Sama by Swami Dayananda

[Guest guest]

                         

 

                            Shama  (sama)  MAKING THE MIND AVAILABLE

 

                                                           by

 

                                     Swami Dayananda Saraswati

 

 

Sama is typically defined as mano nigrah, commonly translated as mind control.

And wherever mano nigrah is mentioned, we will often see it paired with mano

nasa, destruction of the mind. This is very revealing. Anyone who wants to

destroy the mind is already is destroyed, is he not? Otherwise why does he need

to have his mind destroyed? Such a desire reveals that his thinking is

destroyed,

and he wants to get rid of the mind to solve that problem. Today, mind-control

has become big business. Anybody who says that you should control the mind

will have rs to that idea—and to his program. Everybody knows that

you can’t control the mind, and therefore, people will nod their heads.

“The mind is turbulent”

“Ah! you said it.”

“Nobody can easily control the mind.”

“That is true.”

“You have to work hard to control the mind.”

“That is true I have to work hard.”

“Even if you have worked hard, you think that you have controlled the mind,

that control just goes away.”

Everything looks true, and thus, mind control is a million dollar business. The

poor mind. Bhagavan thought, “Let us give this human a mind and watch what

happens.” Lakshmi told him, “Don’t do these experiments.” But Narayana said,

“No, no I am going to try,” and gave this human being a mind. Now Lakshmi

goes on saying, “Didn’t I tell you, didn’t I tell you?”

The mind is just the most beautiful instrument that a human being has.

Everything else that we have, every animal has. In fact, they are better

equipped.

A police man takes the help of a dog, and is called a sleuth but the real sleuth

is

the dog. It is the dog who sniffs out the criminal. All other animals are better

equipped than human beings in one way or another. Look at a bat; it can fly in

the dark. People think it is because it is able to see in the dark, but it is

not. A bat just goes on squeaking and sending out sounds, and when the sounds

rebound, it is able to interpret them. It has inbuilt sonar. A bat can can

detect an obstruction while flying and navigate its way around it. It can also

send out specific sounds to gather information, and when the sounds come back,

it can know what the object is. It can distinguish a leaf from a fruit, and it

can determine that this fruit is ripe and this is not. What a marvel is this

bat! There is so much research going on about bats. There is one person in a

University near Louisville doing research on bats, who people call ‘bat nagger’.

He is an Indian, whose name is Bhatnagar, and in America they pronounce it ‘bat

nagger’ I had long discussions with him to learn all about bats. He has so much

to tell about these bats, which are better equipped than we are for certain

things.

The only thing that makes you special is this great mind you have. It is not an

ordinary thing. There is nothing wrong with the mind as long as you don’t say

that there is something wrong with it. Or if you don’t say it, but you have the

feeling that there is something wrong with it, that is even worse. The mind is

an

angel. It is the greatest endowment of a human being, and it has to be used; it

is

meant to be used.

People manipulate people only through the mind. Therefore we have to analyse

this properly.

One has to pay one’s attention to one’s mind. It cannot be taken for granted,

nor

should it be looked upon as something that causes real problems. Mainly, the

mind is meant for knowing, remembering, and also, to entertain emotions. The

seat of emotion as well as the seat of knowledge is the mind, so there is an

emotional mind, a cognitive mind, and a recollecting mind. Because it is

instrumental in knowing, it is called the inner, antah, instrument, karana,

antahkarana. Without the mind, an individual cannot know. It is the instrument,

karana through which we know, like the eyes are the karana, through which we

see, and the ears, the instrument through which we hear. But the eyes, ears and

other senses cannot function themselves, without being backed by the mind.

Therefore, so you come to recognize  something only with the help of the mind,

and therefore, it is a karana.

Now, what is it that really bothers a person? When a person is bothered, it is

the

person that is bothered, really speaking. Being just an instrument, it is not

the

mind that really bothers. Yet, in this, the mind seems to play a role. How? In

creating certain emotions, like fear. Fear is for the person, not for the mind,

please understand. The poor mind is unnecessarily blamed, but it is the person

who is afraid, and therefore, there is an emotion called fear. It is the same

for

anxiety, hatred, and so on. And also, there are emotions like love, compassion,

and empathy, which the mind manifests. Now compassion only reveals the

compassionate person. In understanding emotions, we always have to include

the person, otherwise, the mind will become the whipping boy for all our

problems. An emotion is me, viewed from the standpoint of the mind.

Whenever a book deals with the mind, it actually deals with the person with

reference to the mind. This `me’, the individual, with reference to an emotion

called compassion, is compassionate—I am compassionate. Because I am

compassionate, there is compassion; because I am loving, there is love. It is

not

the other way around. It is not that because there is love I become loving, but

rather, because I am loving there is love. So too, because I am frightened,

there is

fear; because I am agitated, there is agitation; I am anxious, therefore there

is

anxiety; I am hateful, therefore there is hatred.

Why do we separate this mind and then whip it unnecessarily? Neither do I have

to whip myself; I am what I am due to certain laws. So whenever we talk about

the mind we have to be highly responsible, or we may create problems for

others. It is very easy for a person to conclude, “My mind is no good at all.”

