Conquering the mind is not complex once you develop witness state!

The mind always craves. It craves one after other. But the senses are real culprits. Unless the senses send their inputs, the mind may not crave as such. For instance, the eyes see some new item in the market or through media. Instantly, the mind gets interested and craves for the item. The body is often a slave to the mind. What the mind craves, the body tries to fulfill it. It may be a vision, a sound, a touch, a taste or it may be a dream also. The senses drive the mind to the external world, create taste and desires and make it to follow the desires.

One essential element which is vital in this scenario is terribly missing. Yes, the mind never consults the intellect but simply obey the whims of the senses. Thus, the mind has become a slave to the senses. Instead it should obey the intellect and consult it on all matters whether they are simple or complex. The mind should be so trained to obey the intellect in all the matters. Now a small example. Monkeys are fickle in nature and they won’t keep quiet even for a small second. But the captured monkeys obey implicitly its master, the street juggler. He trains the monkey to obey the stick in his hand. The monkey promptly obeys the command of the street juggler. The mind is very similar. It should be so trained to follow the intellect by force submission.

When the intellect gains the upper hand, the mind is rendered harmless. Discipline the mind with tasks. At first, the mind will rebel. But do not worry. It will fall in line by constant training which will become a habit later. Even the lions and tigers are trained to obey the commands of a ring master in a circus show. Spirituality is a best training ground for the mind. Repetition of the names of god mentally is the initial training. Later it should be trained in service activities of fellow beings that are in distress. But ego is the greatest obstacle to subdue the mind and ego arises due to body attachment. The mind too can not survive without a body. The mind always gets attached to a body and always tries for the joy and comforts of the body. Hence, whenever we bend the body to perform tasks, the mind rebels. Hence the proverb, “Bend the body, end the mind”.

Meditations are meant to go beyond the pulls and pushes of the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts which turns into desires, resolutions and plans. There is a nice example given by Sathya Saibaba once regarding conquers of the mind. As each thought arise in the mind and comes to the fore, stand apart, witness it and watch it without getting involved. Imagine each thought as an enemy soldier coming through a narrow path. As each soldier emerges in the path, cut him to pieces. Likewise all the thoughts can be negated when we stand apart ahead, hiding near the narrow path. Thus kill each thought as it arises without allowing it to move further. With steadfastness and with the aid of intellect inspired by the intuition, we can conquer the mind in course of time. Hence practice the witness state always and never get involved in the turnings and tumbling of the mind! Thus we can escape from the wicked mind.