Nurture the mind to abide by harmony

Maj Gen Ravi N Tikku (retd)

Educationist

For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. — Bhagavad Gita

Are our schools and colleges preparing children for life in today’s bizarre times? We must deepen our connection with life and people. The essence of life is in unity and harmony, your oneness with all, and so is the purpose of true education. Daily, we read of actions and behaviour of youngsters that show an absence of self-regulation, ethics and a sense of social responsibility. Environmental degradation adds to the ‘madness’. In such a scenario, how do we nurture the youth into a balanced person, abiding by harmony?

Education today is synonymous with degrees, securing maximum marks and attractive placements causing avoidable anxiety, even suicides. You need a different kind of resourcefulness to deal with the daunting challenges of life — how you will handle yourself and others. This0 is the new yardstick to assess people. Creativity and innovation seem to flow from ideas with multiple perspectives, albeit coupled with an ‘open mind’ that embraces the new and the unfamiliar. It is then that we keep reinventing ourselves. This promotes personal growth, robust health and higher academic achievement as well. The mind, the most powerful organ of the human body, comes into play. You take charge of the mind, you end up taking charge of your life, and a mindful journey begins from within.

How do we organise and empower the mind? You, your mind, closed the door; only you, your mind, can open that door to understand the nature of mind and what is happening inside it. We are living in patterns and habits, and following recurrent pathways daily. The first step is to clear the mind of all negative thoughts and develop new paradigms that are in harmony with the reality we want. We must not stop there, otherwise, it will not metamorphose into a journey.

Think of your mind as having two parts. The conscious or logical mind that controls five per cent of your life, is creative and open to choices in life. It is a thin veneer of awareness covering a more powerful subconscious or habit mind, the part responsible for habits, beliefs, and behaviours that works on autopilot. It stores all the past life experiences or impressions and the appropriate one is recalled in response to a given situation. Ninety five per cent of your life is an expression of the programmes in the sub-conscious.

The point of concern is that most of the past impressions take root when you are still a child, with your mental capacity and judgement seriously limited. This biological blueprint carries socially unacceptable painful emotions and traumatic memories that disempower you, cause anxiety and block you from doing what you are now capable of.

We often want to think positively, but we are behaving negatively. Mind and body are in opposition. You want to be happy, but the body is on a different programme because the bondaged sub-conscious has been programmed to do so. This means that you have to change your memorised negative behaviour that is part of your identity. You have to recondition the body to a new mind, where tools like meditation, self-enquiry and contemplation do not allow the thoughts to overwhelm you. These practices entail a change of your being, a creation of a new personal reality that thinks, feels and acts afresh. Let us change in a state of joy and inspiration rather than allow a calamity to happen. You just have to awaken to who you truly are to empower yourself.

True education can only begin out of a foundation of self-awareness, the indispensable key to self-discovery. It gives a new perspective outside the constant I, Me and Mine syndrome of the ego. Once there, there is an opportunity for real change. You then develop a holistic approach to learning, one that seeks to open the mind, nurture the spirit and awaken the heart. There is an alignment between what you think, what you say and what you do. You evolve and develop an outlook, a nazariya, of viewing the world inside out. There is balance and harmony in your behaviour and relationships at work, at home and at play.

An uplifted mind acts with a purpose and rejuvenates your power to create. The senses are withdrawn and the ego is subdued. You can now indulge in self-talk and transform negative emotions in the sub-conscious mind.

There is another powerful instrument of mindfulness, an awareness of living in the moment. We must practice to arouse the seed of mindfulness present in all of us in the sub-conscious to sprout and help us to change the negative impressions with one-pointed concentration and breath control, and at the same time, water the neighbouring seeds of positive emotions of compassion, care and love.

In life, we are feeding ourselves with impressions all the time. We exercise selectivity and choice in all our transactions, be it grocery items, clothes, cuisine, seeing films or visiting restaurants. Why not do the same with our impressions? There are various ways to entertain positive thoughts, such as proximity to nature, music, poetry and inspirational reading — tonic for the mind and the soul. Excellent de-stressors, they help us to live in the moment with conscious attention, imbibe a feeling of unity in diversity and oneness of creation. This develops a sense of wonder, sensibility and sensitivity towards the beauty of things around us. There is enthusiasm and positivity in whatever we do.

A healthy mind in a healthy body is the key to happiness, our true nature.

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