Sharada Natarajan
A Kaleidoscope of Thoughts
The Mind is the most fascinating thing about human beings; the most versatile, active and yet the most intriguing faculty that we are endowed with.
It is the starting point of all, that makes and marks a human being, and yet has no distinct definable identity of its own: a kaleidoscope of thoughts; a chatterbox that is constantly engaged in a dialogue with itself.
Its infinite potential, its unpredictability, its limitless possibilities, and range and speed of imagination is unfathomable.
Detached and non-judgmental and unaffected by the effects the thoughts might normally produce on us, and from a vantage point somewhere inside the region of mind itself, if we can watch our minds and observe its idiosyncrasies meandering through a network of thoughts, ad infinitum, we can witness the mind demystifying itself and start unfolding, with enormous clarity, to reveal
Mind’s Characteristic Nature
Fluid and fickle and in a state of constant flux. A friend and a foe. A master and a servant. A teacher and a student. A cop and a robber. A guide and a misguided. A hell and a heaven.All in itself and by itself.
Mind’s Functional Ways
Switches moods in a volatile way: from elation to agitation, from anger to love, from depression to inspiration, from love to hate, from positive to negative and vice versa. All in itself and by itself.
Creates problems and suggests solutions; thinks of the bad and condemns; thinks of the good and applauds; thinks of fear and warns; thinks of pain and grieves; thinks of pleasure and relishes; moots a question, finds an answer and motivates its manifestation into action; rejoices or regrets over the result of the action; stores the experience as memory somewhere in its deep recesses to be called in later as incoming information. All in itself and by itself.
“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of a hell, a hell of a heaven”
-John Milton
This mindful exercise, when it ends, will leave us with this ubiquitous question
Is there a permanent state, a coveted state of peace, for the fluctuating mind to arrive at and stay put?
Can one ever say, conclusively, that the attempts at bringing one’s mind to abide by all the enlightening values that were introduced by way of different religious, spiritual or Vedantic practices, has culminated in the mind casting anchor at a particular state, absorbed and enshrined in the quintessence of the divine values imparted and that it will never deviate from that state?
An emphatic No.
All the mental exercises learnt through our religious or spiritual practices at controlling/diverting/channelising/regularising the mind and its ways, can never be given up.
Just as we put blinkers or blinders on a horse’s eyes to prevent it from seeing sideways or rear, the mind has to be bridled to tread a singular path. And that solitary path is what spiritual practices guide us into.
The onus is on us to stick to the path with earnest faith and steadfastness since that is the only path of life that has the power to keep at bay the unwanted evil elements from sneaking into the mental realm of activities and polluting our mental and emotional environment.
The practice of Meditation, an important aspect of spirituality, guides the mind to free itself from its relentless task of generating thoughts and gently prods it to enter a state of tranquillity and divine bliss.
Through steady and regular practice of meditation, if one can bring the mind to abide in this singular state of undisturbed peace and divinity, in and out of each day, then the mind is so refined and tuned in to focus on the chosen path, that it builds within, a firewall against distractions and deviations and trespassings and remains drawn inwards in a state of unexplained peace and joy.