But

there is no such thing as a ‘bad mind’. The mind is always good; it does its

job. If

you are anxious, it presents anxiety for you, but it does not cause you anxiety.

The mind is not a threat; it’s just you. You are the person, the affected

person,

and the mind gives an indication that you have to pay a certain attention in

some

areas. Paying attention is called sama.

All these situations like anxiety, depression, unwarranted anger, reveal the

person. If a situation doesn’t warrant intense anger, yet the anger is there, I

must

understand that there is already an angry person who manifests in the form

anger. But it is the mind that really tells us exactly what is going on. Thus,

the

mind is pointed out in mano nigrahah, not the person, because through the mind

alone we understand the person. There are varieties of emotions not liked by

ourselves, or by anyone. I don’t like myself being given to anger, I don’t like

myself being anxious, frightened etc. But then I am. So how we are going to

gain a resolution of this?

There are so many methods. One thing they all have in common is that we have

to accept the emotion. If I am frightened, I am frightened. Thinking that I

should

not be frightened is not going to help me. Or worse, the idea that I should not

have been frightened doesn’t help me either. The notion that I should not be

frightened or should not have been frightened only confuses the whole situation.

And these kind of confusions are rampant, and are promoted by the so-called

spiritual teachers. At the same time, the mind being an indicator of me, the

person, I do require a mind which is more or less abiding, so that it is

available

for my understanding, my pursuits, my contemplation. This `availability’ is

exactly what is meant here by sama, otherwise, there is no need to mention it.

When you apply for admission in a school, they don’t ask, “Do you have sama,

do you have dama?” If you are applying for an MSc, all ask is whether you have

done your BSc., If you have graduated, then you can do post-graduate work.

This is very simple; they don’t ask for samah, dama, uparati, titiksha, sraddha.

But here, the subject matter is me. Please understand the difference. The

subject

matter of Vedanta, is me, and because it is me, this me, the individual, has to

deal

with himself or herself. And the emotional person is a very important person.

You can’t bypass emotion. In this pursuit, you can’t bypass anything, not the

world, not your body, much less your mind. Even if you bypass a road in order

to avoid the congestion due to the shops on both sides, what happens? On the

bypass road itself shops come up and you have the same problem. So too here;

wherever there is a bypass, there exactly will be a problem, so you are not

going

to bypass anything.

We don’t want to bypass any reality, whether it is subjectively real or

objectively

real. In every single area there is no bypassing, because when you deal with

yourself, you cannot successfully bypass anything. In bypassing a problem, you

are not bypassing the problem, really, you are bypassing solving the problem.

Therefore here, we don’t bypass anything.

What are the things that will give you sama? That we have to discover in our

study of the Geeta etc.,

Let us first understand what is sama. One thing I can say here is that sama is a

resolution of the mind. It is not that the mind becomes blank, but rather, it is

a

mind that is available for you. Nothing more. Don’t add anything more to this;

it

is just a mind that is available for you. When you sit in contemplation, it is

available for you, when you study it is available for you, when you are sitting

and listening to me, it is available for you. When it is available for you, why

do

you bother about the mind? The mind is serving you. You may say that

sometimes it is cognitively available for you, and sometimes it disturbs you. It

looks like it disturbs you, but, in fact, it is already a disturbed mind, and it

wants

to get rid of the disturbance. An old disturbance comes in the form of fear, for

instance, because there was a fear locked up underneath. That fear gets

released.

We have to understand this kind of situation very clearly. The more we

understand, the more sama we will command. That fear, for instance, you can

now look at as a fear released, rather than a fear gained. You can look at

anxiety

as an anxiety released rather than an anxiety gained. You can look at it either

way. If you look at anxiety as a new gain, then you are going to conclude that

you are anxious and nothing is happening in terms of your understanding. In

fact, nothing needs to happen. Let the old anxiety go, let the old pain go, let

the

old the hatred, jealousy, whatever is there underneath, all go. They are going

more than coming, especially when you are addressing the problem. When you

are not addressing the problem, you don’t know what is happening. When you

are depressed, you are depressed; that’s all.

Here, you are addressing the problem, because you are the subject matter in the

study of Vedanta. You are looking at yourself, so naturally, whatever is there

will

come out. The more I am able to look at it all, with a sense of surrender, the

more

sama will be there. Surrender to what? Surrender to the order, which includes

the psychological order. That order is Iswara. Through our prayers, through our

meditations, through our japa, through our duties and anything that is necessary

to nourish ourself, we take care of the mind.

Sama, then, is the availability of the mind for you to perceive. And also, there

is

mental time available. Physical time may be available, but mental time may not.

If mental time is available, then physical time will accommodate, always. Mental

time is not available for people because the mind is too busy. Thus, the

resolution

of the mind is taken here as a qualification, sama.

Originally, when life was structured, and one lived a religious life, it was

easier

to command sama. One who has a religious life has found a certain bonding with

Iswara, and that person can relax and thereby, find a certain resolution. It is

purely by devotion, by bonding with Iswara. This is a topic that has to be dealt

with very sensitively and responsibly, so that it is understood properly. Here,

I

just want you to understand that sama is not mind control

 

www.arshavidyabhushan.blogspot.com