How the mind works and what keeps us bound to this material world
The mind is, by itself, not good or bad. It is simply a tool that creates desires based on what it is fed, much like a computer. According to what we feed our minds, it can pull us down or drag us up.
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The mind controls the five knowledge-acquiring senses (vision, hearing, etc.) and the five senses of action (hands, speech, etc.), and works under the false ego (my body, my house, my family, my society, my nation, etc.). In this way, the mind has eleven functions. In other words, our entire concept of reality is nothing more than a creation of the mind. A creation we identify with. In reality, we are neither men nor women; these are all impositions of the false ego that our mind is working under, and we accept as tattva (truth).
The world is not false. There is indeed a man or woman walking around and performing activities; the point is that we are not that man or woman. We are the transcendental soul. The material world is a creation of Kṛṣṇa and should not be hated; in the same way, it should not be desired. It has its function; we just need to understand we are not part of it.
Just as I tend to act in certain ways when, under the false ego, I think I’m a king or a man, when I come under my real ego, I come to the realization that “I am Kṛṣṇa’s servant”. In this true state of identity, the senses naturally become engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service.
How can this true ego be revived? By coming into contact with transcendental knowledge and associating with pure devotees, the false ego is gradually replaced with this realization of my real identity. When I understand who I truly am, the activities connected with this true concept of identity also become clear. Gradually, my entire worldview is transformed, and the mind is drawn towards Kṛṣṇa. At this point, the mind becomes the cause of liberation, rather than the cause of bondage.
The mind is, by itself, not good or bad. It is simply a tool that creates desires based on what it is fed, much like a computer. According to what we feed our minds, it can pull us down or drag us up. By putting ourselves under the right association and regulating the activities of the mind using intelligence operating under the purview of the scriptures, we can become free.
Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate kṣetrajña, the knower of all bodies, and the soul is a secondary kṣetrajña, who has very limited independence over just one body. In this way, nature is neither independent nor automatic, and we are not absolute controllers, not even over our own bodies.
If the Lord is the controller of this system, why does He keep us here? Why does He dont simply liberate all of us? That’s exactly what He is doing, but He is treating the underlying cause of our material conditioning, maintaining a system that trains and corrects us. Just as a physician prescribes a medicine and gives instructions on how it should be taken, the Lord gives us instructions on how to use the medicine of conditioned life through the Vedas and His representatives. If we follow these instructions, the treatment acts fast. If not, it can take more time. The Lord is not responsible for this delay; it is our own choice.
Text 5.11.12 from Śrīmad Bhāgavatam brings us an interesting purport in this connection. In the first part, Prabhupāda explains:
“As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (13.3), kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. There are two kinds of kṣetrajña, or living beings. One is the individual living being, and the other is the supreme living being. The ordinary living being knows about his body to some extent, but the Supreme, Paramātmā, knows the condition of all bodies. The individual living being is localized, and the Supreme, Paramātmā, is all-pervading. In this śloka the word kṣetrajña refers to an ordinary living being, not the supreme living being.”
Once these points are accepted, natural human curiosity may lead us to question: How long have we been here in this position, going from one body to another in this material world?
From the absolute platform, this question is nonsensical because the concept of time as past, present, and future is part of the material reality, while spiritual reality is based on eternal existence. Because the material illusion is not our true existence, it has technically a beginning, but because it is not possible to calculate it in terms of years or ages, it is impossible to understand how long it is. When we try to calculate it, we can’t find a beginning, and our material intelligence comes to the conclusion that we are part of this material world, which is precisely the wrong answer.
This whole misleading, speculative process is thus dismissed by the term nitya-baddha (eternally conditioned). There is just no point in trying to figure out how long we have been here. Instead, we should focus on the tattva (truth) that we are not part of this material world, and be concerned with how to become free from it. There are thus two types of souls. Some are nitya-baddha, identified with the material reality, while others are nitya-mukta, identified with their eternal nature of service to Kṛṣṇa. We are unfortunately currently in the first category, and our goal is to progress into the second.
When we are in the material world, the division of time into past, present, and future makes it look like we have always been here. In the same way, when we become free, the absence of past and future in the spiritual world makes it feel as if we never left. This is just yet another inconceivable aspect of Kṛṣṇa’s potencies.
This leads to the second part of Prabhupāda’s purport:
“This ordinary living being is of two kinds — nitya-baddha or nitya-mukta. One is eternally conditioned and the other eternally liberated. The eternally liberated living beings are in the Vaikuṇṭha jagat, the spiritual world, and they never fall into the material world. Those in the material world are conditioned souls, nitya-baddha. The nitya-baddhas can become liberated by controlling the mind because the cause of conditioned life is the mind. When the mind is trained and the soul is not under the mind’s control, the soul can be liberated even in this material world. When it is liberated, one is called jīvan-mukta. A jīvan-mukta knows how he has become conditioned; therefore he tries to purify himself and return home, back to Godhead.”
The conditioned state is compared to a dream. Just like we are sometimes awake and sometimes asleep, these two states of the soul, conditioned and liberated, are compared to being asleep and awakened. Those who are sleeping are called eternally conditioned, and those who are awakened are called eternally liberated.
If I dream I’m Napoleon, from inside the dream, it appears I have always been Napoleon. However, the questions “How have I become Napoleon?” or “When have I become Napoleon?” are nonsensical, because in truth, I’m not Napoleon. This is just a mental invention. When I finally wake up, this becomes clear.
Similarly, being conditioned, or asleep, means forgetting our eternal nature and falling under the control of the material mind, while liberation means understanding I’m eternally part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, eternally connected with Him in a bound of love, and meant to serve Him.
Being liberated is not even a matter of being in the spiritual world, but being situated in this constitutional position of service. As Prabhupāda mentions: “īhā yasya harer dāsye. If one takes to Kṛṣṇa’s service, he is liberated, even though he appears to be a conditioned soul within the material world. Jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate. In any condition, one is to be considered liberated if his only business is to serve Kṛṣṇa.”
Once we understand the two states of the soul, as being conditioned or liberated, the next question is: what exactly keeps us here? What are the factors that we have to stop to become free?
According to Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, there are three factors:
a) Vidhūya māyām: We have to wash off the material illusions of being a king, a brāhmana, a man or a woman, belonging to a certain nation, etc., as well as all other material contaminations, such as lust, greed, etc.
b) Vimukta-saṅgaḥ: We should become free from attachment to bodily ties, materialistic friends, material society, and ultimately from the taste for material enjoyment itself. This may include direct physical separation, as when one enters into retired life, but the main point is to be detached from it in consciousness. Sometimes one may be able to remain detached even while living with one’s family or acting like a king.
c) Jita-ṣaṭ-sapatnaḥ: We should be able to conquer the six enemies (the five knowledge-acquiring senses and the mind). As previously mentioned, the senses are under the control of the mind, and therefore, when we conquer the mind, the senses are automatically controlled.
How can we attain such a platform? Vayunā udayena: We need to be awakened by transcendental knowledge, which is cultivated through good association and study of the scriptures. By developing transcendental knowledge and then engaging it practically in devotional service, we gradually develop all three factors and finally become free. The human form of life is especially meant to clear these misconceptions. If we miss the opportunity, however, we remain bound to material existence.
As long as the mind remains conditioned, we will remain bound to the material world, even if we change our material position or even our body. The problem can be solved only by dissolving this false material identity based on the mind and replacing it with our real identity as Kṛṣṇa’s servant.
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