Jeevan Vigyan : The Science of Living: 08 Education And The Problem Of The Mind

Meditation is one of the means of unravelling the mysteries of the mind and of cleaning the mind. This cleaning, purging, and refining is very important. Even the food we eat becomes meaningful to us only to the extent that it has been purged of its dross (what helps the body grow is only the purest and best part of what we eat). Further, energy and health are mutually related. Where one is, the other is. Now for getting energy cleansing of the mind is necessary. And it is also true for being healthy. The more the cleansing, the greater the energy. For proper and adequate management of all our activities both refinement and nourishment are necessary. Meditation is the process of both refinement and nourishment. Hence, it should be a compulsory component of our education. In fact, education can be comprehensive and inclusive only when it also incorpo­rates the spiritual science and training in meditation. Our present education is mainly aimed at meeting the physical needs. It helps one earn one's living so that the material requirements are fulfilled. But how can the mind be separated from the body? Unfortunately the mind has been greatly neglected.

Mostly we use only the gross intellect and thus our fine or subtle intellect is in a state of disuse and therefore dysfunctional. It is so because we ascribe centrality to the body. There would be no problem if the body was regarded as peripheral. Not only can no problem be solved, it even gets accentuated if at the heart of everything is kept the body. Problems can be solved only when consciousness is kept at the centre and all other things at the periphery. All our thinking should be directed to the deter­mining of the effect an activity or action will have on the consciousness. What may appear momentarily beneficial may have a baneful long-term effect on the consciousness. It is worth reflecting what cumulative impact a particular activity will have on the consciousness and what its ultimate consequences will be. Such an attitude of reflection is conducive to the solution of problems, whereas a body-centred attitude inevitably compli­cates problems. Someone has written that one out of every ten Indians is a mental case. It indicates a huge population of mad men in the country. Of course, it will be worse in other countries but for the time being let us ask ourselves why it is so here. The question becomes more crucial and a cause of greater anxiety if we take into consideration those who are only partially mad and who would easily be 50% of the total population. One thing common to both - those who are completely mad and those who are partially mad - is that they have lost control over themselves in varying degrees and that their mental balance has been disturbed. The very enormity of the problem should cause deep concern and this is one of the greatest problems modern educa­tion confronts. What good is that education which is incapable of solving our mental problems? Mere catering to physical needs and even ensuring intellectual and mental development -however important though they may be - is not enough. Here it is worth remembering that mental development is not the same as competence in solving mental problems. This is not surprising because mental development largely involves sharp­ness of memory and an ability to think and imagine. This by itself cannot ensure the ability to resolve mental problems. Moreover, it is also true that these problems gain in complexity as the mind develops. Paradoxically, man has to pay a very heavy price for the higher quality of his memory. Unlike an animal or a child, he alone has a long-term memory. The former can forget fast, the latter cannot. Man thus carries a very heavy burden of memory which very often is the cause of many mental problems, particularly those which are the result of brooding over things. In such cases ceaseless thinking and endless brooding them­selves become big problems.

Similarly, imagination also is at once an index of mental development as well as a source of mental problems. Control of imagination is the key to the solution of a large number of problems connected with the mind. Again, it is imagination that creates new complications. A man given to too much imagina­tion gets disoriented from reality and is often very miserable. In fact, no problems are more intractable than imaginary problems. And in reality very often the problems people face are largely imaginary, whether they pertain to the family, various institu­tions, or the nation as a whole. Wherever two people come together, a wall of imagination is raised between them. They will encounter no problmes in their mutual relations once this will is brought down, for the wall raised by imagination creates a distance between them.

There is nothing in our present-day education that can help people solve this dilemma - imagination being at once the cause of mental development and mental problems. Inadequacy of the education system in this respect calls for paying greater heed to meditation and spirituality being made compulsory components of the system. Only when education has thus been made com­plete will it enable learners to properly understand and solve their own mental problems.

Problems of all kinds are best solved by bringing about some kind of radical change, not merely verbal change, but real and inner change. We have to change that which has the most effect on our living. In philosophical terms it is the maturing of the fruit of actions; in the language of ancient yoga it is nectar; and in modern terminology it is the flow or secretion of the endocrine glands. Every time the fruit of man's action matures he gets changed. This is why no man ever remains the same. A piece of rock, being inanimate, can remain unchanged over a period of time, but it cannot be true of any animate being, especially of man. Man is being reborn every moment and every new birth is a change - it brings into being a new being. For this process of birth no procreation is needed, no parents are needed, no artifical insemination is needed. This incessant change going on within man - change of consciousness - connot be subjected to control or regulation. Science has discovered mny laws that regulate the material universe, but its laws are utterly ineffective in the case of animate beings. Every wakeful moment registers a change in man's consciousness. Nothing therefore can de­scribe an invariant, homogeneous personality, for such a thing is non-existent. And this constitutes man's freedom. He cannot be tossed about like a lump of earth, nor can he, like it, remain lying in a state of no change. This is vital distinction between the animate and the inanimate. Both are governed by different laws. The former has a free existence and can use this freedom. Anyone who is free and who uses his freedom is beyond univer­sal laws. For only those who are dependent can be subjected to regulatory laws. Man, having the capacity for independent change, cannot be tied down to such laws.

Now if it is an undisputed fact that man enjoys an indepen­dent existence, it becomes relevant to think of ways and means of developing and requiring that independence. It is here that training in meditation comes to acquire critical importance. But meditation does not mean merely sitting down with eyes closed, or resting and relaxing for a while. These things are not unconnected with meditation but they are not crucial. The main aim of training in and practice of meditation is to infinitely extend the freedom of the consciousness, to extend it to a point where all that restrains it is destroyed so that its potentiality for development is fully realized. For this controlling the endocrinal secretions is most important.

