Mind--Its Mysteries and Control - The Divine Life Society

MIND—ITS MYSTERIES AND CONTROL
When the excitement is over, when he sees some blood-spots on his clothing or when some of his
friends points out to him the wound in the leg, he gets the consciousness. Then he is alarmed a bit.
The power of imagination plays havoc now. He gets a collapse now. The power of imagination
always exaggerates.
A man may have a little weakness. When he becomes your enemy, you at once exaggerate
and magnify his weakness and Dosha. You even superimpose on this or concoct many more
weaknesses and Doshas. This is due to evil imagination on your part.
Whenever the mind of two friends are strained by ill-feelings, these minds begin to
exaggerate and concoct things. Fault-finding increases. It is very difficult to get at the truth of the
statements of these two broken friends with broken friendship. Their utterances are always
coloured by their inner feelings. The power of imagination does havoc now. Maya plays havoc
through the mind and its power of imagination.
Mind tempts and deceives. Think of one as a good friend of yours and there the thing is
created as a reality. Think of him as your foe and then also the mind perfects the thought into an
actuality. He who knows the working of the mind and has controlled it by practice is really happy.
I shall explain to you the nature of “mental dramatisation.” Mark the ways of the mind.
During conversation with your friends, the mind sometimes imagines in vain that it has hurt the
feelings of your friend. It spends much of its energy in unnecessary feeling. You think: “How can I
see him tomorrow morning? He may be displeased with me.” Next morning when you meet him,
nothing happens. Your friend starts a pleasant conversation and smiles. You are surprised. To your
great astonishment, the subject of talk takes quite a different turn altogether. A family-man
imagines when a severe epidemic of plague ravages: “What shall I do if my wife develops plague
and dies now? I have got six children.” This is his vain imagination. Nothing happens. Sometimes,
when the train moves slowly on the Pamban Bridge over the sea near Ramesvaram, the mind
imagines, “If the bridge gives way now, what will become of me? I shall be smashed to pieces.” A
touch of fear creeps in. There are thousand and one ways of mental dramatisation like these. The
power of imagination plays a vital part in mental dramatisation.
When your mind is deeply concentrated, period of two hours passes like five minutes. If the
mind is distracted and wandering, half an hour hangs on as two hours. This is everybody’s
experience. In dream also, many events that represent a period of fifty years take place within ten
minutes. Through the play of the mind, a Kalpa is considered by it as a moment and vice versa.
Time is but a mode of the mind. It is Kala Sakti. It is also illusory like the objects.
Through the trick of the mind, one furlong at times appears to be a great distance and three
miles at other times appear to be a very short distance. You ought to have noted this in your daily
life.
Marichi Chaitanya, M.A., Ph.D., a Brahmachari of Rumania and myself sat for dinner in the
Kailasa Kutia, Svarga Ashram, on the bank of the Ganga. A dish of potato soup was served.
Marichi, who has no idea of Indian preparations, took it for a soup of meat. The colour and
appearance of the potato soup was exactly the same as that of meat-soup. This is a case of “mental
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