How to control Wavering Mind/Manas

I was asked this question when I was 26 by a cousin who was barely 20s. I did not know the answer then. Firstly I did not expect this question from some one in early twenty's, especially when rest of the world is bothering about girls, movies and so called materialistic enjoyment. It has shaken my conventional knowledge that these sorts of question arise when a person reaches a threshold age or starts getting grey hair or no hair on head situation.

As the kid who asked me this question was sweetest one, he patiently listened to the answer I gave without doubting that it could be wrong. I don't even remember now, what answer I gave. But I did not forget that question. Every time I come near any book, discourse or discussion around that topic, I kept my eyes and ears open.

When I was recently listening to Bhagavdgita CD of Late Ghatasala garu, I suddenly realized the answer to that question is clearly stated by Lord Krishna. Even though many times from many people we learn that Bhagavadgita is quick reference document for any query on Sanatana Dharma, I rarely had ventured to get into the details. Here is what I learnt from Gita

Question: Manas keeps wavering back and forth between material things. How do we control it
Geethacharya's Answer : 

There are two ways of controlling wavering mind/manas

1) Abhyasa :  Meaning practice. We keep manas in check by relentless practice by feeding it only the good things and keeping in check its interaction with sensual desires that are unwarranted. Keep it busy with work, keep feeding it with good material then it gets used to the good deeds and thus stops wavering on sense objects

2) Viragya: Means Renunciation. We keep telling the manas - hey buddy you think this (sense object) is permanent? It is not and it perishes with time. Why do you after all going after something that is not true. If every sense object and desire is visualized in a viraga manner then wavering mind starts discarding them as unfit of its attention over time.

Pashu Dharmo Namae Preethihi - పశుధర్మో నమే ప్రీతిః

In Devi Bhagavatam Veda Vyas proposed that 'PasuDharmo Namae Preethihi' meaning animals are with in their right to do what they feel like. In basic needs of sleep, hunger, copulation, animals do not need to follow any rules and can do as per its wish. Its sad that in today's world even human's follow the same rule and proudly announce it.


Given that I have made this statement, the question that I will need to answer now is - so how do we know what's the right behaviour for humans. The word 'Dharma' is what we as humans must follow but Dharma is so complex that how do we know what to refer when in confusion. There are few guidelines laid out to answer this question

1. Shruti or Veda:

Veda is said to be ultimate proponent of Dharma and is said to be breathe of Lord himself. Seer Gautama said ' Vedoshila Dharmam' - Veda is ultimate reference to Dharma. For any query related to Dharma, Veda will be first authetic source of reference. How ever, Veda is not easy to understand and is not easy to access

2. Smriti

Smritis are written by Seers who have strong hold on Vedas to guide law enforcement personnel as well as common people on what Dharma is.
krute tu mAnavA dharma: tretAyAm gautamA: smrutAh !

dvApare SAnkha likhitAh kalau pArASarAh smrutAh !!
　
There are many smritis but Manu Smriti (for Kruta Yuga), Gautama Smriti (Treta Yuga), Sankha and Likhita smrutis (Dwapara Yuga) and Parashara Smriti (Kali Yuga) are few popular ones. Each of the above Smritis are written keeping in view the times prevalent and for respective yuga. If Smriti contradicts with Veda in any of its doctrines, then Veda is to be followed.

3. Puranas

While Smriti is a good reference for understanding Dharma, it is full of doctrines that might be difficult to interpret given complex nature of Dharma Sukshma. So Puranas give illustrated instances of execution of Dharma thus making it simpler to understand and emulate.

4. Sista Achara

In Gita Lord Krishna said world will follow what wise men do. Acharas have been established so that through execution of them as part of daily routine people can unconsciously follow Dharma. This is to ensure people who either do not have access to wisdom of Shruti/Smriti/Purana or who may find it difficult to refer to them at all times, can follow Dharma through enforcement of Acharas.

5. Self Decision

Self Decision is surely allowed in absence of any guidance from above four proponents of Dharma. How ever this should not be first recourse in any circumstance where we can have adequate guidance from above four. If we make this first recourse, then we will be downgraded to level of animal, which is free to execute action per its will.  

Comfort Zone

Have ever wondered reason for stagnation in career/job? Did you ever feel tentative or uncertain when you started doing a new job ? Did you feel clueless and had a feel of lost in desert while put in a role that you are not prepared for ? list goes on - reason is the same 'comfort zone'.

I discretely remember the first day on road with my new car and no companion to guide me. I felt nervous and a bit scared. too many questions played on mind - what if car stops on road all of sudden? what if I ram into some one/some other vehicle ? I had a frustrating day that I wanted to leave the car on the road and take an auto back home. Now when I look back to that day, I feel how silly my thoughts were.  The utility my car is to me today outweigh the initial struggle I had to go through while learning the driving skill.

