How to Become the Master of The Mind?🔗

Try a very simple experiment for just ten minutes.

Take a sheet of paper and a pen. Sit down by yourself. Write down whatever thought comes to your mind – as if a transcribing software has been connected to your mind. Transcribe exactly what you think. Do not edit or suppress any thoughts. It is an experiment only for you. No one else is going to look at what you have written. At the end of ten minutes, read what you wrote just once. You will be amazed! You will clearly see that there is no logic in the way thoughts form in your mind!

For example, you see a dog on the street. Immediately you remember the dog you were afraid of when you were young, or the one you used to play with when you were young. The next thought could be about your childhood. The third may be about the teacher and the room you used to sit in at school. The fourth may be about the house where your teacher used to live.

There is no logical connection between the dog that you just saw on the street and the teacher who taught you in school! However, in a few seconds you simply jumped from seeing the dog to your childhood teacher. You can see that your thoughts are just moving, drifting from one thing to another. We can’t even call this ‘thinking’. It is just ‘association’, that’s all. You associate the dog with your childhood, your childhood with the teacher, and so on. Actually, if you do this exercise just once, the very understanding that it gives you will transform the way you think about yourself, and how you treat yourself and others. Your whole life will be transformed.

You will understand that no two thoughts are logically connected in your mind. No thought is responsible for the creation of another thought. All thoughts appear randomly, independently, and illogically.

How do you 'unclutch' from this random stream of thoughts? Let me clearly define what is meant by 'unclutch'. When we change gears while driving a car, whether we change from first to second, or second to third, or any gear to any gear for that matter, we have to pass through the neutral position every time. We have to completely press the clutch, or 'unclutch', move through neutral, and only then we can go to the next gear, right? In the same way, we experience a neutral space between any two thoughts in our mind. That neutral space, that silence that exists between two thoughts, is the eternal peace and bliss that all masters talk about. When we no longer cling onto thoughts and connect them to the past or future, we remain 'unclutched'. As we remain 'unclutched' from our thoughts, we become more aware of the neutral spaces between our thoughts. The gap between the thoughts automatically extends when we remain 'unclutched' from the stream of thoughts.

Let me provide a deeper understanding of this simple but deep truth of life. The pain that you experienced seven years ago, the pain that you experienced three years ago, and the pain that you experienced yesterday are all unconnected, independent, individual incidents. But you start connecting all of them and create a shaft of pain. You connect all these random pain thoughts and create one big pain shaft. You start thinking and believing, 'My life is pain.' Is that true? No! What happened to all the sweet incidents of joy that you experienced in between? Surely, there must have been at least a few moments of joy in between! But they are simply forgotten. They are never picked to form the shaft. So the shaft, any shaft, is never true, because it focuses on only a fragment of your complete biography.

First, you start archiving the painful memories for utility purpose. You archive all your pains, probably for medical history sake or to tell your doctor. By and by, you start believing that all these pains that happened in your life are connected. You decide that your life is pain, your life is suffering. The moment you come to the decision that your life is pain or suffering, you create hell for yourself.

The joy that you experienced ten years ago, the joy that you experienced nine years ago, the joy that you experienced three years ago, and the joy that you experienced one year ago are all independent, individual, unconnected thoughts or incidents. But now, you connect all of those thoughts and create a big shaft of joy.

You may identify your joy with an object, a person, or a space like a particular vacation resort. Now you will try again and again to bring that back in your life, to bring that person, that object, that space, or that same incident back in your life. But try as you might, you will not be able to experience the same joy again. This puts you in further pain!

In life, we constantly create either shafts of pain or shafts of joy. If you create a shaft of pain, you try to break it. If you create a shaft of joy, you try to elongate it! But you don’t understand that you can neither elongate the joy shaft nor break the pain shaft - simply because the shaft itself doesn’t exist! It is just your own imagination, selective memory. The very shaft is your imagination.

In the forests of Northern India, I have seen during my spiritual wandering days, how the hunters use a trap to catch birds. They tie a rope between two trees. In the middle of the rope, they secure a wooden stick. The rope is tied at the midpoint of the stick. This is actually a hunter’s trap for birds.

You may think, 'How can a bird be trapped with a small stick? How is it possible?' Actually, all they do is just hang the stick between two trees using a rope, that's all. When a bird comes and sits on the stick, the bird's own weight turns the whole stick upside down; it turns topsy-turvy. The bird is now hanging upside down, clinging to the stick!

The moment it turns upside down and loses its sense of balance, it feels totally shaken and tightens its grip on the stick. It simply holds onto the stick as if its life depends on it. Because it is hanging upside down, it thinks, 'If I unclutch from this stick, what will happen? I will fall and die.'

There is no record that any bird has fallen and broken its head! But the bird does not have the intelligence to realize this. It keeps hanging on. By not letting go, not only does it lose its freedom, it loses its life too, because ultimately the hunter traps it.

