Yoga and the Mind
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Yoga and the Mind
The whole process of yoga is to transcend the limitations of the mind. As long as you are in the mind, you are ruled by the past, because mind is just an accumulation of the past. If you are looking at life only through the mind, then you will make your future just like the past, [...]
The whole process of yoga is to transcend the limitations of the mind. As long as you are in the mind, you are ruled by the past, because mind is just an accumulation of the past. If you are looking at life only through the mind, then you will make your future just like the past, nothing more, nothing less. Isn’t the world enough proof of that? It does not matter what opportunities come our way through science, technology and many other things, aren’t we repeating the same historical scenes again and again?
The past does not exist, but you are dealing with the non-existent, going about as if it is a reality. That is the whole illusion. Mind is the basis of this.
If you take a closer look at your own life, you will see the same repetition happening, because as long as you are functioning only through the prism of the mind, you are functioning only with the old data. The past is carried only in your mind. Only because your mind is active, past exists. Suppose all your mind ceases right now, is your past here? There is no past here, only present. The reality is only present, but past exists through our minds. Or in other words, mind is karma. If you transcend the mind, you transcend the karmic bondage altogether. If you want to solve them one by one, it may take a million years. In the process of solving, you are also building new stock of karma.
Your old stock of karma is not the problem at all. You should learn how not to create new stock. That is the main thing. Old stock will wear out by itself; no big things need to be done about it. But the fundamental thing is you learn how not to create new stock. Then, leaving the old stock is very simple.
If you transcend the mind, you transcend the karmic bondage also, completely. You don’t really have to work it out because when you are playing with your karmas, you are playing with the non-existent. It is a trap of the mind. The past does not exist, but you are dealing with the non-existent, going about as if it is a reality. That is the whole illusion. Mind is the basis of this. If you transcend the mind, you transcend everything in one stroke.
The whole effort of spiritual sciences has always been how to transcend the mind, how to look at life beyond the limitations of the mind. Many people have defined yoga in many different ways. People say, “If you become one with the universe, it is yoga.” “If you go beyond yourself, it is yoga.” “If you are no longer subject to the laws of the physical, it is yoga.” All these things are fine and fantastic definitions, there is nothing wrong with them, but in terms of your experience, you cannot relate to them. Someone said, “If you become one with God, you are in yoga.” You don’t know where you are. You don’t know where God is. How to become one?
But Patanjali nailed it this way – “To rise above the modifications of your mind, when you cease your mind, when you cease to be a part of your mind, that is yoga.” All the influences of the world are entering you only through the instrument of the mind. If you can rise beyond the influence of your mind in full awareness, then you are naturally one with everything. The separation – you and me, time and space – has come only because of the mind. It is a bondage of the mind. If you drop the mind, you have dropped time and space. There is no such thing as this and that. There is no such thing as here and there. There is no such thing as now and then. Everything is here and now.
If you rise above all the modifications and manifestations of the mind, then you can play with the mind whichever way you want. You can use your mind with devastating impact in your life, but if you are in it, you will never realize the nature of the mind.
Organizing The Mind For Success
When one begins to suffer their success, it is time to relook at the fundamentals. Sadhguru explains that being successful by accident can only lead to anxiety. Only by organizing your mind in one direction can one earn success.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Sadhguru looks at how most people are successful by accident, and are therefore suffering their success. He explains that unless we organize our mind, we cannot be truly successful and enjoy success.
Sadhguru:Your ability to do something in the world essentially depends on the extent to which you are capable of harnessing your body and mind towards your goal, and after that, harnessing the situation in which you exist. But the most fundamental things are that your body and mind function not only to the best of their ability, but the way you want them to. When I say “the way you want,” there are many ways to check it.
Let’s try a simple experiment. For the next 10 seconds, do not think of monkeys. Give it a try. Close your eyes and do not think of a monkey for the next 10 seconds…
Can you do it? Your mind is full of monkeys, isn't it? Your mind is not doing what you want it to do. If you say, “I don’t want monkeys,” it will think only of monkeys. Have you noticed this? This is not just your problem. The whole world is suffering this. When they are in the office they want to go home. When they are at home they are thinking of the office.
Some time ago, I spent half-a-day with one of the English Premier League soccer clubs. They had reasonably good talent, but had not been doing well for the past few years. I spent half-a-day with them, just watching how they were practicing and playing. They were good, they knew how to play football, that was not the issue. But they were nervous, kicking the ball around, and every time it did not go where they wanted, I would hear four-letter words flying all over the place. And the next day, they were playing another team full of well-known stars who could turn the game around single-handedly! I made them sit down and told them some simple things about themselves for about an hour-and-a-half. They had not beaten the other team in four-and-a-half years, but the next day they won the game 1-0.
Accidental Success
The problem is just this: the mind is going into everything that it should not, but not doing what it should be doing. What happens in your mind should be one hundred percent the way you want it, but within yourself, how many moments of unpleasantness do you go through in 24 hours’ time? Irritation, anger, agitation, tension, fear, anxiety – all different types of unpleasantness. If you feel unpleasant five times a day, one way or the other, the residue spreads right through the day. This is not because something is wrong with your work or with people around you. It is essentially because your mind is refusing to take instructions from you.
Your mind is not doing what you say; you do whatever your mind says. That means you are a terrible manager.
If you cannot even conduct your mind the way you want it, the question of life happening the way you want is remote. You can only be successful by accident, not by intent.
When you are successful by accident, you live in fear. People have landed up in places just by accident, and they live in enormous anxiety all the time because they are successful by chance; they did not get there by their own dint. They somehow got there, so now they are fearful every day. But when you are successful by intent, you know you can do it.
If the whole thing gets washed away tomorrow, you will rebuild it once again. When you do anything accidentally, invariably, you will suffer the process. If you know how to drive your car well, it can be a joy. But if you don't know how to drive and do it accidentally, it can be enormous suffering. Every process of life can become a huge suffering if you do it accidentally. People are successful by accident. That is why they are suffering their success. If you suffer your failure it is bad enough, but if you suffer your success, then your life is 100% tragedy.
