The Cause of Unhappiness : 7. ( Last Part )

These functions all put together are the citta, the stuff of the mind. This stuff it is that reveals itself as various functions, though it is true that the stuff itself cannot be discovered and we can know its nature only from the functions that it performs. Nevertheless, we can know something about this stuff by the nature of this function. As I mentioned, we should take an average of the types of functions which the citta has been performing for the last several years, and we can know what stuff it is made of and what is it that is in store, inside it. When the task on hand is taken up, as it was mentioned, we have to strike the iron while it is hot, as they say. The total mind has to rise up to the occasion in a comprehensiveness that would be necessary to deal with the problem, just as when there is a national war, the whole nation girds up its loins. It is not only a few people that start thinking about it; the forces constituting the entire nation get stirred up into a single energy of action for the purpose that is on hand. Likewise, the energy of the total system is to be harnessed for the purpose of encountering this total situation that is called the citta.



When we get into trouble, we will find that we get trouble from every side; it will not be only from one side. When people start disliking us, everyone will start disliking us, and not one will like us afterwards. So is the nature of the mind. When it likes a particular thing, the whole of the mind will pounce upon that object which it likes and the entire resources of the mind will be there to back it up in the execution of this deed; and when it dislikes a thing, there will be a wholesale dislike. This is the peculiar way in which the mind works. In yoga we have to note this feature of the mind and act on it in the manner in which it acts in respect of objects. A wholesale view has to be taken. It is the total man that rises to the occasion for the purpose of subduing the total mind. It is not a partial aspect of ours that is functioning in yoga. It is a movement of the whole, towards the whole. So, we have to keep a cautious eye on every direction – externally, as well as internally.



The circumstances which may aggravate the desires of the mind should be avoided, though the aggravation has not taken place. It is not that the mind is always thinking of an object of sense, but it is likely that it can fix itself upon an object when conditions become favourable for it. Therefore, knowing that such and such conditions may aggravate a particular desire of the mind in respect of a particular object, it should be wisdom on the part of a seeker not to place oneself under those circumstances which are likely to aggravate the desires of the mind even in the future. This is because even a single desire, when it takes action, will be difficult to control since other desires which are there will also back it up. Wisdom consists in knowing what can happen in the future, though it has not taken place. We should not try to understand a situation only when it has taken place, because then it has gone out of hand. We should try to read the indications of the future by the present conditions, using a process of logical deduction.


Therefore, conditions which are likely to stir up the activity of desire should be avoided now itself. Anyone with a little bit of understanding will know what are those conditions, inasmuch as we know what are the predominant desires in our mind. So, avoid the conditions – external first, and internal afterwards. This is called vairagya, really speaking: an avoidance of all those factors and conditions which are likely to stimulate the mind towards enjoyment of sense. And, simultaneously, there should be practice; this is abhyasa, which we mentioned earlier. Together with this withdrawal of the mind from conditions which are likely to aggravate it in respect of fulfilment of desire, there should be practice of meditation on the ideal that has been chosen – namely, salvation of the soul.


The practice of yoga is an attempt of the mind to direct itself to the salvation of the soul, ultimately – the moksha, or the ultimate freedom which it is aiming at – so that it is doubly guarded in the practice. On one side, it has wrenched itself away from all those aggravating conditions, and on the other side, it has fortified itself further by an intensified concentration of itself on the great, glorious, magnificent goal which is going to be its destination.

END.


Next :  Removing the Ego with the Process of Samyama

To be continued  ....