I am happy.

Suppose you get excited about seeing some beautiful natural scenery. You see it with your eyes that contain cornea, lens, eyeball, retina and the entire visual system. You use eyes to express your excitement, but it does not refer to the eyes. The enthusiasm is in your mind and the expression is in the eyes.

The sensory organs of the ophthalmic system send messages to the mind, and thus we feel there. It visualises and brightens the sentiments that you are delighted about. Your mind is attached to the entire body. But we miss the connection of the subtle aspect with the physical aspect.

We make a fundamental mistake. It is natural. It is the basic unforced error we fail to recognise.

What does this indicate? Where does the excitement reside, and who is excited? Everything is in your mind. The mind cannot speak but uses the physical instruments of the body to manifest. Thus, this expression refers to something beyond the eyes. Vision works about things other than itself.

Similarly, knowing in our mind about the self that I am pure consciousness indicates something certainly beyond our mind. But the mind possesses the power to point something beyond it.

Ignorance about us dwells in the mind. The necessary awareness and wisdom to eliminate that ignorance also comes to mind and stays there. One more subtle question, where else can you attain realisation?

The realisation you seek is always there in your mind. A mind is a subtle form. It is a universal instrument. Therefore, it is untrue and a general state. Then, how can a spiritual awareness in your mind lead to absolute reality?

Why not, even if the mind is an appearance! Where does the realisation take place? Does it appear in the head, brain, heart or any other organs of your body? Or, does it appear in the absolute consciousness? No, it is not.

Mind is the only subtle object designed to store ignorance, knowledge, realisation, happiness, sorrow and other emotions. Hence, realisation can manifest itself only in our minds.

It is to be realised by the mind alone, according to the Upanishads. The question may arise here if it is beyond my mind, then what illuminates it to reveal knowledge and ignorance?

When you study Vedanta, you will learn to focus on the mind, try to recognise, meditate upon it, and then make the quantum leap. You achieve it here. But this achievement is also in your mind.

So when the knowledge about the self enters the mind, it starts removing ignorance. Thus, we believe that we are not this body-mind complex. Consciousness will start illumining itself there. Consciousness is self-revealed as ever.

It is not as if we find it at the time of attaining the highest truth. Thus, the self-revealed awareness manifests itself. I perceive that I am the unchanging self-illuminating consciousness that also occurs in my mind. If it does not reveal here, then where else could it be?

As the vision in our eyes refers to something beyond the eyes, knowledge in our mind can indicate something beyond the mind. Fundamentally, we observe that realisation cannot reveal pure consciousness because it is self-revealed.

But you will have to remove ignorance to reveal consciousness. You need pure knowledge for that. Ultimately, you will require the mind to go through all the processes of gaining knowledge. You will have to perform all your activities with the mind. Mind is infinite storage space.