Powers of the Mind

“Powers of the mind” is based on a lecture delivered at Los Angeles, California on the 8th of  January  1900 by Swami Vivekananda.

All over the world there has been a belief in the supernatural throughout the ages. All of us have heard of extraordinary happenings , and many of us have had some personal experience of them.

Going about India you find hundreds of similar things in different places. There must be some truth somewhere, that is being imitated; you cannot imitate nothing. Imitation must be something substantially true. In very remote times in India, thousands of years ago, these facts used to happen even more than they do today. It seems that when a country is thickly populated , physical power deteriorates. Given a vast country thinly inhabited, there will perhaps , be more of physical power there. These facts, the Hindus being analytical minded, took up and investigated. And they came to certain remarkable conclusions. They found out that all these, though extraordinary, are also natural; there is nothing supernatural. It is not a freak of nature that a man is born with such powers . They can be systematically studied, practiced and acquired. This science they call the science of Raja Yoga.

The conclusion they derived that all these extraordinary powers are in the mind of the man. The mind is a part of the universal mind. Each mind is connected with every other mind. And each mind is in communication with the whole world. Have you ever noticed the phenomenon that is called thought transference? A man here is thinking something , and the thought is manifested in somebody else, in some other place. With preparations, a man wants to send a thought to another mind at a distance and the other mind knows that a thought is coming, and he receives it exactly as it is sent out. My thought has got to be dissolved into ethereal vibrations and those ethereal vibrations go into your brain, and they have to be resolved again into your own thoughts. Here is a dissolution of thought and there is a resolution of thought. It is around about process. But in telepathy it is direct. This shows that there is continuity of mind and the mind is universal. Your mind, my mind, all these little minds are fragments of that universal mind, little waves in the ocean; and on account of this continuity, we can convey our thoughts directly to one another.

The world is one of influence. Part of our energy is used up in the preservation of our own bodies. Beyond that, every particle of our energy is being used in influencing others. Our bodies , our virtues, our intellect and our spirituality are all influencing others; and conversely , we are being influenced by them. This is going all around us.

Now, let us take a concrete example. A man comes; you know is very learned, his language is beautiful, and he speaks to you by the hour; but he does not make an impression. Another man comes, and he speaks a few words, not well arranged, ungrammatical perhaps and he makes an immense impression. Many of you have seen that. Words, even thoughts, contribute only one thirds of the influence in making an impression, the man two-thirds. What you call the personal magnetism of the man - that is what goes out and impresses you. In our families there are the heads ; some are successful, others are not. Why? In failures, one does not like to confess one’s own faults and weaknesses. Each person tries to hold himself faultless and lay the blame upon somebody or something else, or even on bad luck. Coming to great leaders, great thinkers and great authors of the past, we always find that it was the personality of the man that counted. What made them so? Not simply the thoughts they thought, neither the books they wrote, nor the speeches they made, it was something else that is now gone , that is their personality. Our actions are but effects of the personality of the man.

MAN MAKING 

The ideal of all education, all training, should be this man making. The end and aim of all training is to make the man grow. The man who influences , who throws his magic upon his fellow beings and when the man is ready, the personality put upon anything will make it work. Think of this. Compare the great teachers of religion with the great philosophers. The philosophers scarcely influenced anybody’s inner man, yet they wrote the most marvelous books. The religious teachers, on the other hand, moved countries in their lifetime. The difference was made by personality. In the former we touch the intellect, in the latter we touch life.

The science of yoga claims that it has discovered the laws which develop personality, and by proper attention to those laws and methods, each one can grow and strengthen his personality.

This is one of the great practical things and this is the secret of all education. In the life of the house holder, in the life of the poor, the rich, the man of business, the spiritual, in every one’s life, it is a great thing, the strengthening of the personality. There are no such realities as a physical world, a spiritual world, a mental world. Whatever is, is one. The finest is what we call spirit.; the grossest , the body. The universe of ours is exactly like that; it is the gross external thickness, and it tapers into something finer and finer until it becomes god. We see a man take up a huge weight, we see his muscles swell, and all over his body we see signs of exertion, and we think muscles are powerful things. But it is the thin thread like things, the nerves, which bring power to the muscles; the moment one of these threads is cut off from reaching the muscles, they are nit able to work at all. These tiny nerves bring the power from something still finer. It is the fine that is the seat of power. We can see the movements in the gross but when fine movements take place we cannot see them.

There is a little bubble coming from the bottom of the lake; we do not see it coming all the time , we see it only when it bursts on the surface; so we can perceive only after they develop a great deal, on or after they become actions. If there is a method by which we can analyze, investigate , understand and finally grapple with those finer powers, the finer causes, then alone it is possible to have control over ourselves, and the man who has control over his own mind assuredly will have control over every other mind. That is why purity and morality have always been the object of religion; a pre , moral man has control of himself. He who knows and controls his own mind, knows the secret of every mind and has power over every mind.

