Self Control: Forcible or Gradual

[Guest guest]

A lecture given by Swami Adiswarananda at the Ramakrishna Vedanta

Centre, Bourne End on October 23, 1998

 

The subject we are going to discuss is self-control - should it be

gradual or forcible? Firstly, self-control means control and mastery

over the mind, senses and the body. A person who has control is a

sage. One who has not is a slave. One who has control has peace,

happiness, tranquillity and also self-knowledge. Thoughts, delusions

and illusions harass one who lacks it.

 

Of the supporting texts of Vedanta on this subject, one is the

Bhagavad Gita. In one chapter it says, " One who has no self-control

has no peace; one who has no peace has no happiness, and one who has

no contact with the true Self has no self-control. " Happiness is not

dependent on having things or not having things. It is an interval

between the cessation of one desire and the start of another - a gap,

a moment of desirelessness.

 

Again, the Mahabharata raises this question in the chapter on the

enchanted bull. Yaksha, a voice without a form asks Yudhisthira a

number of questions. One of them is, " Who is happy? " In answer, the

king says, " One who is free from debts and obligations. " Then " one

who stays home " which means one who has contact with her true Self.

We are not home. All the time we are moving around, loafing around.

The third is " one who eats a scanty meal at the end of the day, "

meaning one who has mastery over the palate.

 

The third text, the Bhagavatam, says " The deluded person is troubled

by two urges: the palate and the sex instinct. Of these, the palate

is most important. One who has conquered the palate has also overcome

the grosser instinct. "

 

So, three supporting texts have been cited on the necessity of self-

control or self-mastery, which is essentially control over the mind.

We know the mind is our second body and the interpreter. The mind is

our constant companion; we cannot get rid of this fellow. Even in

dreams, he goes with you. He is your friend and your foe. When

regenerate, it is a friend; when angry, it is your worst enemy. And,

all you can trust about the mind is that you cannot trust it.

 

Self-knowledge is the means, then. We perceive the world through the

prism of the mind, so the world is in the mind. " Mind is the cause of

bondage and mind is the cause of liberation. " We are born in the

mind, we live in the mind, and we die in the mind. But the mind is

not in our control.

 

An average person, it is said, is born crying, lives complaining and

dies disappointed. The mind is restless. One is all the time looking

for novelty, for change. We get bored with things very easily. We

are unable to see things in the proper perspective. We cannot think

properly. Thinking give you a clear perception.

 

George Bernard Shaw once remarked, with his usual caustic

wit, " Thinking is rare. The average individual perhaps thinks once or

twice a year. I have made a distinguished career by thinking as often

as once a week. "

 

to be continued...