[Guruvayur/Guruvayoor] Mind and Ego.

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OHM NAMO BHAGAVATHE VASUDEVAYA. OHM NAMO NARAYANAYA.

 

GURUVAYYOORAPPA RASHIKENAME.

 

RAJEE ANANDA

 

--- GANAPATHY RAMAN <agraman62 wrote:

 

> Objective knowledge is not possible by use of the

> physical senses and brain alone.Hence,side by side

> with the physical evolution,another instrument,the

> mind,had to evolve.Scientists believe that along

> with the appearance of life in

> physical form,mental activity also

> appeared.However it is only in man that this

> faculty has developed to the maximum.So mind is an

> inevitable consequence

> of life and it begins long before the complex

> nervous system is evolved.

>

> In our scriptures,unlike in those of the West,mind

> is considered as a form of energy or matter and

> referred to as the sixth sense organ.It is an

> instrument

> of Consciousness from which it arises.Lord Krishna

> says in the Gita 'mamai

> vamso jivaloke jivabhutah sanatanah/manah sasthani

> ndriyani prakritisthani

> karsati' ( A fragment of My own Self has become a

> living form,eternal in the

> world of life.It draws to itself the senses,of

> which the mind is the sixth,that

> revels in the nature.).Just as the gross form has

> Consciousness as its source

> of origin thru the intermediate stages of energy

> patterns,the mind as well as

> intelligence arise from the same source.Again the

> Lord says 'Indriyanam manas

> ca'smi bhutanam asmi cetana (Of the senses I am

> the mind and among living

> beings I am Consciousness.).So mind

> energy,physical and material energy

> are various forms and stages in the expression of

> Consciousness.Thus the

> physical body consisting of the five senses,the

> mind and the intelligence arise

> from the same source,only varying in their grades

> of subtlety,the body having the

> maximum grossness.The Lord rides in the chariot of

> the body using intellect as

> the charioteer,the mind as the reins and the five

> senses as the horses.

>

> The mind is one faculty in man that,being very

> elusive,has intrigued the

> physiologists,the neuorologists and the

> psychiatrists alike.An interesting story

> is that of a master and his disciple.Once a

> disciple came to the master and said

> 'Sir,I hv no peace of mind,please help me'.The

> master told him 'go home and bring your mind

> tomorrow and I shall pacify it'.The student returned

> the next day

> looking rather dejected.The master asked

> 'well,have you brought your mind?'.The

> disciple lamented 'Sir,I searched for the mind

> everywhere but could not find it'.The master

> said,'Ah,there you are.I hv pacified your mind'.The

> inference is that there is no point in the body

> where the mind can be located.Commonly people talk

> of

> the brain as the seat of the mind.But,on careful

> analysis we know that the brain is nothing more than

> an instrument thru which the mind and intelligence

> function.

> The spiritual teachers deny the mind the status of

> a separate entity.and say that

> it is only a flow of thoughts that constitute the

> mind.This fits in with the view that

> the mind is a form of energy and only when it

> moves or flows it reveals its presence.Any type of

> energy can be known only when it becomes dynamic.

>

> As designed the human mind has very limited

> functions to perform.The first is to intrepret the

> information brought in by any one of the physical

> senses and

> the second is to coordinate the functioning of the

> different senses so that a

> composite objective knowledge can be gathered.In

> this process it makes use of

> the brain for storing and subsequent retrieval of

> the images.The brain itself is not

> the source of the principal thought.It is only an

> operating centre for the energies of life,mind and

> intelligence.If the life energy is turned off by the

> Consciousness

> the brain will cease to function.Besides these two

> basic functions the mind is

> capable of two other phenomena,viz.projection into

> space and time.While the

> actual stimulation of the sense organ,like for

> instance the ear,takes place in the

> organ itself,the impulse may come from a place far

> away from the body.The mind is capable of not only

> identifying the sound but also able to locate the

> source

>

> ofthe impulse outsidethe body,where it comes

> from.So too it is capable of such

> a projection in time also.Mind is a priceless

> possession.It is God's greatest gift

> to man.The scriptures say that the mind alone is

> responsible either for man's

> bondage or for his liberation.It depends how one

> uses the same.

>

> Normally the mind shuld stop with these functions

> and when there is no need for

> its functionng,it shuld stop emanating and reside

> in its source,namely the

> Consciouness.Such a mind is referred to as the

> whole mind.However the mind

> does not stop there but starts moving out

> continuously,forming ts own concepts.

> It jumps from place to place like a restless

> monkey.This everyone experiences

> atall times whether in work,doing prayer etc.The

> taming of the mind is such a

> fantastic job that it requires super human efforts

> in the ordinary course.Even when we read this our

> mind instead of concentrating on that must be moving

> to

> different things, abt the pending things to be

> done tomorrow,thinking at the ailing

> relatives etc etc.This development ultimately

> reaches such proportions that the

> mind gets out of hand and divorced from its

> source.Hence it is rightly said that

> Consciousness plus conceptual activity is mind and

> mind minus its concepts is

> Consciousness.The first concept is to split what

> is otherwise whole and assume

> an individuality.This is the result of the mind

> identifying itself with a particular

> psychosomatic system.With the sense of

> individuality arises the 'me' thought

> and everything outside that particular form

> becomes 'you' or the other.Thus starts the

> functioning of the split mind.The sense of complete

> identification with a particular body creates an

> imaginary individual,the ego.This phantom individual

> has no real existence of its own.With the rise of

> ego the flow of thoughts become a never ending

> process.The thoughts now revole round the ego and

> its

> selfish activities.With this the 'atman' is

> ignored and even forgotten.Another

> mental concept that arises as a result of

> forgetting the indwelling Consciounss

> is to imagine the existence of a personified

> entity called God,outside oneself.

> With it comes the fear of God and attempts to

> please Him and beg for favours

> from Him.

>

> Sage Ramana gives a beautiful picture of this

> attitude of the ego.'TheLord bears

> the burden of the world.Know that the spurious ego

> which presumes to bear that

> burden is like a sculptured figure at the foot of

> the temple tower which appears

> to sustain the tower's weight.Whose fault is it if

> the traveller,instead of putting

> the luggage in the cart,which bears the load

> anyway,carries it on his head to his

> own inconvenience?'.No doubt man has to live in

> this world with other persons

> and objects but as Swami Ranganathananda says,'a

> boat will be on the water,

> that is the right place for the boat.But water

> shuld not be allowed in the boat,that is the wrong

> place for it'.It is strange that the ego strutting

> about with its

> tossing hood does not realize that the body on

> which its very existence depends

> will come to an end sooner or later.The only

> solution is that the 'atma' being the

> subtlest of all,shuld hold sway over the rest.When

> one breaks a coconut in the temple it is symbolic

> that the ego is broken too.The offering is not made

> as if the

> same is consumed by God.It is a symbol of

> destruction of 'ahamkara' which has to split into

> two at one stroke,the stroke of wisdom.When can one

> get the effect?When the fibrous shell is removed.So

> too man must strive to remove

> the fibrous matter that encases his

> heart,lust,anger,envy,and the rest of the

> wicked brood.There lies the secret of controlling

> one's ego and mind.

>

> Hare Krishna,

>

> agraman.

>

>

>

>

>

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