Self-created Suffering
There is enormous suffering in so-called “successful” people. Why? Because they manage a big industry and huge corporations, but they do not know how to manage their own mind. That means their management is by accident, not by intent. Managing an industry or a corporation essentially means you have to manage ten thousand minds. If you do not know how to manage your own mind, how will you manage the outside situation?
If you are causing misery to yourself, obviously you do not know how to manage your mind. Nobody can cause suffering to you. People throw various kinds of situations at you, but it is always you who caused suffering to yourself. For example, if I call you an idiot, you would cause suffering to yourself. The word “idiot” does not cause suffering. If you did not know English and someone called you an idiot, you might think they were saying “good evening.” So, if you are causing suffering to yourself, the basic things within you are obviously out of control. They are not happening the way you wish them to happen.
Any instrument in your life is useful to you only if it takes instructions from you and is managed by you. Please see, the state of your mind is such that it says its own things, it does not listen to you. Your mind is not doing what you say; you do whatever your mind says. That means you are a terrible manager. If you are like this, you will only manage external situations by accident.
An Organized Mind
In yoga, a well-established mind is referred to as a Kalpavriksha. If you bring your mind to a certain level of organization, it in turn organizes the other three dimensions of your system – your body, emotion, and energies.
If you organize your mind in one direction, and in turn organize the whole system in that direction, anything you wish will happen.
Once these four dimensions are organized in one direction and kept unwavering for a certain period, anything you wish will happen. You don’t even have to lift your little finger. Without having to do any activity, you can manifest what you want.
The problem with your mind right now is that it changes its direction every moment. If you walk somewhere and keep changing your direction every two steps, the chances of reaching your destination are very remote unless it happens by accident. But if you organize your mind in one direction, and in turn organize the whole system in that direction, anything you wish will happen.
The Four Parts of Mind – Harnessing the True Power of the Mind
Sadhguru explains the four parts of mind - Buddhi, Manas, Ahankara and Chitta - and reveals that if you manage to touch the Chitta which is the cosmic intelligence, God becomes your slave!
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Sadhguru speaks about how we can tap into the true possibility of the mind, by reaching the Chitta, a dimension where God becomes your slave!
Questioner:Namaskaram, Sadhguru. I have been doing Chit Shakti meditation, and sometimes, I find it difficult to visualize, but later on, things have really happened. Can you throw some light on that?
Sadhguru:Chit Shakti meditation is not just visualization. In the yogic understanding, there are 16 dimensions to the human mind. These 16 dimensions fall into four categories. These four categories are known as buddhi, manas, ahankara, and chitta. Buddhi is the intellect – the logical dimension of thought. Unfortunately, the modern education systems and modern sciences have largely limited themselves to buddhi. That is a buddhu (foolish) way of existence.
Buddhi - The Intellect
Buddhi or the intellect cannot function without a certain bank of memory or data. Depending on the data you have, the intellect plays around. Suppose in your memory system, there are 10 gigabytes of memory. Depending on how sharp your buddhi is, one person can produce, let’s say, a trillion thoughts with these 10 gigabytes. Someone else can produce 10 trillion thoughts with the same 10 gigabytes of memory.
In the yogic understanding, there are 16 dimensions to the human mind.
If you can think a little better than someone else, it is considered as intelligence today. If someone says one thing and you can say ten things to that, you may be socially smart, but you are not any more intelligent. Unfortunately, in today’s systems of education and academics, everything is determined by this. If you can make more things out of it, you are considered intelligent, which is not true – you only have a sharper buddhi. The buddhi will not take you beyond limits in any way, because it can only function based on the data that is already there. It is not capable of accessing anything beyond that.
Manas - A Huge Silo of Memory
The next dimension is called manas. Manas has many layers to it. But manas is not just the brain – it is right across the body. Every cell in the body has a phenomenal memory – not just of this life but of millions of years. Your body clearly remembers how your forefathers were a million years ago. Top to bottom, there is manas – this is called manomaya kosha. In every cell in the body, there is memory and intelligence, but no intellect. Intellect is only in the brain.
What is in the brain is intellect, not intelligence. Intelligence and memory are right across your body. But people have never been trained how to use this intelligence.
In English language, everything comes under one banner called “mind.” The idea that intelligence is only in the brain has produced human beings whose consciousness is seriously constipated. What is in the brain is intellect, not intelligence. Intelligence and memory are right across your body. But people have never been trained how to use this intelligence. Instead, they use their intellect for everything. No wonder they are stressed out whatever job you give them. The whole weight is on only one dimension of the mind out of sixteen. It is like loading a sixteen-wheeler truck and trying to drive on only one wheel – you can imagine the stress! That is what today’s world is going through.
People may be using other dimensions of the mind marginally, unconsciously, but they are not trained to use them. They have only been trained to use their buddhi, or their intellect. They are very smart. They know everything about everything, but they do not know how to figure their own life. They do not even know how to sit here peacefully and at total ease within themselves. If there is true intelligence, the first thing that you need to figure out is how to make life happen. You know how to make the world happen, but you do not know how to make your life happen. You do not know how to conduct your mind, your energies, your emotions or your body.
If you ask people to become fit, they become tight. If you ask them to live in a more natural way, they become fat. Where is the intelligence? There is only intellect. Intellect looks good only in comparison. Suppose you are the only person on the planet, your intellect will not mean anything. Only because there are a few idiots around you, you shine. By itself, intellect will not be of any consequence.
Ahankara - The Sense of Identity
The intellect directly connects with the third dimension of your mind, called ahankara. Ahankara is sometimes translated as ego, but it is much more than that. Ahankara gives you a sense of identity. Once your ahankara takes on an identity, your intellect functions only in that context. It is important to function beyond the intellect, because the intellect is seriously enslaved to your identity.
There are other ways to know life beyond the identities we have taken on for our survival in the world.
