Don't let your mind control you

Mind is always in search of pleasure. Mind always Say “I want this. I want to enjoy this.” Mind always get there where minimum efforts and maximum pleasure is. Our five sense collect the experiences around us and send single to mind. When these experiences come through the senses, the mind is being controlled by those experiences. The mind is relating to those experiences in terms of enjoyment and suffering… “I don’t want this because this is causing me suffering, but I do want this because it is causing me enjoyment” Mind doesn't see the things are right or wrong.

Intelligence: Intelligence is so much powerful than your mind this is a decision maker and knows what is wrong and what is right to do. If your intelligence control your mind then no one stop you to become successful but most of the people doesn't have control over their mind. In fact their mind is control their intelligence. To get the clear picture Consider the example of car. consider a car as a whole your body. Your five senses is different parts of car like headlight, wheels, engine etc. Driver is your mind and owner of the car is sitting back side is your intelligence. If your driver listen to you then the car is going in right direction but driver doesn't listen to you and go where you want to go he doesn't have control over you. Shri Krishna explains this in Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta as Chariot as body.

If you make your intelligence more powerful than your mind then it will listen to you. but Real fact is mind always go for pleasure so you have to try again and again. If You can't able to control your mind then it will control your intelligence. Your mind can be your greatest friend if control it but if it control you becomes your greatest enemy if you can't. How to control mind? These are some steps you can start with.

Understand your mind. How it reacts after any experience. Listen to your thoughts. Every ask questions to yourself. What am I thinking? And find out where from this thoughts came? Identify the source. Engage with your mind. Talk yo yourself. Make your mind a best friend of you. Make your intelligence and mind as best friend. Intelligence come from better Understanding. Whatever your you are thinking is just illusion. Your thoughts come from your past experience. So don't frustrate about why am I thinking like that? Start to get new experiences which are healthy for your mind. Be conscious around yourself. Be completely aware about your thoughts. Try to give order to it. Give some diff task to perform. And observe how it react. It definitely improve your focus.

If you are become completely aware about your thoughts that means you are conscious. Then you can use power of your subconscious mind. A subconscious mind is so much powerful than conscious mind. What we say repeatedly ourselves we become that person one day. Use affirmative technique. Say to yourself. I am powerful. Put in that black space who you wants to become. I am intelligent, I am rich, I am healthy etc. You may not believe this now. But you become conscious about your thoughts then you will real this is true.

Understand that your body is a chariot. And the horses that drive the chariot are your five senses. And the driver (sārthī) is your mind. And the passenger or the man who is the owner of this chariot is your intelligence! The master. And the whole system is you. If this much is clear to you then, you should have understood that senses should be driven by the mind and the mind should be driven by intelligence. But that doesn't happen! The senses are controlled by mind. But our intellect couldn't control the mind. So what happens that mind drive the senses in its own way, where it will find pleasure and ease. Simply put

Because the way we are controlled by the mind, we are not even aware of it. We are way too used to be controlled or let me say used by our mind. But hey, the rest of battle is another battle in itself. Because mind is very subtle. It will hardly let you to control itself. So be prepared for a cold war of your mind and you. I will try to help you, on the basis of knowledge from Shrimad Bhagwad Gītā and my own experience. However, I won't say that I have completely conquered my mind. But yes, I have won it to much extent. “The driver drives the car in his/her own wish to any destination he/she wants, because the master is unaware of this!”

So you have to awaken your intelligence and let it control the mind so that you can do something in your life reach to the destination meant for you! Lord Shri Krishna said that (SBG 6.6) 'bandhur ātmātmanas tasya yenātmaivaātmanā jitah anātmanah tu satrutve vartetātmaiva satru-vat' For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. Isn't that true. In life your true friend will always help you to elevate and progress towards your goal. However, a friend who doesn't hear you when u need him/her and does whatever he thinks is right is near to enemy. And the irony is that our mind can be both our best friend or our greatest enemy, depending upon how you control it!.

Now in very basic steps how u can do it? Lord Krishna gives the way as (SBG 6.35) 'asamsayam mahā-bāho mano durnigraham calam abhyāsena tu kaunteya vaurāgyena ca grhyate' O might armed (mahā-bāho) son of Kunti (kaunteya), it is undoubtedly very difficult to curd the restless mind, but it is possible by suitable practice and detachment. So Krishna very nicely makes it clear that controlling mind is difficult but not impossible. And he says that it can be done by suitable practice and detachment.

Shri Krishna says (SBG 6.26) 'yato yato niscalati manas ca?calam asthiram tatas tato niyamyaitad ātmani eva vasam nayet' From wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the self. So this is basically the practice. You have to just bring it back to your goal again and again instead of letting your mind wandering here and there. It will be difficult in the beginning but as u will “practice” this, you will be able to control your mind to some more extent. Now what is the detachment?

When you are detached from something or someone you usually don't think about it. Sometimes u do it forcefully (like after a heartbreak) and sometimes it happens naturally. But as it happens your mind doesn't think about it much. So you don't care about what happens after detachment. And that is the key. Detach from the lust or something which is not helping you to achieve your goal. And that will again help you to control your mind to some more extent. Now I will give you one more thing. Shakti or the life force which helps u to control the mind in a very positive way. Control your eating and sleeping habits. Neither eat or sleep too less nor too much. Just do them as required!

And lastly I will end all of this by saying Shri Krishna said what will happen when you control your mind. He puts it like this (SBG 6.36) 'asamyatātmanā yogi dusprāpa iti me matih vaisyātmanā tu yatatā sakyo 'vaptum upāyatah'. For one whose mind is unbridled, self realisation is difficult work. But he whose mind is controlled and who strives by appropriate means is assured of success. Jay Shri Krishna