Summary of Lesson 5

5.1 Play of the Mind
Life is a continuous series of experiences. In Vedantic terms,

• Our senses are coming in contact with the objects in the external world.
• Our mind and intellect are processing the data according to the propulsion of our vasanas, in circumstances created by our destiny.
• Based on our desires, we take actions, which create experiences.

Hence, every person’s experience of the same world is different. Vasanas define our individuality, and we see the world through the prism of our individual desires and thoughts and interpret it accordingly.

Imagine two teams are playing a cricket match. At the end of it, one team wins and the other loses. From the same match, the players and the supporters of the winning team will have completely different experiences from those in the losing team.

• Identification with a team at the intellect level (intellectual personality)
• Desire – that they win in all matches
• Thought – in what ways I can support them
• Action – watching a match, supporting them in the stadium etc.

The entire experienced world is a projection of our minds. Our mind with its individual likes and dislikes create a tailored world for us. Therefore, the scriptures say that we need to mobilise our self-effort to reform our thoughts and actions. How can we fully utilise our resources to use the complete potential of self-effort?By purifying our emotions and strengthening our intellects That will enable us to choose Shreyas over Preyas most of the time.

As Swami Vivekananda said “Master your mind and you master the world”. What does mastering our mind mean? That,It is guided by our intellect and not unduly influenced by our emotions. Therefore they are perfectly aligned.It is ready to accept Shreyas without suppressing the desires. It will have increasingly purer thoughts and project an increasingly peaceful image of the world. The culmination of this process happens when one gets to realise their true nature and the whole world becomes an expression of the Divinity.

When we take our attention away from our inner world and look at the outer world, there are three ways we try to improve our worlds.

• Economics – increasing material wealth
• Politics – increasing social harmony
• Science – harnessing the power of nature

Religion is not against any of these, but it cautions us to do this instead of rehabilitating, strengthening or reforming our inner world. Otherwise, sitting in the middle of outer turmoil, and being unduly influenced by it, how can one become happy?

Religion suggests that we apply the three eternal principles to our physical, mental and intellectual personalities to master the world.

• Brahmacharya – Self control applied to the physical personality
• Ahimsa – non-injury applied to the mental personality
• Satyam – Truthfulness applied to the intellectual personality

5.2 Fundamentals of Living
Brahmacharya – Self discipline. This principle works at the body level.

If we feed our continuous cravings for sense gratification in an unrestrained way, we go deeper and deeper into the cycle of desires-thoughts-actions, continuously creating more vasanas and experiencing the cycles of joys and sorrows with a continuously agitated mind, far away from peacefulness or serenity.

Therefore, as the scriptures say, it is necessary to live a life of self-control with respect to all organs of perception and enjoyment and enjoy everything with discretion. They do not say that one has to forcibly stop enjoying everything and live the life of complete celibacy. We should be in full control of our enjoyment rather than being enslaved by the sense objects and a victim of the sense organs. Excessive indulgence in any sense-pleasure violates Brahmacharya.
We need to shift the focus of our attention from the external world of objects to the inner world of divinity.

Ahimsa – non-injury – This principle works at the mind level. Not entertaining any thought or desire to hurt or injure any other creature. Here, intention is more important than the actual action. If the intention is cruel, then it is against the Ahimsa principle. Sometimes, parents or teachers are disciplining children for their long term benefits, and their actions may seem cruel on the surface. However, the intention is always pure and based on their love for the children.

Satyam – truthfulness – This principle works at the intellect level.
This means embracing the truth at all levels of thoughts and activities. It is aligning what we believe in with what we say and what we do. If we are committed to a high ideal, adhering to that ideal with our kaya-mano-vak is truthfulness.
If there is misalignment in this, even for reasons we think is beneficial for others, we are compromising on our principle of truth.

5.3 Harmony and Poise
Do we live in harmony and poise in the middle of all disturbances and turmoil?

Disturbances are of two types – internal and external. They feed each other. The disturbances that are happening in the world influence us and create mental conflicts, tension, anger, frustration et al negative emotions. External disturbances are a given, having to face them is inescapable, a part of our destiny. But, how do we face them is the question. Often, when we have not invested in and worked on our mind and intellect instruments, we allow the external circumstances to create negative emotions within us.

Example: bacteria entering a weak body. Similarly, the world with its challenges can overpower and crush us if we allow ourselves to be weak.

How do we rise above the challenges? We have a choice of how we view our problems:
From an individual perspective (I own the problem)
From the perspective of totality (one of the many problems of the Universe)

From an individual perspective, the problem gets too much importance and becomes overwhelming. From a totality perspective, it loses its size and intensity.

We are so used to seeing problems from an individual perspective, that the view of totality is difficult to conceive. But constant remembrance of this thought will take us to that realm.
But, sinking our intellect to the totality does not mean that we become inactive, being a fatalist, giving in to the law of destiny, not applying our self-effort, enthusiasm or motivation to do our duties.

We can do our duties, using our self-effort and can still live in harmony with the universe – bringing in a poised inner world that takes us beyond the external disturbances.