Our identities, such as belonging to a certain nation, community, or whatever else, are necessary for our survival in a particular society. But you cannot think beyond this because you are functioning only from your intellect, and the intellect takes its sustenance from ahankara. Only along the axis of ahankara, the intellect can function. The intellect cannot transcend this, because that is its nature. But there are other ways to know life beyond the identities we have taken on for our survival in the world.
Chitta - The Cosmic Intelligence
The fourth category of the mind is called chitta. Chitta is mind without memory – pure intelligence. This intelligence is like the cosmic intelligence – simply there. Everything happens because of that. It does not function out of memory – it simply functions. In a way, what you call cosmos is a living mind, not in the sense of intellect but in the sense of chitta. Chitta is the last point of the mind. It connects to the basis of creation within you. It connects you with your consciousness.
Chitta is always on – whether you are awake or asleep. Your intellect comes on and goes off. Many times it fails, even when you are awake. If chitta or the intelligence within you was not always on, you could not stay alive. Try to conduct your breath with your intellect – you will go crazy. Chitta is keeping you alive, keeping you going, making life happen. If you touch this dimension of your mind, which is the linking point to one’s consciousness, you do not even have to wish for anything, you do not have to dream of anything – the best possible thing that can happen to you will anyway happen.
The Divine Enslaved
When people touch this dimension of the mind, it is called ishwara pranidhana in yoga. This means God becomes your slave – he works for you. You know, yogis say, “Shiva is my servant. He does everything for me.” In a way, otherwise, I would not be here. Once you know how to consciously access your chitta, everything that is needed will simply happen in the best possible way. If you go by your intellect or your buddhi, today you think “this is it,” tomorrow morning you think “that is it” – like this it goes on endlessly.
Chitta is the last point of the mind. It connects to the basis of creation within you. It connects you with your consciousness.
Once you know how to consciously keep your chitta on, once the Divine is your servant, when someone really efficient is working for you, you do not have to do anything. Simply sit; the best things will happen – things that you could not imagine. People always think if their dreams come true, their life will be great. I think that is a very poor life, because you cannot dream about anything that is not at all in your experience. My wish and my blessing for you is things that you could not dream of, things that you never thought possible, must happen to you. What you did not dream must happen to you – that is why you should not dream.
Instead of seeing how to delve deeper into yourself, you go on projecting stupid ideas into the world. People think that is a great thing to do. Last time when I was in the US, and someone said to me, “Sadhguru, how do you manifest all this?” I said, “I do not manifest anything. I am just fooling around. I got a very efficient partner [Shiva]. I simply leave it to him, and it happens.”
Chit Shakti is about touching the dimension of your mind that is pure intelligence – unsullied by memory, unsullied by identification. It is beyond ahankara, beyond buddhi, beyond judgment, beyond divisions – simply there, just like the intelligence of existence that makes everything happen. If you access this, you do not have to worry about what happens or what does not happen. It will happen in a way that you never imagined possible.
Once you have access to your chitta, it is also a multi-pointed telescope. It makes you see things that no one else can see – in every direction.
Once you have access to your chitta, it is also a multi-pointed telescope. It makes you see things that no one else can see – in every direction. It is your crystal ball. It is a magnifying glass that brings the very core of life close to you. For everyone else, it is far way. Everyone thinks the Divine is somewhere up there. Where exactly, no one knows. All they know is, it seems far away.
The moment you start looking at life through your chitta, where there is no memory, there is no karmic substance and no division. Suddenly, the Divine is right there, bang on, in your face all the time. You cannot miss it.
The idea of Chit Shakti is not to keep asking for things. The idea is that if the physical arrangements of life happen easily, you can dedicate more time for your spiritual wellbeing. It would be stupid if just because it happens easily, first you want to be a millionaire, then you want to be a billionaire. The main intention is that your physical life happens more easily, that it does not take your entire time to handle it, so that you will have time to close your eyes and sit. Please make use of it for this purpose.
Taming The Mind and Ego
Sadhguru: Searching for truth is itself a big illusion because whatever we term “the truth” is always and everywhere. We don’t have to search for it or seek it. It always is. The only problem right now is you are capable of experiencing life only through the limited dimension that we call “mind”. Patanjali defined [...]
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Sadhguru looks at how Patanjali defines yoga as “chitta vritti nirodha”, or to still the modifications of the mind. He tells us a story to illustrate the point.
Sadhguru:Searching for truth is itself a big illusion because whatever we term “the truth” is always and everywhere. We don’t have to search for it or seek it. It always is. The only problem right now is you are capable of experiencing life only through the limited dimension that we call “mind”.
Patanjali defined yoga as “chitta vritti nirodha”. That is, if you still the modifications or the activity of the mind, you are there: everything has become one in your consciousness. Yoga has innumerable devices, innumerable methods of working towards a still mind. We may be pursuing many things in our lives, we may be going through the processes that we call achievements in our life, but to go beyond the modifications of the mind is the most fundamental, at the same time, the highest achievement because this releases a human being from what he is seeking, from what is within and what is outside – from everything. He becomes an ultimate possibility if he just stills his mind.
What most people are after right now in their lives is fundamentally to achieve happiness and peace. But most spend a whole lifetime and never get to be truly happy or peaceful. Whatever happiness and peace that one knows in life is generally so fragile that it is always subservient to the external situation. So, most people’s lives go in trying to manage a perfect external situation – which is impossible to achieve. Yoga focuses on the inner situation. If you can create a perfect inward situation, no matter what the external situation, you can be in perfect bliss and peace.
The Silent Hero
This reminds me of a certain situation that happened in the South Indian yogic tradition. Once, there was a devotee whose name was Tatvaraya. Tatvaraya encountered a very beautiful master in his life, whose name was Swaroopananda.
This master never spoke. As a human being, he spoke here and there, but as a guru he never spoke. This was a silent master. Tatvaraya found tremendous bliss and joy in being with his guru, and he composed a bharani. A bharani is a certain composition in Tamil, which is generally composed only for great heroes.
A few days passed; they sat quietly. After about eight days of all of them just sitting quietly, Swaroopananda moved his mind.
