Complete Unified Theory of The Mind

Sri Sri Ravishankar says if  ‘ You can Win Over Your Mind You can win Over The Whole World’

This is a Vast topic and below Blog is a Super Blog with a series of Blogs  I have tried to structure it as below

There are 2 schools of thought with ref to the mind

1. The Path of Awareness

This consists of Action, Knowledge and Self Effort. This consists of trying to understand the mind, what it wants , what it comprises of ,what binds it and thereby try to win over it . More on Winning over the mind in this Blog  Winning Over the Mind

Any discussion on action will not be useful unless there is discussion on Karma  and whether we are free to act as we want or whether there is some force which compels us to act in a particular way in a particular situation.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar says ‘ Karma simply means action.  Action has 3 forms,

 the latent action i.e the Desire to Act , that will lead to an Action. This is the seed form of karma

the Action itself which is the seed becoming a Fruit

and the Impressions which come into our mind after performing any particular action, which is the fruit again leading to many seeds.’

For eg if the action leads to a pleasurable experience, there will be a desire to experience more such pleasure or if there is pain there will be a desire to avoid the pain. These are all the impressions of the action which lead to more action either to avoid or acquire. The stronger the impression the more the force behind desire.

There are 3 types of Karma,Prarabhda ( where the seed or actions of the past has already started giving fruit), Sanchita ( which will give fruit in near future )and Agami ( which will give fruit in future).

Law of Karma is not irrational and Unscientific. Newtons Third law of action says ‘ Every action has an equal and opposite reaction’. So for every action of ours we have to reap the consequences. However this doesn’t stop us from being more aware in the present moment and doing fresh action which might neutralise the negative effect of past Karma and only do actions which further the greater good .

For this we have to stop the negative habits which we have and cultivate good habits. More on this in this blog

  Gurudev Sri Sri says Meditation and Sudarshan Kriya has the power to remove the negative impressions from the mind and stop future bad karma from happening.

Even Modern science is coming to this view with research as papers which show the effect of Meditation and Sudarshan Kriya on our very DNA.

The Meditation Effect on Genes Research Report

Sudarshan Kriya Effect on Genes - Research Report

Apart from Meditation we can also do Seva or actions which are more Service oriented to nullify effect of Bad Karma and Increase Good Karma. More on Seva in this Blog

The Pleasure of Seva

2. Path of Divine Grace

The second , is more esoteric and goes to the source of the mind ,what powers the mind ( the soul) and more focused on understanding the divine or super mind in relation to the mind and how the Divine effects the mind.  More on this in this blog Source of The Mind

Both schools of thought one of Self effort and other of Divine grace look contradictory to each other and it has puzzled me quite a bit. 

he Guidance of a Realized Guru is of paramount importance in trying to Understand and Inculcate the Wisdom Both the Practical and Subtle aspects of Life. More about Guru in this Blog The Guru

Hearing a talk by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar on Karma and Sri Ramana Maharshi's teachings cleared up this apparent contradiction.

As Sri Ramana Maharshi says so beautifully,the Divine Grace can be compared to the Rain which is very necessary for the crops to grow, but if the field is not plowed by the farmer skilfully and as per the proper techniques( compared to our self effort) , rain by itself will not give adequate crops...So both are required self effort and divine grace one without the other wont give the best results.

  

Source of The Mind

Argument 1

Time and time again I have been puzzled by one strange thing, ,  Individual minds are in  confusion  and cant take clear decisions most of the time...but the World as a whole runs very smoothly , you can say perfectly. If we see the Vast Expanse of history we have always seen growth and development, both scientific, spiritual and political... We have mobile phones, internet, jet planes, stable political system for most of the world, things which we could not have been imagined a 100 years back

There have been hiccups down the line, wars, destruction and catastrophes but in the overall scheme of things in scale of number of people and time horizon its a small number and even those apparently disastrous events have some how contributed to the growth..

We can say that overall there seems to be one Super mind behind all the Individual minds which is guiding all of them together in one direction which is not evident to the individual minds...

Arguement 2

Thoughts keep on coming in the Mind, you can say continuously, there are logical thoughts/ random thoughts, memories of past events, plans for future etc. Thoughts are coming and going without much control from our side.

Even in sleep also thoughts come in form of dreams. Only in deep sleep there are no thoughts and there is deep rest which recharge the system. What is the battery which powers this mind and its thoughts?

In a Dead person there are no thoughts/ there is no actions. Though  apparently he looks the same, the same brain is there , there is something missing in him which  was there earlier which was powering the mind and its thoughts which is not there now

We can call it a soul or Atma  . So we can deduce the  Minds very existence depends on the Soul for its functioning...

Can we then take a leap and probably say that Atma or Divine spark not only powers the mind but also subtly influences the mind...It is the force which connects the millions of minds and guiding them together towards evolution and the greater good as we discussed in arguement 1.

From a Individual Perspective how does this knowledge help us

We see action over which doesn’t affect us directly ( for eg in the news) and we wonder why its happening? When some one behaves in manner which we find strange/ disturbing /illogical we wont get so shaken by it. If we know the divine hand is behind every action and there is probably a higher purpose behind it, we can respond in the manner best suited for it and then move on...

When so many thoughts run thru our mind we need not get shaken by it. We realize these thoughts are coming as a part of Divine plan for the service or evolution of the world. This will help us not get too identified with the thoughts and reach the inner silence of the heart which is beyond the thoughts . In this Silence we find Peace and Happiness which we are craving from so many lifetimes.

The whole purpose of Spirituality is to get in touch with this Divine spark or Spirit within us. The more in tune we are with this Divine spark the more healthier, happier and successful we are...Practices like Meditation, Pranayama and Yoga help in this. The very definition of Yoga is union, Union with the Divine Bliss within us...