Just like the bird, you don't realize that if you just drop your mind, at that moment you can become a Paramahamsa! That very moment you can be liberated. You can simply start flying.

The same fear that the bird clinging to the stick had, you have now. Your fear and the bird's fear are one and the same. The bird believes that it can't let go; if it does it will die. Similarly, you hold on to your mind and feel, 'I can't let go. If I start trusting that I am unconnected, unclutched, independent and illogical thoughts, I might be lost.'

The hunter comes leisurely, after four or five hours, takes the bird, puts it in the cage, and leaves. Now the bird neither has the freedom to fly nor the stick to balance. The foolish bird doesn't know that if it had just let go of the stick, it could have simply flown away!

In the same way, you hold on to whatever you think is your identity and security – your education, your mind, your life, your relationships, or your bank balance. Yama, the god of death, ultimately comes to remove the stick that is your identity. Then you are neither a Paramahamsa, a liberated soul, nor are you able to hold on to your identity. You will neither have the freedom, nor will you have the stick of your identity that you are clutching, because the stick itself is an illusion.

Let me tell you, if the bird lets go and relaxes, it may flutter to balance for a moment or two. It may take one or two moments to balance itself, but it will never fall and die. When it leaves the stick, maybe for a few seconds it will fall, but then it will adjust itself and start flying.

Be very clear, let go and you will never fall and die. You will only become a Paramahamsa!

This moment, trust yourself. Don’t bother about losing your identity. Just trust yourself and let go of your identity. You will immediately become a Paramahamsa and be liberated. All you need to do is trust that you are unclutched - even if you don’t trust that, it is still the truth!

When you unclutch, there will be some revolutionary changes in your life, in your day-to-day thinking, your decision-making, and your daily routine and lifestyle. Courageously going through that revolution, going through the transformation that happens in you, is what I call tapas or penance.

On rare occasions during my wanderings, I have seen that when a bird is hanging on the stick, another bird that was once stuck in the trap, but had the courage to let go and open up, comes back. It pokes the hanging bird and says, ‘Hey, let go! Relax! I was like you. I had the same problem. When I relaxed, I just started flying. All it takes is just two or three seconds to balance. When I opened up, I never fell and broke my head or died. I only became liberated. I only became a free bird. Come on...’ But the hanging bird will not believe it.

Understand that the responsibility of the free bird is to go about freeing other birds. It is the responsibility of the free bird to go and poke the bird trapped on the stick and say, ‘Free yourself.’

Now understand, I am that free bird that has come now to tell you: I have created a safety net below you. Even if you fall, you won’t hurt yourself. Relax! Let go, you will only fly! See, the sangha, the community of the master, is the net. Even if you fall, you will not hurt yourself.

First of all, you will not fall. But just to give you the deeper assurance, the sangha, the spiritual community, is created. So, I invite all of you to come and experience the sangha!

Understand that it is a free bird's responsibility to liberate all the trapped birds, to help them, to inspire them to free themselves.

When we unclutch, the first thing that will happen to us will be an inner healing effect, a deep silence and peace in us.

Second, that inner healing will start radiating as physical wellbeing, which is our health.

Third, naturally the healing will start radiating in our relationships also.

Fourth, because these three are going beautifully, we will be creative and productive!

People come and tell me, 'Svāmīji, for the last twenty years I have been having knee pain.' No, it cannot be! Please understand that in reality it cannot be. I am not disrespecting you or adding more suffering to you by saying all your problems are only in your head. I am just telling the truth: all your problems are in your head! I am just stating the truth.

The knee pain you experienced two years ago, the knee pain you experienced one year ago, the knee pain you experienced two months ago, and the knee pain you experienced two hours ago are independent experiences. Only because you connect all of them, you conclude that you have been having knee pain for twenty years. Is it really true that you have knee pain continuously for twenty years? What happens to the moments of 'no knee pain' in between? The important thing you need to understand is that because you connect and see all these as one continuous incident, you block the possibility of self-healing. When you meditate, you will be able to see these as independent incidents.

When it comes to depression, understand that the depression that happened one month ago, the depression that happened one year ago, and the depression that happened three years ago are independent, individual and unconnected incidents. The problem is the same as with physical pain. You start connecting them and concluding that you are having the same depression continuously. You create an idea that your life itself is depression. Then you start fighting with the idea. That only gives more life to the depressive thoughts.

When you strongly believe that your last ten years have been filled with suffering and depression, you create a strong mental setup surrounding it. Naturally you start thinking that your future is also going to be painful and filled with depression.

Suppose there is a person sitting in front of you who you think is an enemy. Suddenly if you see that his head is separate, his legs are separate and his hands are separate, would you even feel like fighting with him? No! He is not even worth fighting! He doesn't even have a solid existence, as you imagined him to have. So there is nothing to fight with!

