4. Can the Invincible Mind be controlled??? If so who can???

 

Our actions are constantly propelled by whims and fancies of the Manas (Mind). Mind is the faculty of perceiving and also processing the information that is perceived through passions, emotions, feelings and impulses. We also have another aspect called the Buddhi (Intellect) Intellect is the faculty of discrimination. The functions of the intellect is to thinking, reflecting, reasoning, discriminating, judging, and distinguishing between pairs of opposites. Mind operates in the field of known while intellect tries to reach beyond the known to know the unknown. Hence knowledge is gained by intellect.

There is constant conflict between Intellect (Buddhi) and Mind (Manas) that is witnessed by Consciousness (Atma). This is never seen in animals. Let us suppose a landlord who happens to leave his house for a few days orders both his housekeeper and the dog not to venture out of the house in his absence. Even though both have violated the order, the dog has no inner conflict and sleeps happily, but the housekeeper is sleepless because of guilt. The intellect which is the talking conscience pricks the mind, this is called guilty conscience. If mind listens to the intellect and order the sense organs then there would be no conflict between the mind and intellect. When we say we have a disturbed mind then we have done something that our intellect does not want us to do.

The mind has to be controlled by intellect, and in turn the mind has to have control over the sense organs (Indriyas). If our sense organs are horses of a chariot, the mind is the leash that is held by intellect, the charioteer. The chariot will move in the right direction only if the charioteer has control over the horses through the leash. The mind is like the supervisor in the factory of life, and directs the senses. The mind does a wonderful job of carrying out directions, but it is not supposed to be the key decision-maker in the factory. That is the job of intellect. If intellect is clouded, then the mind has a habit of listening to whoever is speaking the loudest in the factory. If this happens there is chaos in the factory, same is true in our life the mind has to heed to the words of the intellect if it starts to listen to what senses says there is chaos. It is this chaotic situation which make it difficult to experience inner peace. If the Mind is not controlled by Intellect any number of sessions of Meditation will be a futile effort……… What say????