Conquering the Mind - The Greatest Education, Its methods and practice by Swami Vivekananda.

Once during his visit to Chicago, USA, Swami Vivekananda was taking a stroll on the banks of a river. There he saw some young boys with an air gun trying to shoot at eggshells floating in the river. As the shells rolled up and down on the choppy water, the boys could not hit them. None of the boys hit an eggshell, despite trying many times.

Swami Vivekananda was watching their game with keen interest. Seeing this, the boys called out to him, "Sir, you have been watching us all this time. Would you like to give it a try?" Swami Vivekananda smiled and said that he would like to try. Taking the air gun in his hand, He aimed at the eggshells and concentrated on the target for some time. Then he fired the gun twelve times and hit an eggshell each time! 

The boys were awestruck on seeing Swamiji's skill and asked, "Well, Sir, how could you do this? Have you had a lot of shooting practice?" Swamiji laughed and said, "No, I have never practiced shooting." The boys were confused, "Then how is it that you shot so well?" Swami Vivekananda replied, "Well, let me tell you a secret. Whatever you do, concentrate all your attention on it. Think of nothing else. If you are shooting, keep your mind only on the target. Your aim will not fail. Concentration can work wonders. Even when you are studying, think only of the lesson at hand. Then you will easily remember what you study. In my country boys are taught to do this."

 Friends, when I first read this story, the part that shocked me the most was not Swamiji's extraordinarily concentrated mind, but the last line of the story. Swamiji, demonstrating his unflickered focus, taught the boys the power of mind control. At the end he even mentioned that 'In my country the boys are taught to do this. ' The question is, do we even pay any attention to mind-control at all here? 

"The present system of education is all wrong. The mind is crammed with facts before it knows how to think. Control of the mind should be taught first…It takes people a long time to learn things because they can't concentrate their minds at will.”

- Swami Vivekananda

 What my very healthy senses suggest me is that the practice of mind control is completely died out from India. I don't say that modern-day Indians are not focused in their work, but I think that we have forgotten the essential skill needed to initiate any study or work whatsoever - Having a mind as steady as an unflickered lamp in a windless place!

Friends, I find that the education of our own mind is the greatest education one can ever receive. In today's world we see that it is completely wiped out from mainstream education. Students do not realise that handling so much pressure of examination, managing time and being disciplined for studies and practicing various kinds of skills are essentially our attempts to have a strong command on our own mind. When that comes, no force can resist oneself manifest its fullest potential.

Friends, I have not created this idea out of sheer thin air myself. Check out this quote of Swamiji himself, on mind control and education -

"To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not the collecting of facts. If I had to do my education over again, and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument I could collect facts at will.”

After firmly realising the fact that the degree of concentration is the only difference between one person and another, we will now proceed to understand the dynamics of concentration.

The capacity for concentration has two components—it means both attachment and detachment at will. If one develops the first without developing the latter, it is incomplete and will lead to great suffering. Hence, Swamiji warns: “On the ethical side there is danger in the development of the power of concentration—the danger of concentrating the mind upon an object and then being unable to detach it at will…Almost all our suffering is caused by our not having the power of detachment…We must learn not only to attach the mind to one thing exclusively, but also to detach it at a moment's notice and place it upon something else. These two should be developed together to make it safe."

Also, usually when people seem to pay attention to something, it is completely involuntary in nature. “Our minds are forced to become fixed upon different things by an attraction in them which we cannot resist.” Whereas what should ideally happen is: “We should put our minds on things; they should not draw our minds to them.” This is the key to developing mastery over the mind.

In one of his lectures on control of the mind, Swami Vivekananda says, 

"How hard it is to control the mind! Well has it been compared to the maddened monkey. There was a monkey, restless by his own nature, as all monkeys are. As if that were not enough some one made him drink freely of wine, so that he became still more restless. Then a scorpion stung him. When a man is stung by a scorpion, he jumps about for a whole day; so the poor monkey found his condition worse than ever. To complete his misery a demon entered into him. What language can describe the uncontrollable restlessness of that monkey? The human mind is like that monkey, incessantly active by its own nature; then it becomes drunk with the wine of desire, thus increasing its turbulence. After desire takes possession comes the sting of the scorpion of jealousy at the success of others, and last of all the demon of pride enters the mind, making it think itself of all importance. How hard to control such a mind!"

The very obvious question that now follows up is "Well, finally, how can one master the mind?"

The direct answer to this question comes from the life-and-blood of India's consciousness, the answer to this question is the immortal voice of ancient India and also the undisputed common base of all religions, to which no authority can decline its significance, and the answer is "Dhyan! Meditation."

What is Meditation?

In this life we are constantly tossed in the waves of pleasure and pain. The fear of pain and search of pleasure is what makes us beggars. Meditation is the power which enables us to resist all this.

"How is it to be attained? In a dozen different ways. Each temperament has its own way. But this is the general principle: get hold of the mind. The mind is like a lake, and every stone that drops into it raises waves. These waves do not let us see what we are. The full moon is reflected in the water of the lake, but the surface is so disturbed that we do not see the reflection clearly. Let it be calm. Do not let nature raise the wave. Keep quiet, and then after a little while she will give you up. Then we know what we are. God is there already, but the mind is so agitated, always running after the senses. You close the senses and [yet] you whirl and whirl about. Just this moment I think I am all right and I will meditate upon God, and then my mind goes to London in one minute. And if I pull it away from there, it goes to New York to think about the things I have done there in the past. These [waves] are to be stopped by the power of meditation."

"There are three stages in meditation. The first is what is called [Dharana], concentrating the mind upon an object. I try to concentrate my mind upon this glass, excluding every other object from my mind except this glass. But the mind is wavering . . . When it has become strong and does not waver so much, it is called [Dhyana], meditation. And then there is a still higher state when the differentiation between the glass and myself is lost — [Samadhi or absorption]. The mind and the glass are identical. I do not see any difference. All the senses stop and all powers that have been working through other channels of other senses [are focused in the mind]. Then this glass is under the power of the mind entirely. This is to be realised. It is a tremendous play played by the Yogis."

"All knowledge you have — how did it come? From the power of meditation. The soul churned the knowledge out of its own depths. What knowledge was there ever outside of it? In the long run this power of meditation separates ourselves from the body, and then the soul knows itself as it is — the unborn, the deathless, and birthless being. No more is there any misery, no more births upon this earth, no more evolution. [The soul knows itself as having] ever been perfect and free."

Therefore, dear friends, we dedicate this blog to the glory of meditation, the eternal practice which makes us transcend all suffering!

"Where seekest thou? That freedom, friend, this world,

Nor that can give. In books and temples vain

Thy search. Thine only is the hand that holds

The rope that drags thee on. Then cease lament,

Let go thy hold, Sannyasin bold! Say– "Om, Tat Sat Om!"

Thanks,

Daksh Parekh.