Part 3 of 46
Vedanta tells you to take charge of your mind. Shut out those zillion self-destructive pin pricks. Close down the factories of needless emotion that pollute your inner space.
Where is this endless torrent of thought coming from? Learn to be free from it. Some brave person saw the Source of thought and touched the Absolute. Kena Upanishad 1-1-2
Every single second of our lives, tiny thoughts are flowing fast down the caverns of our minds in an unending torrent. Most of them flow so fast that we can’t even identify them. Try holding one and it will vaporise like ghostly mist.
Where do they come from? Propelled from deep inside, thoughts bubble up and pop on the surface all the time. If you silence your mind even a little bit, you will be able to see it happening like it happens in a glass of soda. Pop, fizzle, pop…non stop. It’s a wonderful, helpless feeling because the bubbles will pop whether you want it or not. These thoughts are coming from some other part of you over which you have no control. You are just a witness watching it happen.
The torrent can easily turn into an unending torment. Open and read the morning paper — usually it’s enough to feel stabs, twinges, rush of fluids. Events of yesterday have still not receded. Whatever was unfulfilled will return and shove its tiny needle down your spine. Every minute something happens. The mind registers a slight, an inadequacy, a tiny threat and responds by a minuscule injection of an unnecessary destructive neurochemical.
This is the stuff that makes you grow old before your time. This is what they call silent stress. Eventually, however brave and strong you are, it will leave its burn marks on you.
At the root of all this is your passive self. You consider thoughts as ‘inevitable’. You let them in the way villagers let a raiding army in, unable to do anything else but run, hide and watch.
You make no moves to shut them out. Who’s in charge here? Not you, for sure. Vedanta tells you to take charge of your mind. Shut out those zillion self destructive pin pricks. Close down the factories of needless emotion that pollute your inner space.
This isn’t an act of a saint. It’s the act of a smart person. When we let go of a burning desire for wealth, for instance, it doesn’t mean we will stop making money. It usually means we will earn more of it, because we have a cooler head that isn’t going to worry over how much we made or lost today. Life begins when the torment ends. And with it comes fresh creative ideas.
So how do you let go? There isn’t any magic pill. Vedanta reveals hundreds of techniques… find one that’s right for you and work at it. In the weeks ahead we shall explore a few. Remember, the ultimate slavery is not to a system or a tyrant, but to our own minds.
“Some brave person saw the source of thought…” You could be that person.
Vedanta Rocks. Use its power to break free !
( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad - 25th Jan 2009 )
Interesting piece. But I have to ask - since I have been accused of 'overthinking' by others around me many times - why does one need to break free from the thought process?
ReplyDeleteI am - sure - if they are negative or worrisome in their nature, they will eventually harm you. But what about those random ones that propel you to explore, inquire and ideate? Are not those forms of though beneficial? Or are those too in the long run, a burden on the mind?