MIND AND SERENITY - SWAMI TATWANANDA

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"When a man dwells upon objects, "attachments" for them arise; from

attachment "desire" is born; from desire, "anger" is born."

"From anger arises "delusions"; from delusion comes the "loss of memory";

from loss of memory arises "destruction of discrimination"; from destruction

of discrimination, one is "lost."

(Chap.2-Verses-62 & 63)

 

The mind is primarily a faculty of thinking. Its presence is understood by

its continuous flow of thoughts. A thought is - "Consciousness plus the

name/form of an object bereft of the physical weight of the object." Thus

thought is the essential modification of the mind in perceiving the world.

The psychological weight that we add to a thought is our "likes and dislikes"

for an object - compels us to "think repeatedly" about that object. That

"thinking" is further influenced by our emotions, attitudes and urgency of

need for the same.

 

Every object of our desire is unfailingly an object of our knowledge. The

knowledge and faith we have in its capacity to make us happy may be right or

wrong. However, that familiarity with a promise of happiness in the object,

creates a tendency to enjoy/experience the object. This tendency to enjoy

that object supported by the initial experience slowly gathers the status in

the mind as "habit." Habit means that which you have to repeat sometimes - at

least at lengthy intervals. Habit repeated becomes a "need." A need in other

words is "attachment."

 

The stimulus to gain the object of attachment is our desires. When a desire

is fulfilled, one feels successful and happy. But if one is faced with

failure then that dissatisfaction/disappointment is expressed as "anger."

Thus anger is born of desire. Thinking ruled by anger leads to delusion.

Delusion leads to loss of memory. The wisdom collected/assimilated through

sastra, education, the built in value system in respect to what is right or

wrong gets completely submerged. With the loss of wisdom the faculty of

discrimination is incapacitated. The loss of discrimination leads one not to

remember what one is, and what one should or should not do. Such a mind acts

uncontrollably and gets shattered in the process.

 

(Excerpted from Swamiji's talks - published in Mind and Serenity-1984)