Potentials and vulnerabilities of mind, as well as its order of working is beautifully reflected in a popular Indian simile — “The chariot of knowledge” — Arjun seated in a chariot steered by lord Krishna as charioteer, which is pulled by five horses. It is premised on the following two verses from Kathopanishada:
“AtmanamIJ rathinamIJ viddhi, sariramIJ ratham eva tu, BuddhimIJ tu sarathimIJ viddhi, manah pragraham eva ca. Indriyani hayanahuh visayamstesu gocaran, Atmendriya manoyuktam, bhokte-tyahur manisinah.”
Here, the chariot, Arjun, lord Krishna, reins, horses, and greens on pathway respectively symbolise, human body, soul, buddhi, mind, senses, and temptations of life. The human being animated by the indwelling soul has a journey to undertake to make it to a designated destination — becoming fully evolved. It is driven by mind, duly aided by senses and guided by the faculty of discriminate intelligence.
If the reins are let loose, the horses shall run after grass patches on and around the pathway. Consequently, the chariot would get derailed and the journey will get disrupted. If however, applying discriminate intelligence, the reins are kept in control, the horses will be in check, and shall continue pulling the chariot unhindered to its logical end. So goes the saying that should the soul, body, buddhi, mind, and the senses act in togetherness as a unified organism, the journey of life shall become enjoyable.
It needs no elaboration that unless all field players join hand, to together put in wholesome effort, the journey of life shall move directionless, and naturally to one’s detriment. That calls for personality integration. It is, however, easier said than done. For, both mind and the senses are fragile in nature. The senses get drawn towards the tempting objects spread all across. If allowed a free run, they will keep running after them and randomly keep wandering hither and thither. It is something like a monkey picking up a fruit and after consuming it partly, would go after other pieces one after other, but would never eat one whole fruit. The senses, by themselves, lack discriminating faculty, and would therefore, not be able to regulate its functioning.
The onus of controlling the senses lies with the mind. But untamed impressionable mind often come under tempting influence of sense objects of the seeming world. Even the residual desires in mind are nothing but reflection of impressions of what the senses would have picked up in the past. These impressions keep chasing us within our minds, which over a period of time forms a part of our habit. They do not spare you even while engaged in other assignments. And habits die hard. In fact, our habit tendencies, particularly the persistent desires, involuntarily create a security ring around. Through continued hammering within our minds, they keep pulling us back to their precincts, if ever one tries to look beyond to escape its frontiers.
Consequently, even while one is idling, mind is not at rest. It keeps attending to random thoughts, it keeps breeding non-stop. It is something like a fertile earth mass, which does not remain barren even if seeds are not sown, as it involuntarily keeps breeding weeds. Mind-space, thus, gets too much cluttered over a period of time. The overburdened mind gets so vexed that it loses sense of direction. Meanwhile, the thought process becomes so complex that habitually, it looks at even simple issue in a circuitous way making its resolution an arduous affair.
It’s now forbuddhi to keep the mind in check, which in turn, would keep the senses in control. Making use of this exclusive human preserve, one is empowered to filter off the undesirables, set the priorities right, and remain focused on them. Otherwise, the untamed mind would keep randomly flirting around like an unbridled horse in the meandering of sensory impressions drawn from within and beyond. The paradox, however, is that buddhi cannot spontaneously come to our aid. It needs to be consciously invoked and put to use.
Here comes into play ‘Ahamkara’ (the sense of I or Ego consciousness), which has to take the call, and will, how mind has to go forward. The irony, however, is that often it identifies itself with the indwelling tendencies, and unmindfully makes it the defining principle. Also, it remains vulnerable to get caught up in the tempting influences of seeming realities, and gets tempted to blindly chases them. In both cases, Buddhi gets sidelined, and with obvious consequences. To sum up, we better remain conscious about following the lessons scripted in the above simile.
The writer is an astrologer, vastu consultant and spiritual counsellor. Write to him at G-5, Basement, Jungpura Extension, New Delhi 14
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