Society reacted and protested that a bharani cannot be composed for a man who has never even opened his mouth, who has not done anything except sit quietly. This can be composed only for a great hero – one who has slain a thousand elephants. And this man had never even opened his mouth. Surely he doesn’t deserve a bharani! Tatvaraya said, “No, my master deserves more than this, but this is all I can give.”
There was a big argument and debate in town about this. Then Tatvaraya decided the only way to settle this issue was to take these people to his master. His guru was sitting quietly under a tree. All of them went and sat there, and Tatvaraya explained the problem: “People are protesting because I composed a bharani in your honor. They say it is supposed to be composed only for great heroes.”
The master heard all this and just sat quietly. All of them sat quietly. Hours passed; they sat quietly. A few days passed; they sat quietly. After about eight days of all of them just sitting quietly, Swaroopananda moved his mind. At that point, everyone’s thought process became active. Then they realized a true hero is someone who has tamed these rutting elephants that you call “mind” and “ego”. And both these elephants were still for eight days for everyone just by sitting with the master. So, they said, “Yes, this is the man who truly deserves a bharani.”
Editor’s Note:Excerpted from the ebook “Himalayan Lust”, available at Isha Downloads. Check out the preview for a taste! Amalgamating Sadhguru’s discourses during yatras to the Himalayas, the book is a blend of the specific and the timeless. It is a chance to make a pilgrimage on the page, travelling through the unpredictable but fascinating terrain of the Master’s words.
Editor’s Note:The "Power to Create" meditations for Peace, Love, Health, and Success (also known as “Chit Shakti”) are available at the Isha Download Store.
Sadhguru on How to Get Rid of Stress
Shekhar Kapur: Since I’m having the chance to interview you, I know people will say, “Well, why didn’t you ask about how to get rid of stress?” Is there a definition that we can assign to the idea of stress? Sadhguru: When I first went to the United States a few years ago, wherever I [...]
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Oscar-award winning film maker Shekar Kapur asks Sadhguru about stress, who looks at the shift we need to engineer within ourselves in order to get rid of stress.
Shekhar Kapur:Since I’m having the chance to interview you, I know people will say, “Well, why didn’t you ask about how to get rid of stress?” Is there a definition that we can assign to the idea of stress?
Sadhguru:When I first went to the United States a few years ago, wherever I went, everybody was talking about “stress management.” I really didn’t get this because in my understanding, we manage things which are precious to us – our business, our family, our money, our wealth, our children. Why would anyone manage stress? It took me a while to understand that people have concluded that stress is a part of their lives.
Manage yourself, not your stress
Stress is not a part of your life. Stress is just your inability to manage your own system. Stress happens not because of the nature of your work. The Prime Minister is complaining of stress, the peon is also complaining of stress. In between, every other person is saying his job is stressful. And those who are unemployed also find their situation stressful. So you are suffering your job – if I get you fired, will you be joyful?
Shekhar Kapur:No.
Sadhguru:No. So stress is obviously not about your job, isn’t it? It is just that you do not know how to manage your body, your mind, your emotions, your energy, your chemistry – you do not know how to manage anything. You are functioning by accident, so everything is stressful. If you get into a car where if you turn the steering wheel one way, the car goes in the opposite direction, you’ll be stressed, isn’t it?
Shekhar Kapur:Yeah.
Sadhguru:Right now, that’s the kind of mechanism you are driving. Without understanding anything about it, just by chance, you are blundering through life – so you will be stressful. Stress is not because of the nature of the activity that you are performing or because of life situations. Stress is simply because you do not know how to manage your own system. What is stressful for one person, someone else breezes through – isn’t it so?
Shekhar Kapur:Correct.
Changing the context of your life
Sadhguru:So stress is just an inability to manage the inner situation, not the outer situation. Essentially, the quality of our lives changes and transforms not because we change the content of our lives, but only because we change the context of our lives. If someone is living a beautiful life, it does not mean he is doing something different. When he wakes up in the morning, he also goes to the toilet. He also brushes his teeth. He also does the same things. But somehow, his life is magical and beautiful because of the context.
The first and foremost thing we need to work at is to make a human being peaceful and joyful. This will invariably happen if you do the right type of yoga.
This could have happened to people when they fall in love with someone. When they fell in love, and everything becomes different because the context of their life has changed. But then, once they fall out of love, again, the context of their life changes and they become miserable. Changing the content of your life as you wish may not be possible because you need permission from the situations in which you exist, but changing the context is something that you can do willfully. You don’t need anyone’s permission. It is not at all situational.
On a certain day, three men were working in one place. Another man came by and asked the first man, “What are you doing here?” The man looked up and said, “Are you blind? Can’t you see I’m cutting stone?” This person moved on to the next man and asked, “What are you doing here?” That man looked up and said, “Something to fill my belly. So I come here and do whatever they ask me to do. I just have to fill my belly, that’s all.” He went to the third man and asked, “What are you doing here?” That man stood up in great joy and said, “I’m building a beautiful temple here!” All of them were doing the same thing, but their experience of what they were doing was worlds apart.
Every human being, every moment of his life could be doing whatever he is doing in any one of these three contexts – and that will determine the quality of his life, not what he is actually doing. How simple or complex an activity is doesn’t change the quality of your life. With what context you do it changes the quality of your life.
If you look at your ability to handle various situations in your life, is it better when you are feeling very happy or unhappy? When you are joyful, you are willing to take up any number of things and do it. When you are stressed, you don't want to do even the simplest things - it sets up a different kind of momentum within you.
So the first and foremost thing we need to work at is to make a human being peaceful and joyful. This will invariably happen if you do the right type of yoga. If it is done properly - because yoga is a subjective science - if it is delivered properly, it will work like a miracle and make this happen.
Editor’s Note:Inner Engineering offers tools to find balance between the challenges of a hectic career and the inner longing for peace. The program offers the opportunity to be initiated into the Shambhavi Mahamudra, a powerful kriya, by a realized Master.
