HOW THE MIND MAY BE CONTROLLED?

[Guest guest]

TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI, 28TH MARCH, 1935

Mr. Ranganathan, I.C.S., Collector of Vellore, Mr. S. V. Ramamurthi, I.C.S. and

Mr. T. Raghaviah, late Diwan of Pudukottah State, visited the Asramam.Mr.

Ranganathan asked "Kindly instruct me as to how the mind may be

controlled."Maharshi: There are two methods. The one is to see what the mind

is; then it subsides. The second is to fix your attention on something; then

the mind remains quiet. The questioner repeated the question for further

elucidation. The same answer was returned with a little more added. The

questioner did not look satisfied.Mr. Raghaviah: Men of the world that we are,

we have some kind of grief or another and do not know how to get over it. We

pray to God and still are not satisfied. What can we do?

Maharshi: Trust God.

Devotee: We surrender; but still there is no help.Maharshi: Yes. If you have

surrendered, you must be able to abide by the will of God and not make a

grievance of what may not please you. Things may turn out differently from how

they look apparently. Distress often leads men to faith in God.

Devotee: But we are worldly. There is the wife, there are the children, friends

and relatives. We cannot ignore their existence and resign ourselves to Divine

Will, without retaining some little of the personality in us.

Maharshi: That means you have not surrendered as professed by you. You must only

trust God.Mr. Ramamurthi: Swamiji, I have read Brunton's book A Search in Secret

India, and was much impressed by the last chapter, where he says that it is

possible to be conscious without thinking. I know that one can think, remaining

forgetful of the physical body. Can one think without the mind? Is it possible

to gain that consciousness which is beyond thoughts?Maharshi: Yes. There is

only one consciousness, which subsists in the waking, dream and sleep states.

In sleep there is no 'I'. The 'I'-thought arises on waking and then the world

appears. Where was this 'I' in sleep? Was it there or was it not? It must have

been there also, but not in the way you feel now.The present is only the

'I'-thought, whereas the sleeping 'I' is the real 'I'. It subsists all through.

It is consciousness. If it is known you will see that it is beyond thoughts.

Devotee: Can we think without the mind? Maharshi: Thoughts may be like any other

activities, not disturbing to the Supreme consciousness.Devotee: Can one read

others minds? The Master as usual told him to find his Self before worrying

about others.Maharshi: Where are others apart from one's own Self?Mr.

Raghaviah: How shall we co-relate the higher experience with the lower

experience (meaning spiritual experience with mundane affairs)?Maharshi: There

is only one experience. What are the worldly experiences but those built up on

the false 'I'? Ask the most successful man of the world if he knows his Self.

He will say 'No'. What can any one know without knowing the Self? All worldly

knowledge is built upon such a flimsy foundation.Mr. Ramamurthi: How to know

the 'Real I' as distinct from the 'false I'?Maharshi: Is there anyone who is

not aware of himself? Each one knows, but yet does not know, the Self. A

strange paradox. If the inquiry is made whether mind exists, it will be found

that mind does not exist. That is control of mind. Otherwise, if mind is taken

to exist and one seeks to control it, it amounts to mind controlling the mind,

just like a thief turning out to be a policeman to catch the thief, i.e.

himself. Mind persists in that way alone, but eludes itself.