Many people complain of a strong tendency towards anger, even of violent fits of anger that make them almost blind and insane. The reason is not far to seek. Any factor leading to a sudden spurt of the adrenal's secretion (adrenalin) results in outbursts of anger. This has been experimentally proved. By injecting something into the adrenal of a monkey and thereby increasing the supply of adrenalin, doctors succeeded in making the monkey run into a wild temper. Conversely, by reducing the output of the adrenalin they calmed down the monkey dramati­cally.

All our dispositions are active in the region of the navel. The very region that is responsible for digesting food and generating vital energy is also the place that seats fear, lust, anger, greed, jealousy, egoism and other negative tendencies. The region is all the more important in so far as that is generated there can also be controlled only there. Good digestion is as much necessary for physical as for mental health. Our food, the digestive system and the mind are all vitally interconnected.

As has been noted earlier, the solution to our problems will have to be found in our internal secretions. The credit for this discovery should go to the Jain preceptors. In no other literature of India or the world does one find a more detailed examination and analysis of the consequence or maturing of the fruit of our actions. It has already been said that in modern terminology it is called endocrinal secretion. Such is the chemistry of our actions that we are tied up with their consequences or fruition. This juice that is emitted affects our consciousness. It is the glands that emit it. Hathyoga calls it nectar. In the literature on Hathyoga, as also in the Gorakh system, one very often comes across this theme. One reads about drinking the nectar, or sompan. What is meant by sompan? It is the secretion ema­nating from our brain. It is secreted by the pituitary and the pineal and it has tremendous influence on us. Any modern biologist will endorse the view that the hormones secreted by the hypothalamus, the pituitary and the pineal govern the function of the adrenals and the gonads. The sexual urge and all other drives and dispositions are related to the gonads and the adrenals but they are controlled by and dependent upon the secretions of the upper glands. Therefore by mastering the flow of the latter one can control one's baser dispositions.

We will be mistaken to believe that mere preaching can bring about a lasting change in someone's dispositions. But by changing the flow of the secretions or by restoring the balance of the endocrinal secretions the desired results can be achieved. If for whatever reason our attention is frequently concentrated on the stomach, the navel or the region below it, the endocrinal balance is disturbed, Even scientists and medical experts are agreed that all thoughts - good as well as bad - disturb the above balance, though no harm accrues due to good thoughts. Bad thoughts, however, change the nature of the inner secretions. Thus, inordinate fear completely upsets the central nervous system and excessive anger puts the glandular mechanism en­tirely out of order. Brain nerves are also affected as they are vitally connected with thoughts. From this.point of view relin­quishing evil thoughts ceases to be merely a religious or spiritual matter. It turns out to be equally important for gaining physical health.

After giving a good deal of thought the Jain preceptors concluded that the main reason of heart failure is mental stress. The more the mental unhappiness and shock, the greater the pressure on the heart. With mounting pressure a point is reached when the heart stops functioning.

It is an undisputed fact that our thoughts crucially affect us. Good and bad thoughts attract correspondingly good and bad atoms. The latter directly damage the heart. It therefore be­comes imperative that they be replaced by the former. But again, the question arises as to how to do so. 'How' and 'what' pose the biggest problem in the world. There is no dearth of advice as to the desirability of giving up evil thoughts and replacing them by sublime ones. But very little has been said about how to bring it about. And not unnaturally so, since the 'how' is more a matter of experience and practice than of words.

l here is a simple way of changing the flow of the secretions -resorting to long breaths. As breathing slows down the con­sciousness gets pitched into the present. Breathing exercise is therefore the best way to achieve the goal.

Here it is worth noting that breath belongs only to the present, in the sense that the past or future breaths cannot take the place of the present breath since it is only the last that can keep a man alive. Food eaten and water drunk sometime in the past can sustain us in the present but no one can survive only on the basis of the breaths already taken. It is therefore imprerative for all those who want to live in the present to get to know all about breath. One who fails to properly evaluate breath lives either in the past or in the future. By implication, therefore, he who has realized the full value of breath has given an added meaning to his present. Such a man will be free from all the problems created either by memories of the past or by the images of the future. Having known the secret of living in the present, of keeping consciousness confined to the present, he will automatically master the art of controlling the endocrinal secretions. He will be able to alter them at his will. Should he find lust overcoming him, he should at conce start taking long breaths. Both the pituitary and the pineal will get oriented to the present and lust will first weaken and then altogether disappear. Only aware of himself, he will find himself in a state free from infatuation and repulsion, love and hate alike.

Whatever and howsoever strong be the passion or base disposition, it can be successfully and affectively countered through resort to long breaths, body-perception and perception of and concentration on the centre of consciousness, especially the tip of the nose, the centre of the eyebrows and the forehead. The endocrinal secretions will be automatically transformed.

To sum up, what thoughts cannot achieve, the conscious­ness of the present can. A right turn of the consciousness will change the secretions and that in turn will transform the dis­positions. For such a complete transformation we will have to acquire complete understanding of our mental problems - their nature, process, source, the secretion causing them and the way to change it. All this constitutes an interlocking chain, a grid. Once it is mastered the man given to meditation becomes the maker of his own personality and the arbiter of his own destiny. His consciousness becomes truly independent. For this it is necessary to leam the art of physical relaxation, silence, con­centration and 'thoughtlessness' (freedom from thoughts). Such a state of 'thoughtlessness' is the highest stage of consciousness.