6. Camp Six : Nature of Mind

It is our common experience that our mind does not maintain one position for ever. Sometimes good thoughts upsurge, sometimes bad ideas crop up. Sometimes mind becomes very active and agile, sometimes it becomes passive and dull. The reason for this is mind's three traits nature. Our mind is made up of three qualities. Sattva Guna, Rajo Guna and Tamo Guna.

Sattva Guna is the virtue of balancing element that is originating sancitity, knowledge and joy. Rajo Guna is a dynamic element that gives rise to activity, desires and shrewdness.

Tamo Guna is the stagnant element that is the cause of laziness, gloominess and vague impressions. It fetches mind to the lowest surface. In that condition, no thought would occur. Rajo Guna makes the mind unstable by distorting it. While Sattva Guna takes our mind to the higher direction. In that condition, mind is calm, quiet and stable. All the waves of the lake of mind have subsided and its water has become clear. That state of mind is not the state of inactivity, but on the contrary, it is a state of active working of mind. To maintain peaceful condition of mind is the biggest display of energy. To become smart and shrewd is an extremely easy job. lf you let the reign of the horse loose, it will take you wherever it intends to go, but the man who can hold the reign and control the running horse is the mighty. Calm-minded person is that who has control over his mind waves. Activeness is the exhibition of energy of lower category, while alertness is the display of higher energy. The constitution of individual mind is decided on the extent of combination and operation of these three qualities. lt is the only reason for the varieties of human nature and unsteadiness of his mind.

Bhagwan Shri Swaminarayan teaches in His extinct style, regarding the nature of mind in the text of Vachnamritam (Gadhada-M-23):

'He is to be understood godly saint whose mind does not get hot inspite of seeing vulgar objects of pleasure and does not get cool looking at pleasing objects and thus his mind is remaining unaffected in both the situations, and it is not so easy to develop such state of mind. The nature of mind is such as a child who tries to catch a snake, fire and bare(naked) sword. If we stop him to do so, he would be restless and if we allow him, he would be extremely unhappy. Similarly, the mind gets away from the spiritual path if allowed to enjoy seductive objects and becomes miserable if it is denied such enjoyment. So whose mind is attached to God and not affected by objects of worldly pleasure is the only person who should be known as saint.'

Swami Vivekanand says in his 'Rajyog' : The first sign of anybody's becoming religious is that he starts feeling cheerfulness. A pure virtuous person becomes joyful and finds happiness everywhere. When joy emerges from within, we must know that a man is on the way to progress in the pursuit of 'Yoga.' Mind usually becomes active on different levels of consciousness. On conscious level, mind's every activity is generally mingled with egoism, but on unconscious plane, ego is not existing. Mind can still work on one more plane higher than these two. On that plane, mind can go higher than its relative consciousness. Just as unconscious level is below the conscious one, there is also one plane above this relative conscious level.

It is called SuperConscious plane. There is no ego on this plane too. Yet there is a vast difference between unconscious and super conscious plane. Mind is on unconscious plane in the state of deep sleep(Susupti), whereas it is on super conscious plane in the state of Samadhi. Mind is calm and free from ego on both the planes, but in the state of deep sleep there is ignorance, darkness and gloominess. whereas the state of samadhi is full of knowledge, light and virtuous enjoyment. Mind is in its purest form on super conscious Plane.