We help the growth of trees, do we not? Left to nature they would have grown, only they would have taken a longer time: we help them to grow in shorter time than they would otherwise have taken. We are doing all the time the same thing, hastening the growth of things by artificial means. Why cannot we hasten the growth of man? We can do that as a race. Why are teachers sent to other countries? Because by these means we can hasten the growth of races? Now, can we not hasten the growth of individuals? We can .

Circumstances can hasten him wonderfully. We hasten our growth, we hasten our development, and we become perfect , even in this life. This is the higher part of our life, and the science of the study of mind and its powers has this perfection at its real end. Helping others with money and other material things and teaching them how to go on smoothly in there daily life are mere details. The utility of this science is to bring out the perfect man, and not let him wait and wait for ages.

Man is growing in power, in knowledge, in happiness. Continuously, we are growing as a race. We see that it is true , perfectly true. Is it true of individuals? To a certain extent, yes. I can only see at a distance of so many feet. But I have seen a man close his eyes and see what is happening in another room. If a man can read what is happening in another room, another’s mind at the corner of this room, why not in the next room? Why not anywhere? We cannot say, why not. We can only say, we do not know how it happens. There is no end to the power a man can obtain. Charms , magic, and other powers, and all that were nothing extraordinary, but a regularly taught science, just as physical sciences they had taught before that.

The power is all in the spirit. It is the temptation enough for mind to exert to the highest. This science deals with the mind, which moves all the time; the moment you want to study it , it slips. Now the mind is in one mood, the next moment, perhaps, it is different, changing all the time. In the midst of all this change it has to be studied, understood, grasped, and controlled. This is the outline of this science. It stands upon its own feet and in its own light, and challenges comparison with any other science.

CONCENTRATION AND BREATHING

The main difference between men and the animals is the difference in their power of concentration. All success in any line of work is the result of this. High achievement in music, art, etc. are the results of concentration. The difference in their power of concentration also constitutes the difference between man and man. Compare the lowest with the highest man. The difference is in the degree of concentration. Everybody’s mind becomes concentrated upon those things which we love, and we love those things upon which we concentrate our minds. What mother is there that does not love the face of her homeliest child? That face to her is the most beautiful in the world. She loves it because she concentrates her mind on it.

We all concentrate our minds upon those things we love. When we hear beautiful music , our mind becomes fastened upon it, and we cannot take them away. Music in which the notes follow each other in rapid succession holds the mind readily. A child loves lively music, because the rapidity of the notes gives the mind no chance to wander. A man who likes common music dislikes classical music, because it is more complicated and requires a greater degree of concentration to follow it. The great trouble with such concentration is that we do not control the mind; it controls us. Something outside of ourselves , as it were, draws the mind into it and holds it as long as it chooses. We hear melodious tones or see a beautiful painting, and the mind is held fast! We cannot take it away.

Now the question is: Can this concentration be developed, and can we become masters of it? The yogis say, yes. The yogis say that we can get perfect control of the mind. On the ethical side there is danger in the development of the power of concentration—the danger of concentration the mind upon an object and then being unable to detach it at will. This state causes great suffering. Almost all our suffering is caused by our not having power of detachment. So along with the development of concentration we must develop the power of detachment. We must learn not only to attach the mind to one thing exclusively, but also to detach it at a moment’s notice and place it upon something else. These two should be developed together to make it safe.

This is the systematic development of the mind. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument I could collect facts at will. Side by side, in the child, should be developed the power of concentration and detachment. My development has been one sided all along. I developed concentration without the power of detaching my mind at will; and the most intense suffering of my life has been due to this. Now I have the power of detachment, but I had to learn it later in life. We are usually forced to concentrate. Our minds are forced to become fixed upon different things by an attraction in them which we cannot resist.

In training the mind the first step is to begin with the breathing. Regular breathing puts the mind in a harmonious condition; and it is then easier to reach the mind. In practicing breathing, the first thing to consider is “ asana” or posture. Any posture in which a person can sit easily is his proper position. The spine should be kept free, and the weight of the body should be supported by the ribs. Simple breathing is all that is necessary in that line. All austerities to gain concentration of the mind are a mistake. The mind acts on the body, and the body in its turn acts upon the mind. Every mental state creates a corresponding state in the body, and every action in the body has its corresponding effect on the mind. It makes no difference whether you think the body and the mind are two different entities, or whether you think they are both but one body—the physical body being the gross part and the mind the fine part. The finer the instrument, the greater the power. The mind is much finer and more powerful than the body. For this reason it is easier to begin with the body. The science of breathing is the working through the body to reach the mind. In this way we get the control of the body, and then we begin t feel the finer working of the body, the finer and more interior, and so on till we reach the mind.

Thus the mind is brought under control by regular systematic breathing, by governing the gross body first and then the fine body. The first breathing exercise is perfectly safe and very healthful. It will give you good health and better your condition generally at least. The other practices should be taken up slowly and carefully.

POWERS OF THE MIND: SWAMI VIVEKANANDA (Advaita Ashram)

Abridged by Mr Debjeet Mitra, Facilitator, State Bank Learning Centre, Raipur.