In the same way, only when you imagine you have a huge problem in front of you, that a big person is in front of you, you start fighting and getting into more trouble. Your depression is not the huge enemy that you think it is. It is just like the person with disjointed body parts. It is you who has joined the parts and given it life. Your fighting with depression is the root cause of your depression.

In Ramayana, the ancient Hindu epic, there is a beautiful story. Whoever stands in front of the monkey king Vali and fights with him, loses half of his power to him. In the same way, whoever stands in front of the thought shaft and starts fighting with that shaft, will lose half of their power to that shaft.

The moment you unclutch from the shaft, you experience the neutral space, and inner healing starts. The moment inner healing starts, physically also you are healed.

Do not try to renounce your depression, because by your very nature it is getting renounced, flowing away from you. By your very nature just as joy disappears from your mind, depression also disappears from your mind. The moment you try to eliminate the depression, you will extend it and give it more life.

If you have deep depression, will you stop going to the office? No. You may carry the depression in your mind but your body moves. You work. You may not be that productive or efficient, but your body still moves.

Instead of ‘living depression’, I am saying, ‘live unclutched’!

When we live in depression, we don’t have all these questions, ‘If I am depressed, how can my body move? If I am depressed how will I pay my bills?’ We don’t have such questions! The depression becomes part of our life.

In the beginning, you may have questions, ‘How can I live unclutched? How will I even move my body?’ Understand that the constant remembrance of unclutching does not interfere with your mind or body movements. It only removes the depression because it lets the depressive thoughts rise and fall without you clutching to them.

What is addiction? It is a behavior or action that if you don’t do, you will have a terrible feeling of missing something. But if you do it you won’t feel any joy, it will only be mechanical. Addiction means believing that joy or ecstasy happens due to some object, person, or situation.

Understand that this is the definition of addiction: trying to elongate the joy shaft by recreating it. You bring the same persons, situations, incidents, or happenings into your life again and again, knowing that the same joy is not going to happen. There are so many addictions. Some people are addicted to partying, some to smoking, and some to drinking.

Remember: Any outer world thing you bring to your life again and again will not give you the same excitement as it gave you the first time. It can only lead to addiction, not happiness. The first time you enjoy a sweet, it is a wonderful experience. The excitement is totally different. But if you keep eating more of the same sweet, the same experience is not there anymore. Eventually, you will not even like the sight of the sweet! You will look at them and say, ‘Oh no, not more sweets! They make me feel terrible.’ In the same way, when meeting a person for the first time, the excitement is totally different. Later on, the excitement wanes.

People come and ask me, ‘How can I break my habits?’ See, habit is a beautiful word. If you remove ‘h’, ‘a bit’ will remain. If you remove ‘b’, ‘it’ will remain. Only when you remove the ‘I’, the shaft ‘it’ will die! Only when you remove ‘I’, only when you throw ‘I’ away, will it completely die.

Be very clear, your smoking two days ago, ten years ago, and twenty years ago - all these three incidents are completely independent. They are not connected. Mentally, when you start connecting, when you start believing that you have the habit of smoking, the belief creates an addiction shaft. Then you start fighting with it. That is what I mean when I say the ‘I’ has to be dropped. It is your belief that makes it a habit. If you drop the belief, the habit drops.

If you believe it is a joyful experience, you continue to smoke more and more. If you believe it is a painful experience you start fighting with the shaft. Either way you don’t win. Even if you believe that smoking is joyful, try to smoke without restraint and see for yourself how you feel. When you smoke and inhale with tremendous awareness, it can never be a pleasurable experience. It will never really be joyful.

When you smoke, in that moment, just see what is happening in your inner space. You are not enjoying anything. You are just trying to escape from something. You merely believe that smoking is joyful. Even if you don’t feel joyful when you are smoking, you try to squeeze joy out of it.

If you deeply scan your life and see, you will understand that whether it is smoking, or sex, or money, or any other pleasure, even if you don’t feel the same joy as you felt the first time, you try to squeeze joy out of it. You try to console yourself, ‘No, this is joy. What else is joy?’ You try to cover the frustration by believing it is joy. You want to believe it is joy.

Try your best to drop some addiction. You can never be successful. Even if you drop it, you may be dropping it out of some fear or greed, which is a much bigger addiction. If you drop smoking out of some fear or greed, you are not doing anything good to your consciousness, to your inner space. You are only damaging yourself more. You might have dropped smoking, but the fear or greed that made you drop it will be added to your inner space. At least with smoking, you will destroy only this body. With fear or greed, you will destroy your whole being, life after life! In the next body, you will carry over the fear and greed. The smoking habit may not carry over to the next body, but the emotions of fear and greed will be carried with you to the next body. So the best way is to drop the idea that you have an addiction, and it will drop.

When you sit, naturally some thoughts will come. The moment you see a thought coming, do not give meaning to it. You give it meaning only if you connect it to your past. Without giving meaning to it, just remember to unclutch