Similar experience many a times I had faced while changing role or job at work place. When I first walked into Onsite location as ONC (onsite coordinator), I had feeling of nausea and not very sure if my communication skills are adequate to perform the job. When I was inducted to team lead role, I felt initial insecurity that made me wonder if its really my cup of tea. When I got promoted to manager role, I was nervous even to walk in to one-one meetings of my team. Later I went through phases where I had faced initial problems speaking in front of huge gatherings.

When I look back now and compare how comfortable I am doing it today versus my initial hiccups, only reason I can think of is being pushed out of comfort zone makes an individual feel uncomfortable. Sometimes we resist it as well. But as we go along the path we start feeling comfortable and it starts becoming comfort zone for us. Moving out of comfort zone and doing something different is what makes an individual progress in career.

ज्ञानं परमं बलम् -- Knowledge is Power Supreme

This is what we were told in college right from day1 as the motto of the University. Few students like me didn't understand the meaning of it then. As time progressed and we struggled through the life's ordeals, that is when we realized what it meant and the importance of knowledge in life.

Knowledge is multi fold and influences us in many ways in our day to day lives. Its not just the books that impart knowledge but major source for most people is through cognitive learning that life imparts.

Parents and Elders: Mother forms first source of knowledge for any kid. She starts teaching him/her language and pronunciation. She starts teaching the kid the good manners that are perceived acceptable in the contemporary society. Father supplements the knowledge imparted by mother with any additional learning needed before and while schooling. Also few elders like Grand Parents do their bit in inculcating good manners as well as teaching few verses/stories during childhood.

Teachers: Teachers/Gurus at various levels play a major role in imparting mammoth portion of knowledge to an individual by the time he/she graduates. The knowledge imparted varies from person to person depending on the choice of courses and level of grasping he/she possesses. Most times its this knowledge that comes handy in earning bread and butter for rest of life.

Friends: Friends at each level play a vital role in proper utilization one's energies in right direction. A person who made friendship with incorrect set of folks might set his foot in wrong direction thus wasting life's endeavours. On the other hand person who connects with right group might finish at a higher level than his innate state.

Books: This is for folks who love reading. Books serve as major source of knowledge during years of education. Capsules of knowledge packaged into syllabus will prepare an individual to continuous knowledge acquisition. Books keep serving a person with knowledge post-college era, if one is willing to pay attention to them.

Media and News: Media like TV , movies, internet, newspapers also keep feeding an individual with small packets of information. Unlike other modes of knowledge, this feed has to be assimilated and translated into knowledge by the individual on his own. Primary problem with this information is that it can be clubbed with lot of garbage and needs some mining to separate good from bad.

Experiences: Even though it is not a medium, mistakes one commits in life teach a person a lot more than success stories. Beauty of this is that lesson learnt hard way is difficult to forget in life. Also person grasps a lot of things by sheer observation of other individuals, situations and by personal reflection of them.

Which language to learn in school?

It's not that I have this view all of a sudden. I have consistently held a position about this, but it's just that I had to put a strong case to defend my view this time of life. Language is the medium for communicating the content/matter that we wish to send to a or a group of receivers. The question predominantly is around what languages to study at school level. The answer I am trying to make is not universal but valid to Indian context more or less.

English:
I will not spend lot of time on this as there seems to be widespread agreement on why English should be taught at school. It's today world's most popular official language.

Telugu:
Even though I talk about specific language of my own region, logic applies to any other mother tongue. To every language there are two facets-colloquial/spoken and literature/written. Speaking mother tongue is obviously required to operate in the region and to complete day to day chores. Thankfully so far we have not advanced to stage where we use English as household communication language. So I have decent hope that most kids learn speaking Telugu even before going to school. On the written language side these days lot of people are thinking it's unnecessary. If we take emotional side of argument, it's really painful to see people giving less importance to "MOTHER" tongue. On the logical side of argument, purpose of language is to help a person learn more by reading good books in that language. If your mother tongue has vast literature (like telugu) then it is definitely a winning case to learn Telugu at school so that kid gets access to more and more knowledge available in the language.

Hindi:
Hindi is our national language and learning Hindi has a distinctive advantage that person can converse with people in any state using this as medium. Also it's a language with enormous literature.

Sanskrit:
Here comes the most difficult part. In many people's view it's treated as dead language. As per Hindu history, Sanskrit is the language of God's. You can use English to send a money order to someone but if you have a prayer to make to Paramatma, Sanskrit is the language. (Quoting Brahmasri Malladi Chandrasekhara Sastrygaru) Sanskrit is a language that has mantras that have unique power and vibrations that can't be matched by any translations. There are many words in Sanskrit that have no equivalent translation and are used as is when referred to in any other language. (Dharma is one such example)  Sanskrit has so vast literature that includes Vedas, Upanishads, itihasas like Ramayan, Puranas that are embodied with vast knowledge and its surely a case for studying Sanskrit if the purpose of education is acquisition of knowledge.

