How well do you know yourself? You might think that with age we get to know ourselves better due to more experience. We can see how our minds and instincts react to situations in life. And we also see how, despite knowledge and observation, sometimes we continue to be caught out by the mind and senses, which end up causing us to do things we later regret. It’s the same for all of us and has always been like this. Nothing much has changed in human psychology since the dawn of creation because we are still basically the same body and mind as we always were.
That is why we can find timeless psychological advice in the oldest written texts on the planet today, the Sanskrit Veda. In Bhagavad Gita for example, which is alleged to have been written down around 5000 years ago, we hear of the classic paradigm that repeatedly overwhelms the best of us, despite attempts at mastering it. It clearly describes a step by step process of how we become bewildered, and it goes like this:
- Mind contemplates sense objects
- attachment to the objects occurs
- which leads to lust after the object
- which leads to anger if unfulfilled
- which leads to delusion
- which leads to bewilderment of memory
- which leads to loss of intelligence
- which ends in us falling further into material illusion
That is how the Bhagavad Gita describes the workings of the human mind. It is led by the senses which chase after the objects of sense gratification. The senses drag the mind along which, if untrained or uneducated, becomes attached to the pleasure source. Attachment leads to lust, which unfulfilled leads to anger. Anger clouds rational thinking, as you may know from personal experience.
When a person looses their temper and anger overrides the intelligence or memory of past experience, then wisdom and learning count for little. The anger send us back into a primitive fight-or-flight mode, perhaps described as the reptilian brain, focused in the amygdala in the brain itself. We end up acting recklessly and even dangerously due to losing our temper and control of our minds and senses. Foolish and thoughtless things which we often regret in a calmer moment of reflection.
And it is this situation of having our intelligence covered by instinct which can lead to the greatest type of wrong outcome for all concerned. Ultimately we are all simply a bunch of primal instincts, thinly covered by a semblance of civility, based on our education and training. This is where knowledge is so important, and most important is knowledge of ourselves.
Understanding human psychology means knowing what is in the user manual that should come with the human body. Yet we don’t have such a thing today. However, in the past we had Bhagavad Gita thousands of years ago already, and many have used it to guide them through the dangerous path in the world of illusion or Maya.
Yet even the most learned are potential victims of the illusions and allures of this material plane. We think that we are the body, and so the senses of the body drag us along in pursuit of gratification. Unless one has the basic understanding of self as separate from the body and mind, then it will be tricky to detach from the demands of the senses, even if merely in the mind as a thought or contemplation. We don’t even have to see the real thing and already our minds are pulled off into some fantasy imaginary indulgence with the sense objects.
Unless we have some higher engagement for the mind and senses, they will continue to be easily bewildered by fleeting allures. As the saying goes: An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Therefore the path of yoga is not merely about sitting in a remote place and avoiding the sense objects. That alone is not enough because we carry our desires with us in the mind. Rather, we must find a process of engaging our mind and senses in our yoga practice on a daily basis. This can be achieved through study, through hatha yoga, or more directly through bhakti yoga, which is the path of selfless service to the divine or to god.
Artificial renunciation is impossible since the senses were built to be engaged. Also the mind is by nature active because the spirit soul that animates the body and mind is by nature active, not dormant or static. It is animated consciousness filled with qualities and personality that animates the outer physical body and mind. Therefore, in this day and age the path of sitting in yoga or meditation is not enough. We are no longer able to simply sit and renounce the world. We need some easier engagement in which to channel the mind and senses.
We simply spiritualize our previously mundane activity where possible. That which can’t be spiritualized is to be discarded. That is where the renunciation does actually play a part. Yet everything else can be dovetailed into devotional service to the supreme personality of godhead, as mentioned in the Vedas, the godhead that is simultaneously within our heart, and the heart of all living beings, and also simultaneously far away or transcendent. That is the secret to harnessing the fickle or restless mind and senses, as described in this verse of Bhagavad Gita.
Bhagavad Gita ch2:62
ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंसः सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते ।
सङ्गात्सञ्जायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते ॥ ६२ ॥
dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ
saṅgas teṣūpajāyate
saṅgāt sanjāyate kāmaḥ
kāmāt krodho 'bhijāyate
dhyayataḥ—while contemplating; viṣayān—sense objects; puṁsaḥ—of the person; saṅgaḥ—attachment; teṣu—in the sense objects; upajāyate—develops; saṅgāt—attachment; sanjāyate—develops; kāmaḥ—desire; kāmāt—from desire; krodhaḥ—anger; abhijāyate—becomes manifest
TRANSLATION
While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises.
COMMENTARY
One who is not Kṛṣṇa conscious is subjected to material desires while contemplating the objects of senses. The senses require real engagements, and if they are not engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, they will certainly seek engagement in the service of materialism. In the material world everyone, including Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā—to say nothing of other demigods in the heavenly planets—is subjected to the influence of sense objects, and the only method to get out of this puzzle of material existence is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. Lord Śiva was deep in meditation, but when Pārvatī agitated him for sense pleasure, he agreed to the proposal, and as a result Kārtikeya was born. When Haridāsa Ṭhākur was a young devotee of the Lord, he was similarly allured by the incarnation of Māyā Devī, but Haridāsa easily passed the test because of his unalloyed devotion to Lord Kṛṣṇa. As illustrated in the above-mentioned verse of Śrī Yāmunācārya, a sincere devotee of the Lord shuns all material sense enjoyment due to his higher taste for spiritual enjoyment in the association of the Lord. That is the secret of success. One who is not, therefore, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, however powerful he may be in controlling the senses by artificial repression, is sure ultimately to fail, for the slightest thought of sense pleasure will agitate him to gratify his desires.
Bhagavad Gita ch2:63
क्रोधाद्भवति सम्मोहः सम्मोहात्स्मृतिविभ्रमः ।
स्मृतिभ्रंशाद्बुद्धिनाशो बुद्धिनाशात्प्रणश्यति ॥ ६३ ॥
krodhād bhavati sammohaḥ
sammohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ
smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo
buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati
krodhāt—from anger; bhavati—takes place; saṁmohaḥ—perfect illusion; saṁmohāt—from illusion; smṛti—of memory; vibhramaḥ—bewilderment; smṛti-bhraṁśāt—after bewilderment of memory; buddhi-nāśaḥ—loss of intelligence; buddhi-nāśāt—and from loss of intelligence; praṇaśyati—falls down
TRANSLATION
From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool.
COMMENTARY
By development of Kṛṣṇa consciousness one can know that everything has its use in the service of the Lord. Those who are without knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness artificially try to avoid material objects, and as a result, although they desire liberation from material bondage, they do not attain to the perfect stage of renunciation. On the other hand, a person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness knows how to use everything in the service of the Lord; therefore he does not become a victim of material consciousness. For example, for an impersonalist, the Lord, or the Absolute, being impersonal, cannot eat. Whereas an impersonalist tries to avoid good eatables, a devotee knows that Kṛṣṇa is the supreme enjoyer and that He eats all that is offered to Him in devotion. So, after offering good eatables to the Lord, the devotee takes the remnants, called prasādam. Thus everything becomes spiritualized and there is no danger of a downfall. The devotee takes prasādam in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, whereas the nondevotee rejects it as material. The impersonalist, therefore, cannot enjoy life due to his artificial renunciation; and for this reason, a slight agitation of the mind pulls him down again into the pool of material existence. It is said that such a soul, even though rising up to the point of liberation, falls down again due to his not having support in devotional service.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta, original 1972 Macmillan edition (www.prabhupadabooks.com)
Image: pixabay edited using canva