Mind : ( 24/10/2012. )

Chapter-7. THE PSYCHIC STATES : 11.IMAGINATION :-6. Marichi Chaitanya, M.A., Ph.D., a Brahmachari of Rumania and myself sat for dinner in the Kailasa Kutia, Svarga Ashram, on the bank of the Ganga. A dish of potato soup was served. Marichi, who has no idea of Indian preparations, took it for a soup of meat. The colour and appearance of the potato soup was exactly the same as that of meat-soup. This is a case of “mental projection.” Marichi projected the idea of meat from his own Samskara within the mind into the potato-soup. Mental projections are all false. Kalpana in the mind means mental creation or imagination. This is the real Yogamaya. You will have to destroy these various Kalpanas. This is the aim of all the spiritual Sadhanas. Then you will be established in Nirvikalpa state of bliss. Pure Nivritti is needed to attain this after you have got Chitta-Suddhi through Nishkama-Karma Yoga. Next : TEMPERAMENT AND HOW IT CAN BE MODIFIED Swami Siv...

Chapter-7. THE PSYCHIC STATES : 11.IMAGINATION :-5. When your mind is deeply concentrated, period of two hours passes like five minutes. If the mind is distracted and wandering, half an hour hangs on as two hours. This is everybody’s experience. In dream also, many events that represent a period of fifty years take place within ten minutes. Through the play of the mind, a Kalpa is considered by it as a moment and vice versa. Time is but a mode of the mind. It is Kala Sakti. It is also illusory like the objects. Through the trick of the mind, one furlong at times appears to be a great distance and three miles at other times appear to be a very short distance. You ought to have noted this in your daily life. Swami Sivananda To be continued  ...

Chapter-7. THE PSYCHIC STATES : 11.IMAGINATION :-4. I shall explain to you the nature of “mental dramatisation.” Mark the ways of the mind. During conversation with your friends, the mind sometimes imagines in vain that it has hurt the feelings of your friend. It spends much of its energy in unnecessary feeling. You think : “How can I see him tomorrow morning? He may be displeased with me.” Next morning when you meet him, nothing happens. Your friend starts a pleasant conversation and smiles. You are surprised. To your great astonishment, the subject of talk takes quite a different turn altogether. A family-man imagines when a severe epidemic of plague ravages : “What shall I do if my wife develops plague and dies now? I have got six children.” This is his vain imagination. Nothing happens. Sometimes, when the train moves slowly on the Pamban Bridge over the sea near Ramesvaram, the mind imagines, “If the bridge gives way now, what will become of ...

Chapter-7. THE PSYCHIC STATES : 11.IMAGINATION :-3. Whenever the mind of two friends are strained by ill-feelings, these minds begin to exaggerate and concoct things. Fault-finding increases. It is very difficult to get at the truth of the statements of these two broken friends with broken friendship. Their utterances are always coloured by their inner feelings. The power of imagination does havoc now. Maya plays havoc through the mind and its power of imagination. Mind tempts and deceives. Think of one as a good friend of yours and there the thing iscreated as a reality. Think of him as your foe and then also the mind perfects the thought into an actuality. He who knows the working of the mind and has controlled it by practice is really happy. Swami Sivananda To be continued  ...

Chapter-7. THE PSYCHIC STATES : 11.IMAGINATION :-2. When the excitement is over, when he sees some blood-spots on his clothing or when some of his friends points out to him the wound in the leg, he gets the consciousness. Then he is alarmed a bit. The power of imagination plays havoc now. He gets a collapse now. The power of imagination always exaggerates. A man may have a little weakness. When he becomes your enemy, you at once exaggerate and magnify his weakness and Dosha. You even superimpose on this or concoct many more weaknesses and Doshas. This is due to evil imagination on your part. Swami Sivananda To be continued  ...

Chapter-7. THE PSYCHIC STATES : 11.IMAGINATION :-1. Prakriti never creates a vacuum in the mind. If one anxiety or worry is over, another anxiety immediately manifests. Mind can never become vacant. It has got infinite preoccupations. Carefully mark the ways of the mind. It tempts, exaggerates, magnifies, infatuates, unnecessarily alarms through vain imagination, vain fear, vain worries and vain forebodings. It tries its level best to divert you from concentration on your Lakshya. It took me many years to understand thoroughly the subtle workings of the mind. Mind works havoc through its power of imagination. Imaginary fears of various sorts, exaggeration, concoction, mental dramatisation, building castles in the air, are all due to this power of imagination. Even a perfect, healthy man has some imaginary disease or other due to the power of imagination of the mind. Much energy is wasted on account of imaginary fears. When his mind is fully occupie...

Chapter-7. THE PSYCHIC STATES : 10. WHIMS AND FANCIES :- 2. Do not do actions through whims. Action must be done through Viveka and wisdom. Destroy whims as soon as they arise, through Vichara. Always enquire whether the proposed action will bring you pleasure and spiritual gain or not. Be on the alert. The word ‘whim’ always goes with the term fancy. We say, “whims and fancies. ”A fancy is a phase of the intellectual faculty of a lighter and less impressive cast than the imagination of the active play of this lighter faculty. Fancy is a new and pleasing thought or conception due to this faculty. Fancy is a form of imagination. It helps a poet, but not an aspirant. It is a hindrance in meditation. It builds castles in the air. Check it by Vichara and Viveka. Just as waves and ripples rise on the surface of the ocean, whims, various caprices, fancies and wrong determinations also arise on the surface of the mind-ocean. The whims represent the ripp...