some thoughts on the mind

[Guest guest]

namaste. Some random thoughts on the mind. Corrections and

comments are very much appreciated.

 

The question: What is mind made up of? What is the mind and

how does it function?

 

The sanskrit word for mind is manas. It is subtle in nature.

It can be argued that our primary objective and what the upanishads

teach is to reveal Brahman, the Atman. Thus, no purpose is served

to an intense mumukshu to study the functioning of the manas.

However, as long as we are embodied, and we think we are limited

by this embodiment, we are bound by the manas, and understanding

how it functions will help us to put it in its place.

 

Manas is characterized as something which goes out far. Thus,

it is not a physical sense-organ.

 

The body is made up of food. The mind is also made up of the food

intake. This is substantiated in BhagavadgItA, Br^hadAraNyaka and

ChAndogya upanishads. The intellect, the buddhi is also made up

of food. Thus, the body-mind-intellect complex, the jeeva, is made

up of the food intake.

 

By practice (sAdhanA), the mind is to be made subservient to the

intellect and the intellect has to be pure so that any unsavoury

thought that enters the body-mind-intellect complex is immediately

thrown out. After all, if the thought repeatedly visits this complex,

it takes route. The viveka has to be on vigil all the time so that

unsavoury thoughts do not get a foothold. I take the body as the

housing and the buddhi, the intellect as the gatekeeper. Mind is

simply the wanderer either in or out, and meditation is to keep this

wanderer still.

 

In the ChAndogya upanishad, UddAlaka teaches Svetaketu that when food

is eaten, the finest part of it becomes manas. Shri Shankara comments

on this in His bhAshhya. Since by eating food one increases one's mind,

such increase must be caused by the food that was eaten. When a human

does not eat, his/her powers of speech and mind are very much diminished.

When food is taken, there is a gradual increase in these activities.

All activity in the body is made possible because of the energy that

is made available by the consumption of food. Thus, it naturally follows

that manas is increased by the food intake. Thus, manas must be of the

nature of food.

 

The human is superior to animals because of his/her capacity to anticipate

the future and remember the past (Aitareya AraNyaka). Shri Shankara, in

His ChAndogya UpanishadbhAshhya raises a question: if the mind is made up

of food, then how is it some animals, although they consume food, do not

have the consequential mind? All things are tripartite, being made up of

water, fire and food, each being fit to conserve the three aspects of

existence, life, speech and mind. Therefore, each organism that consumes

food makes use of that food according to its need. Thus, mind is made up

of the finest particles of food.

 

Manas governs the sense-organs. The five karmendriyAs (senses of action)

and the five jnAnendriyAs (senses of knowledge) work under the control

of manas and depend on manas for their functioning. It is only when manas

is in conjunction with the sense organs that it is possible to have any

perceptual knowledge. ChAndogya upanishad says that manas is superior to

the sense organs. Br^hadAraNyaka upanishad also says the same thing: when

mind is elsewhere, I do not see, I do not hear although the sense organs

are directed at the object of perception. The lack of perception is due

to the diversion of the mind from that sense organ to other things. Hence

knowledge is entirely dependent upon the attention bestowed by the mind

on the object of perception. Thus, mind is the most important requisite

for knowledge.

 

sasheSham (to be continued)

 

 

Regards

Gummuluru Murthy

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