The beauty of the Shambhavi Mahamudra is that it takes a mere 21 minutes of your day. The kriya is a part of the Inner Engineering program, Isha’s flagship course. A large part of the course can be taken in the comfort of your home, through Inner Engineering Online, and initiations into Shambhavi are offered around the world at regular intervals.
Yoga and the Mind
The whole process of yoga is to transcend the limitations of the mind. As long as you are in the mind, you are ruled by the past, because mind is just an accumulation of the past. If you are looking at life only through the mind, then you will make your future just like the past, [...]
The whole process of yoga is to transcend the limitations of the mind. As long as you are in the mind, you are ruled by the past, because mind is just an accumulation of the past. If you are looking at life only through the mind, then you will make your future just like the past, nothing more, nothing less. Isn’t the world enough proof of that? It does not matter what opportunities come our way through science, technology and many other things, aren’t we repeating the same historical scenes again and again?
The past does not exist, but you are dealing with the non-existent, going about as if it is a reality. That is the whole illusion. Mind is the basis of this.
If you take a closer look at your own life, you will see the same repetition happening, because as long as you are functioning only through the prism of the mind, you are functioning only with the old data. The past is carried only in your mind. Only because your mind is active, past exists. Suppose all your mind ceases right now, is your past here? There is no past here, only present. The reality is only present, but past exists through our minds. Or in other words, mind is karma. If you transcend the mind, you transcend the karmic bondage altogether. If you want to solve them one by one, it may take a million years. In the process of solving, you are also building new stock of karma.
Your old stock of karma is not the problem at all. You should learn how not to create new stock. That is the main thing. Old stock will wear out by itself; no big things need to be done about it. But the fundamental thing is you learn how not to create new stock. Then, leaving the old stock is very simple.
If you transcend the mind, you transcend the karmic bondage also, completely. You don’t really have to work it out because when you are playing with your karmas, you are playing with the non-existent. It is a trap of the mind. The past does not exist, but you are dealing with the non-existent, going about as if it is a reality. That is the whole illusion. Mind is the basis of this. If you transcend the mind, you transcend everything in one stroke.
The whole effort of spiritual sciences has always been how to transcend the mind, how to look at life beyond the limitations of the mind. Many people have defined yoga in many different ways. People say, “If you become one with the universe, it is yoga.” “If you go beyond yourself, it is yoga.” “If you are no longer subject to the laws of the physical, it is yoga.” All these things are fine and fantastic definitions, there is nothing wrong with them, but in terms of your experience, you cannot relate to them. Someone said, “If you become one with God, you are in yoga.” You don’t know where you are. You don’t know where God is. How to become one?
But Patanjali nailed it this way – “To rise above the modifications of your mind, when you cease your mind, when you cease to be a part of your mind, that is yoga.” All the influences of the world are entering you only through the instrument of the mind. If you can rise beyond the influence of your mind in full awareness, then you are naturally one with everything. The separation – you and me, time and space – has come only because of the mind. It is a bondage of the mind. If you drop the mind, you have dropped time and space. There is no such thing as this and that. There is no such thing as here and there. There is no such thing as now and then. Everything is here and now.
If you rise above all the modifications and manifestations of the mind, then you can play with the mind whichever way you want. You can use your mind with devastating impact in your life, but if you are in it, you will never realize the nature of the mind.
Organizing The Mind For Success
When one begins to suffer their success, it is time to relook at the fundamentals. Sadhguru explains that being successful by accident can only lead to anxiety. Only by organizing your mind in one direction can one earn success.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Sadhguru looks at how most people are successful by accident, and are therefore suffering their success. He explains that unless we organize our mind, we cannot be truly successful and enjoy success.
Sadhguru:Your ability to do something in the world essentially depends on the extent to which you are capable of harnessing your body and mind towards your goal, and after that, harnessing the situation in which you exist. But the most fundamental things are that your body and mind function not only to the best of their ability, but the way you want them to. When I say “the way you want,” there are many ways to check it.
Let’s try a simple experiment. For the next 10 seconds, do not think of monkeys. Give it a try. Close your eyes and do not think of a monkey for the next 10 seconds…
Can you do it? Your mind is full of monkeys, isn't it? Your mind is not doing what you want it to do. If you say, “I don’t want monkeys,” it will think only of monkeys. Have you noticed this? This is not just your problem. The whole world is suffering this. When they are in the office they want to go home. When they are at home they are thinking of the office.
Some time ago, I spent half-a-day with one of the English Premier League soccer clubs. They had reasonably good talent, but had not been doing well for the past few years. I spent half-a-day with them, just watching how they were practicing and playing. They were good, they knew how to play football, that was not the issue. But they were nervous, kicking the ball around, and every time it did not go where they wanted, I would hear four-letter words flying all over the place. And the next day, they were playing another team full of well-known stars who could turn the game around single-handedly! I made them sit down and told them some simple things about themselves for about an hour-and-a-half. They had not beaten the other team in four-and-a-half years, but the next day they won the game 1-0.
Accidental Success
The problem is just this: the mind is going into everything that it should not, but not doing what it should be doing. What happens in your mind should be one hundred percent the way you want it, but within yourself, how many moments of unpleasantness do you go through in 24 hours’ time? Irritation, anger, agitation, tension, fear, anxiety – all different types of unpleasantness. If you feel unpleasant five times a day, one way or the other, the residue spreads right through the day. This is not because something is wrong with your work or with people around you. It is essentially because your mind is refusing to take instructions from you.
Your mind is not doing what you say; you do whatever your mind says. That means you are a terrible manager.
If you cannot even conduct your mind the way you want it, the question of life happening the way you want is remote. You can only be successful by accident, not by intent.
When you are successful by accident, you live in fear. People have landed up in places just by accident, and they live in enormous anxiety all the time because they are successful by chance; they did not get there by their own dint. They somehow got there, so now they are fearful every day. But when you are successful by intent, you know you can do it.
If the whole thing gets washed away tomorrow, you will rebuild it once again. When you do anything accidentally, invariably, you will suffer the process. If you know how to drive your car well, it can be a joy. But if you don't know how to drive and do it accidentally, it can be enormous suffering. Every process of life can become a huge suffering if you do it accidentally. People are successful by accident. That is why they are suffering their success. If you suffer your failure it is bad enough, but if you suffer your success, then your life is 100% tragedy.