German/Spanish/French etc:
There is increased interest on including these languages as part of school curriculum. While there is no objection I have personally, few questions need to be considered before enrolling kid in these. 1) will these be useful in future?
2) will there be continuity for these after school so that kid doesn't forget what he learnt. (Either thru interaction or study of language)
3) will it not be burden to kid to learn more in school with already stuffed curriculum. 

భక్తి/ధర్మం వల్ల ప్రయోజనము

లోకమునందు ధర్మప్రవర్తన కలిగియుండే వారి సంఖ్య తక్కువైన రోజులివి. అట్టి సత్పురుషుడుండిన కూడా వానిని పరులు ఆక్షేపించు రోజులు. వానిని అనుదినము వేధించు ప్రశ్న ఏమనగా "ధర్మాచరణ చేయుచున్నాను కాని దాని వల్ల నాకు ప్రత్యక్ష ప్రయోజనమేమి కానరాదు. కాని ధర్మదూరములగు పనులు చేసెడివారు లోకమున సుఖించుచున్నారు". కాని నిజముగా పరికించిన ధర్మము వల్ల పెక్కు ప్రయోజనములు కలుగును. అందులకే పెద్దలు "ధర్మో రక్షతి రక్షితః" అన్నారు.


ధర్మము వలన ప్రథమ ప్రయోజనము భగవంతుని కృప అని చెప్పవచ్చును. భగవంతుడు ధర్మస్వరూపుడు. అందులకే రామో విగ్రహవాన్ ధర్మః అని అందురు. పరమాత్మ నిత్య దీప ధూప నైవేద్యాదులతో పూజించు ధర్మదూరుడగు వ్యక్తి కంటే, ఒక్క నమస్కారము చేసే ధర్మాత్ముని ఎక్కువ ఇష్టపడును. ధర్మాత్ముడైన వ్యక్తి పొందు మరొక ప్రయోజనము మానసిక ప్రశాంతత. తన కల్మషము లేని జీవనము వలన మనసు తేలికగా ఉండును.

ధర్మము/భక్తి వలన వచ్చు అనుషంగిక ప్రయోజనములు ఎటువంటివో బ్రహ్మశ్రీ చాగంటి వారు చెప్పిన ఉదాహరణ --

ఒక వ్యక్తి అరణ్య మార్గము గూండా ప్రయాణిస్తున్నాడు. మార్గమధ్యములొ బాగా ఆకలి వేసి ఒకచోట ఆగి తన వద్ద ఉన్న రొట్టెలు కాల్చుకుని తినడానికి నిప్పు రాజేసుకున్నాడు. అతని ప్రథమ ప్రయోజనము ఆకలి తీర్చుకోవడమే. కాని అతడు అనుషంగికముగా చీకటి దూరమై కాంతి లభించింది. ఆ నిప్పు చూసి భయపడి క్రూర మృగములు, విషకీటకములు అతని వద్దకు రాలేదు. అట్లే ధర్మమును అనుష్టించెడు వ్యక్తికి అనుషంగికముగా మరిన్ని ప్రయోజనములు లభించును.

Problems Maketh a Man (Ofcourse Woman as well)

It is my firm belief that like the way fire brings firmness in metal like iron and glitters to metals like gold, problems that an individual goes thru makes his true self. A person who hardly encounters problems in life may be good but his exposure to difficulties life presents him/her, can make/show him as better and matured individual. I am not trying to suggest a thumb rule here that every individual presented with subtle difficulties of life will become better. Only that, when presented
with problems, real worth of an individual comes out. Let me try to illustrate that by categorizing person's response to problems into three ways.

First category of individuals, who when presented with problems. lose self belief and succumb to the problems. Some people in this category lead a defeated life and repent every moment of their journey. Others who could be the extreme, may resort to suicide.

The Second category of individuals, deal with the problems and seem victorious. But with a single intent of prevailing over problems they compromise on ethics/morals. And they defend everything they have done blaming on the circumstances. They pretend and try to convince others that they had no choice, while in reality they had choice but they chose easier option. In the end in scale of virtues they lose and their craving for pity and respect from people of highest ethical standard will go in
vain.

Final category of individuals who can't be merely measured by heights they scale up in material terms, but they are definitely successful in moral terms. They don't give up their ethics, come what may. They are cognizant of the fact that there are shortcuts that can ease their lives, but they are never tempted to take them. They pursue the values defined with unperturbed devotion and abide by them in spirit and practice. It is beyond doubt that these individuals get applauded and respected by people
of similar category irrespective of their social status and wealth. They would be respected by people of above two categories as well, if they think more openly. Else they sometimes can be perceived as losers by people who prefer shortcuts. How ever like it takes a good goldsmith to assess purity of gold, it takes a person who understands values in life to understand their true worth.