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V MIND AND THE MENTAL WORLD The world of the mind is a vast field, even vaster it seems than the physical world. The physical world extends, science tells us, to minions of light-years. We may say practically, it is an infinite extension and mind is a thing which surrounds, envelops this measureless extension. Mind surpasses the physical on another count, that is to say, in respect of speed. A material body at its best travels at the speed of light, that is to say, in a second it goes about 200000 miles (a little less). But thought does not meet any obstruction in respect of distance; whatever the distance, it reaches its goal immediately, it does not take account of time. Perhaps because of its expansiveness and its speed, a Vedic Rishi sends up a prayer to it not to be so elusive, not to go away too far but to return and dwell in its home. Evidently the Rishi speaks of gathering and collecting together the dispersed uncontrolled thoughts and settling them in an ordered way in his consciousness. We must note, however, that mind and matter are two different categories and have different dimensions. Material space is not the same as mental space and the speed of light and the speed of thought are not commensurable. The mental world, the world of thoughts, is a world in itself. It is autonomous. It moves in its own way with Page-21 its own laws. We human beings, we believe that it is we who think, that is, produce or create our thoughts. We are the makers of our notions and ideas. But in reality it is not so. Thoughts, ideas, notions, all movements of the mind are self-existent realities. They go about or flow on like the waves of a vast sea. Human beings are mere instruments, receptacles that capture or seize some undulations of this vast ocean. Man is man, that is to say, a mental being, because in him the brain has developed to such an extent and in such a manner that it serves as antennae or as an aerial to receive vibrations from the mental world. Indeed the ordinary human mind is a sort of crossroads where all kinds of thoughts from all places meet, cross one another and make an ideal market place. In fact, an individual does not possess any thought-movement which can be called his own. He only catches a contagion. And like a contagion thought-movements pass from one person to another although one may think or feel that the movement is one's own. In order to have one's own
thought, in order to think by oneself, a long process of education and training
is necessary. A growing personal individual consciousness is the first requisite
and for that one must do what the Vedic Rishi I spoke of sought to do, gather
the thoughts that one has, collect them, sift them and try to have a control
over them. One must develop the habit of admitting certain thoughts and
rejecting others. Thoughts that are useful, that carry light and peacefulness
and happiness, are naturally those that are worth accepting. Those
Page-22 that are of a contrary nature should be pushed out. This is an exercise that develops the individual consciousness and the individual will. Furthermore, one may try to recognise thoughts that are of a different category, that do not seem to belong to the accustomed level of consciousness but carry a vibration that is of elsewhere, in other words, thought-movements that filter through and come down from higher ranges of consciousness. It means an elevation of consciousness, your being rises into higher realities. The true individual, the being who is capable of living and creating independently, is formed of a stuff that lies in these higher regions. It is only when one has found one's individual self seated in the Divine centre secret behind, organised around the centre all lesser movements, marshalled them according to an inner law, that one becomes master of one's environment and creative in the true sense of the word. Mind is a force, thought and energy but that can be truly and fully effective when it is organised, directed, that is to say, it becomes then a guided missile. In an ordinary mind the thoughts are, as I have said, dispersed, they go about in all directions, to all objectives and therefore their efficacy is at its minimum. It is like light. Light-energy becomes immensely, incredibly powerful when it is concentrated, gathered towards one point. It is in this way the light-ray nowadays is trying to replace the surgeon's knife. Usually when we think of a person
or a thing, our
Page-23 thought-vibration reaches its object but because the vibration
is diffuse—not polarised—it touches or just brushes its object very faintly
without almost any reaction from it. An organised, truly individualised
consciousness has its thought-movements too, so organised and controlled and
directed that it moves with a clear and forceful momentum. A mental vibration, a
thought-movement becomes fully dynamic, totally effective, however, when it gets
its support from the vital. The vital too in an organised and individualised
personality loses its capaciousness and lends its support to the directing
consciousness.
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