Self-created Suffering
There is enormous suffering in so-called “successful” people. Why? Because they manage a big industry and huge corporations, but they do not know how to manage their own mind. That means their management is by accident, not by intent. Managing an industry or a corporation essentially means you have to manage ten thousand minds. If you do not know how to manage your own mind, how will you manage the outside situation?
If you are causing misery to yourself, obviously you do not know how to manage your mind. Nobody can cause suffering to you. People throw various kinds of situations at you, but it is always you who caused suffering to yourself. For example, if I call you an idiot, you would cause suffering to yourself. The word “idiot” does not cause suffering. If you did not know English and someone called you an idiot, you might think they were saying “good evening.” So, if you are causing suffering to yourself, the basic things within you are obviously out of control. They are not happening the way you wish them to happen.
Any instrument in your life is useful to you only if it takes instructions from you and is managed by you. Please see, the state of your mind is such that it says its own things, it does not listen to you. Your mind is not doing what you say; you do whatever your mind says. That means you are a terrible manager. If you are like this, you will only manage external situations by accident.
An Organized Mind
In yoga, a well-established mind is referred to as a Kalpavriksha. If you bring your mind to a certain level of organization, it in turn organizes the other three dimensions of your system – your body, emotion, and energies.
If you organize your mind in one direction, and in turn organize the whole system in that direction, anything you wish will happen.
Once these four dimensions are organized in one direction and kept unwavering for a certain period, anything you wish will happen. You don’t even have to lift your little finger. Without having to do any activity, you can manifest what you want.
The problem with your mind right now is that it changes its direction every moment. If you walk somewhere and keep changing your direction every two steps, the chances of reaching your destination are very remote unless it happens by accident. But if you organize your mind in one direction, and in turn organize the whole system in that direction, anything you wish will happen.
The Four Parts of Mind – Harnessing the True Power of the Mind
Sadhguru explains the four parts of mind - Buddhi, Manas, Ahankara and Chitta - and reveals that if you manage to touch the Chitta which is the cosmic intelligence, God becomes your slave!
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Sadhguru speaks about how we can tap into the true possibility of the mind, by reaching the Chitta, a dimension where God becomes your slave!
Questioner:Namaskaram, Sadhguru. I have been doing Chit Shakti meditation, and sometimes, I find it difficult to visualize, but later on, things have really happened. Can you throw some light on that?
Sadhguru:Chit Shakti meditation is not just visualization. In the yogic understanding, there are 16 dimensions to the human mind. These 16 dimensions fall into four categories. These four categories are known as buddhi, manas, ahankara, and chitta. Buddhi is the intellect – the logical dimension of thought. Unfortunately, the modern education systems and modern sciences have largely limited themselves to buddhi. That is a buddhu (foolish) way of existence.
Buddhi - The Intellect
Buddhi or the intellect cannot function without a certain bank of memory or data. Depending on the data you have, the intellect plays around. Suppose in your memory system, there are 10 gigabytes of memory. Depending on how sharp your buddhi is, one person can produce, let’s say, a trillion thoughts with these 10 gigabytes. Someone else can produce 10 trillion thoughts with the same 10 gigabytes of memory.
In the yogic understanding, there are 16 dimensions to the human mind.
If you can think a little better than someone else, it is considered as intelligence today. If someone says one thing and you can say ten things to that, you may be socially smart, but you are not any more intelligent. Unfortunately, in today’s systems of education and academics, everything is determined by this. If you can make more things out of it, you are considered intelligent, which is not true – you only have a sharper buddhi. The buddhi will not take you beyond limits in any way, because it can only function based on the data that is already there. It is not capable of accessing anything beyond that.
Manas - A Huge Silo of Memory
The next dimension is called manas. Manas has many layers to it. But manas is not just the brain – it is right across the body. Every cell in the body has a phenomenal memory – not just of this life but of millions of years. Your body clearly remembers how your forefathers were a million years ago. Top to bottom, there is manas – this is called manomaya kosha. In every cell in the body, there is memory and intelligence, but no intellect. Intellect is only in the brain.
What is in the brain is intellect, not intelligence. Intelligence and memory are right across your body. But people have never been trained how to use this intelligence.
In English language, everything comes under one banner called “mind.” The idea that intelligence is only in the brain has produced human beings whose consciousness is seriously constipated. What is in the brain is intellect, not intelligence. Intelligence and memory are right across your body. But people have never been trained how to use this intelligence. Instead, they use their intellect for everything. No wonder they are stressed out whatever job you give them. The whole weight is on only one dimension of the mind out of sixteen. It is like loading a sixteen-wheeler truck and trying to drive on only one wheel – you can imagine the stress! That is what today’s world is going through.
People may be using other dimensions of the mind marginally, unconsciously, but they are not trained to use them. They have only been trained to use their buddhi, or their intellect. They are very smart. They know everything about everything, but they do not know how to figure their own life. They do not even know how to sit here peacefully and at total ease within themselves. If there is true intelligence, the first thing that you need to figure out is how to make life happen. You know how to make the world happen, but you do not know how to make your life happen. You do not know how to conduct your mind, your energies, your emotions or your body.
If you ask people to become fit, they become tight. If you ask them to live in a more natural way, they become fat. Where is the intelligence? There is only intellect. Intellect looks good only in comparison. Suppose you are the only person on the planet, your intellect will not mean anything. Only because there are a few idiots around you, you shine. By itself, intellect will not be of any consequence.
Ahankara - The Sense of Identity
The intellect directly connects with the third dimension of your mind, called ahankara. Ahankara is sometimes translated as ego, but it is much more than that. Ahankara gives you a sense of identity. Once your ahankara takes on an identity, your intellect functions only in that context. It is important to function beyond the intellect, because the intellect is seriously enslaved to your identity.
There are other ways to know life beyond the identities we have taken on for our survival in the world.
