Harness the Mind

Please note that this section contains my personal notes from my readings on this topic.

“The image of horses pulling chariots is a familiar one in Indian scriptures, and as early as the sixth century BCE the Hindu rishis, or sages, used this image of horse and chariot in a symbolic way to represent the nature of the human mind, its wayward impulses and desires.  The following passage is from the Katha Upanishad, a speculative philosophical text:

Look on the Eternal Spirit as the ruler of a chariot, and the body as the chariot itself: reason is the driver and the mind the reins it holds; the horses are the senses, while selfish desires are the roads they travel on.

The sages say that when we confuse the Eternal Spirit with the body, mind and senses, we suffer pain and enjoy pleasure, but have no real joy.  When a person lacks steadiness and is unable to control his mind, his senses are like wild horses.  But the mind, like horses, can be trained.

In terms of contemporary yoga practice, what is it that we are harnessing?  The purpose of yoga, as defined in the Yoga Sutras, the most ancient (fourth- to third- century BCE) text of yoga philosophy, is to stop the wandering and craving mind and return it to a serene and calm state…  Paradoxically, the power of the mind is unleashed not by allowing it to be increasingly active, but by encouraging it to become centered and stilled.  As the Yoga Sutra says,

Yoga means to control and still the swirling currents of thoughts in the mind.  If you can control the thoughts that arise, and still them completely, you are able to observe the world clearly and directly without the distortions of the ego.  The ability to discipline the chattering mind is what takes us to the state of yoga.

When the turbulence stops and the lake of the mind becomes clear and still, our true essence, our Self, is reflected.  Then the Self can abide in its own true nature.  This is the goal, this is what we ant to attain.

Yoga encourages us to let go of unnecessary desires, thereby learning to quieten and concentrate the mind, increasing our ability to direct it in ways that will give us greater control over our senses and our minds, thoughts and feelings, desires and impulses.”

– Yoga Masters: How Yoga Theory Can Deepen Your Practice and Meditation by Mark Forstater and Jo Manuel; pages 23 – 24

According to the Yoga and Sankhya system, sound is the root of all other sensory potentials.  It is the sensory quality which belongs to ether, the original element.  Hence, through it all the elements can be controlled.  The mind itself is composed of sound.  It is the reverberation of our words and the ideas they represent which forms the pattern of the mind.  Hence, a conscious use of sound both purifies and controls the mind.

– “Sanskrit, the Language of the Vedas” by Dr. David Frawley

Sanskrit is the language of mantra, of spiritually empowered sounds.  Its usage is to bring our minds back to the consciousness and power of mantra.  Mantra is not just concerned with sound but with meaning.  According to the view of the Yoga as sound, there is only one meaning in life, which is the Divine or our own Self.

– “Sanskrit, the Language of the Vedas” by Dr. David Frawley