Conquering the Mind

Bhagavad Gita with Commentaries / Conquering the Mind

Conquering the Mind

In the Bhagavad Gita the following is said about this:

Arjuna said:

6:33. For such Yoga which is attained through inner evenness… I do not see a firm ground in myself because of the restlessness of the mind.

6:34. For the mind is truly restless, O Krishna! It is turbulent, obstinate, hard to restrain! I think it is as difficult to curb it as to curb the wind.

The Blessed One said:

6:35. No doubt… the mind is restless and it is hard to curb. Yet, one can put it under control by constant practice and dispassionateness.

6:36. Yoga is hard to attain for man who has not cognized his Atman. But he who has cognized his Atman is on the right way to Yoga* — this is My opinion.

In the esoteric practice, the problem of controlling the mind is easily solved with the help of the methods of raja yoga and then of buddhi yoga. For this purpose, one should learn to move the energy structures of the multidimensional organism, which compose the upper bubble of perception (upper dantyan, the chakras sahasrara, ajna, and vushudha), into the region of the anahata chakra and then into other energy structures inside the body and the bioenergetic cocoon, which surrounds the body. At such movings, the mental dominants get destroyed, the mind becomes “quiet”, and its indriyas become not attached to the “earthly”.

Later on, at the stage of buddhi yoga, the problem of controlling the mind is solved even more radically — there one masters moving separately the developed structures of the upper and lower bubbles of perception in the subtle worlds far outside the body.

It does not mean, of course, that such meditators lose to some degree their intellectual ability. Being not in meditation, they continue to reason about the “earthly” aspects of life not less but more adequately. During meditations, their intellects are not “switched off”; it just switches completely from the “earthly” to the “unearthly”, to the Divine.

Even higher stages of solution of this problem become available in full mergence of the consciousness with the Consciousness of Brahman and then with the Consciousness of Ishvara through special meditative techniques. The intellect of the meditator is united then with the Intellect of God.

In some degraded sects, they use inadequate methods in attempts to control the mind. For example, long “seclusions” by themselves, i.e. without special esoteric techniques, make no sense; they who resort to such seclusions only waste their time. Equally ineffectual for this purpose is the use of psychedelics, which have in addition harmful effects on physical and psychical health. The only right way of mastering the control over the mind is work with it with the help of the methods of raja yoga and buddhi yoga in a completely adequate and clear state of the consciousness.