Our identities, such as belonging to a certain nation, community, or whatever else, are necessary for our survival in a particular society. But you cannot think beyond this because you are functioning only from your intellect, and the intellect takes its sustenance from ahankara. Only along the axis of ahankara, the intellect can function. The intellect cannot transcend this, because that is its nature. But there are other ways to know life beyond the identities we have taken on for our survival in the world.
Chitta - The Cosmic Intelligence
The fourth category of the mind is called chitta. Chitta is mind without memory – pure intelligence. This intelligence is like the cosmic intelligence – simply there. Everything happens because of that. It does not function out of memory – it simply functions. In a way, what you call cosmos is a living mind, not in the sense of intellect but in the sense of chitta. Chitta is the last point of the mind. It connects to the basis of creation within you. It connects you with your consciousness.
Chitta is always on – whether you are awake or asleep. Your intellect comes on and goes off. Many times it fails, even when you are awake. If chitta or the intelligence within you was not always on, you could not stay alive. Try to conduct your breath with your intellect – you will go crazy. Chitta is keeping you alive, keeping you going, making life happen. If you touch this dimension of your mind, which is the linking point to one’s consciousness, you do not even have to wish for anything, you do not have to dream of anything – the best possible thing that can happen to you will anyway happen.
The Divine Enslaved
When people touch this dimension of the mind, it is called ishwara pranidhana in yoga. This means God becomes your slave – he works for you. You know, yogis say, “Shiva is my servant. He does everything for me.” In a way, otherwise, I would not be here. Once you know how to consciously access your chitta, everything that is needed will simply happen in the best possible way. If you go by your intellect or your buddhi, today you think “this is it,” tomorrow morning you think “that is it” – like this it goes on endlessly.
Chitta is the last point of the mind. It connects to the basis of creation within you. It connects you with your consciousness.
Once you know how to consciously keep your chitta on, once the Divine is your servant, when someone really efficient is working for you, you do not have to do anything. Simply sit; the best things will happen – things that you could not imagine. People always think if their dreams come true, their life will be great. I think that is a very poor life, because you cannot dream about anything that is not at all in your experience. My wish and my blessing for you is things that you could not dream of, things that you never thought possible, must happen to you. What you did not dream must happen to you – that is why you should not dream.
Instead of seeing how to delve deeper into yourself, you go on projecting stupid ideas into the world. People think that is a great thing to do. Last time when I was in the US, and someone said to me, “Sadhguru, how do you manifest all this?” I said, “I do not manifest anything. I am just fooling around. I got a very efficient partner [Shiva]. I simply leave it to him, and it happens.”
Chit Shakti is about touching the dimension of your mind that is pure intelligence – unsullied by memory, unsullied by identification. It is beyond ahankara, beyond buddhi, beyond judgment, beyond divisions – simply there, just like the intelligence of existence that makes everything happen. If you access this, you do not have to worry about what happens or what does not happen. It will happen in a way that you never imagined possible.
Once you have access to your chitta, it is also a multi-pointed telescope. It makes you see things that no one else can see – in every direction.
Once you have access to your chitta, it is also a multi-pointed telescope. It makes you see things that no one else can see – in every direction. It is your crystal ball. It is a magnifying glass that brings the very core of life close to you. For everyone else, it is far way. Everyone thinks the Divine is somewhere up there. Where exactly, no one knows. All they know is, it seems far away.
The moment you start looking at life through your chitta, where there is no memory, there is no karmic substance and no division. Suddenly, the Divine is right there, bang on, in your face all the time. You cannot miss it.
The idea of Chit Shakti is not to keep asking for things. The idea is that if the physical arrangements of life happen easily, you can dedicate more time for your spiritual wellbeing. It would be stupid if just because it happens easily, first you want to be a millionaire, then you want to be a billionaire. The main intention is that your physical life happens more easily, that it does not take your entire time to handle it, so that you will have time to close your eyes and sit. Please make use of it for this purpose.
Taming The Mind and Ego
Sadhguru: Searching for truth is itself a big illusion because whatever we term “the truth” is always and everywhere. We don’t have to search for it or seek it. It always is. The only problem right now is you are capable of experiencing life only through the limited dimension that we call “mind”. Patanjali defined [...]
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Sadhguru looks at how Patanjali defines yoga as “chitta vritti nirodha”, or to still the modifications of the mind. He tells us a story to illustrate the point.
Sadhguru:Searching for truth is itself a big illusion because whatever we term “the truth” is always and everywhere. We don’t have to search for it or seek it. It always is. The only problem right now is you are capable of experiencing life only through the limited dimension that we call “mind”.
Patanjali defined yoga as “chitta vritti nirodha”. That is, if you still the modifications or the activity of the mind, you are there: everything has become one in your consciousness. Yoga has innumerable devices, innumerable methods of working towards a still mind. We may be pursuing many things in our lives, we may be going through the processes that we call achievements in our life, but to go beyond the modifications of the mind is the most fundamental, at the same time, the highest achievement because this releases a human being from what he is seeking, from what is within and what is outside – from everything. He becomes an ultimate possibility if he just stills his mind.
What most people are after right now in their lives is fundamentally to achieve happiness and peace. But most spend a whole lifetime and never get to be truly happy or peaceful. Whatever happiness and peace that one knows in life is generally so fragile that it is always subservient to the external situation. So, most people’s lives go in trying to manage a perfect external situation – which is impossible to achieve. Yoga focuses on the inner situation. If you can create a perfect inward situation, no matter what the external situation, you can be in perfect bliss and peace.
The Silent Hero
This reminds me of a certain situation that happened in the South Indian yogic tradition. Once, there was a devotee whose name was Tatvaraya. Tatvaraya encountered a very beautiful master in his life, whose name was Swaroopananda.
This master never spoke. As a human being, he spoke here and there, but as a guru he never spoke. This was a silent master. Tatvaraya found tremendous bliss and joy in being with his guru, and he composed a bharani. A bharani is a certain composition in Tamil, which is generally composed only for great heroes.
A few days passed; they sat quietly. After about eight days of all of them just sitting quietly, Swaroopananda moved his mind.
Society reacted and protested that a bharani cannot be composed for a man who has never even opened his mouth, who has not done anything except sit quietly. This can be composed only for a great hero – one who has slain a thousand elephants. And this man had never even opened his mouth. Surely he doesn’t deserve a bharani! Tatvaraya said, “No, my master deserves more than this, but this is all I can give.”
There was a big argument and debate in town about this. Then Tatvaraya decided the only way to settle this issue was to take these people to his master. His guru was sitting quietly under a tree. All of them went and sat there, and Tatvaraya explained the problem: “People are protesting because I composed a bharani in your honor. They say it is supposed to be composed only for great heroes.”
The master heard all this and just sat quietly. All of them sat quietly. Hours passed; they sat quietly. A few days passed; they sat quietly. After about eight days of all of them just sitting quietly, Swaroopananda moved his mind. At that point, everyone’s thought process became active. Then they realized a true hero is someone who has tamed these rutting elephants that you call “mind” and “ego”. And both these elephants were still for eight days for everyone just by sitting with the master. So, they said, “Yes, this is the man who truly deserves a bharani.”
Editor’s Note:Excerpted from the ebook “Himalayan Lust”, available at Isha Downloads. Check out the preview for a taste! Amalgamating Sadhguru’s discourses during yatras to the Himalayas, the book is a blend of the specific and the timeless. It is a chance to make a pilgrimage on the page, travelling through the unpredictable but fascinating terrain of the Master’s words.
Editor’s Note:The "Power to Create" meditations for Peace, Love, Health, and Success (also known as “Chit Shakti”) are available at the Isha Download Store.
Sadhguru on How to Get Rid of Stress
Shekhar Kapur: Since I’m having the chance to interview you, I know people will say, “Well, why didn’t you ask about how to get rid of stress?” Is there a definition that we can assign to the idea of stress? Sadhguru: When I first went to the United States a few years ago, wherever I [...]
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
Oscar-award winning film maker Shekar Kapur asks Sadhguru about stress, who looks at the shift we need to engineer within ourselves in order to get rid of stress.
Shekhar Kapur:Since I’m having the chance to interview you, I know people will say, “Well, why didn’t you ask about how to get rid of stress?” Is there a definition that we can assign to the idea of stress?
Sadhguru:When I first went to the United States a few years ago, wherever I went, everybody was talking about “stress management.” I really didn’t get this because in my understanding, we manage things which are precious to us – our business, our family, our money, our wealth, our children. Why would anyone manage stress? It took me a while to understand that people have concluded that stress is a part of their lives.
Manage yourself, not your stress
Stress is not a part of your life. Stress is just your inability to manage your own system. Stress happens not because of the nature of your work. The Prime Minister is complaining of stress, the peon is also complaining of stress. In between, every other person is saying his job is stressful. And those who are unemployed also find their situation stressful. So you are suffering your job – if I get you fired, will you be joyful?
Shekhar Kapur:No.
Sadhguru:No. So stress is obviously not about your job, isn’t it? It is just that you do not know how to manage your body, your mind, your emotions, your energy, your chemistry – you do not know how to manage anything. You are functioning by accident, so everything is stressful. If you get into a car where if you turn the steering wheel one way, the car goes in the opposite direction, you’ll be stressed, isn’t it?
Shekhar Kapur:Yeah.
Sadhguru:Right now, that’s the kind of mechanism you are driving. Without understanding anything about it, just by chance, you are blundering through life – so you will be stressful. Stress is not because of the nature of the activity that you are performing or because of life situations. Stress is simply because you do not know how to manage your own system. What is stressful for one person, someone else breezes through – isn’t it so?
Shekhar Kapur:Correct.
Changing the context of your life
Sadhguru:So stress is just an inability to manage the inner situation, not the outer situation. Essentially, the quality of our lives changes and transforms not because we change the content of our lives, but only because we change the context of our lives. If someone is living a beautiful life, it does not mean he is doing something different. When he wakes up in the morning, he also goes to the toilet. He also brushes his teeth. He also does the same things. But somehow, his life is magical and beautiful because of the context.
The first and foremost thing we need to work at is to make a human being peaceful and joyful. This will invariably happen if you do the right type of yoga.
This could have happened to people when they fall in love with someone. When they fell in love, and everything becomes different because the context of their life has changed. But then, once they fall out of love, again, the context of their life changes and they become miserable. Changing the content of your life as you wish may not be possible because you need permission from the situations in which you exist, but changing the context is something that you can do willfully. You don’t need anyone’s permission. It is not at all situational.
On a certain day, three men were working in one place. Another man came by and asked the first man, “What are you doing here?” The man looked up and said, “Are you blind? Can’t you see I’m cutting stone?” This person moved on to the next man and asked, “What are you doing here?” That man looked up and said, “Something to fill my belly. So I come here and do whatever they ask me to do. I just have to fill my belly, that’s all.” He went to the third man and asked, “What are you doing here?” That man stood up in great joy and said, “I’m building a beautiful temple here!” All of them were doing the same thing, but their experience of what they were doing was worlds apart.
Every human being, every moment of his life could be doing whatever he is doing in any one of these three contexts – and that will determine the quality of his life, not what he is actually doing. How simple or complex an activity is doesn’t change the quality of your life. With what context you do it changes the quality of your life.
If you look at your ability to handle various situations in your life, is it better when you are feeling very happy or unhappy? When you are joyful, you are willing to take up any number of things and do it. When you are stressed, you don't want to do even the simplest things - it sets up a different kind of momentum within you.
So the first and foremost thing we need to work at is to make a human being peaceful and joyful. This will invariably happen if you do the right type of yoga. If it is done properly - because yoga is a subjective science - if it is delivered properly, it will work like a miracle and make this happen.
Editor’s Note:Inner Engineering offers tools to find balance between the challenges of a hectic career and the inner longing for peace. The program offers the opportunity to be initiated into the Shambhavi Mahamudra, a powerful kriya, by a realized Master.
