Transcendental (Vedic) Psychology

TRANSCENDENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

bySuhotra Swami

Introduction to

Transcendental Psychology

It appears that as ISKCON evolves from its origins as a tightly-focused missionarymovement into a broad-based spiritual culture ("a house in which the whole world canlive"), more and more devotees find it important to understand the mind. There is nodoubt that in his teachings Srila Prabhupada emphasized the importance of discriminating between mind, intelligence, false ego, and the actual self.In the past, say 10 and more years ago, it was more fashionable for devotees toadvertise themselves as being callous and insensitive toward the mind. The mind was just something to be beaten a hundred times every day, like a mangy flea-bitten dog.Or it was a thing that simply is not real.No, the mind is a very real thing. It is listed among the eight elements of creation. It issubtle, but it has substance. It

is

substance. In this connection, kindly note these twoquotations from Srila Prabhupada's purports.Since mind is a product of the mode of goodness, if it is fixed upon theLord of the mind, Aniruddha, then the mind can be changed to Krsnaconsciousness. It is stated by Narottama dasa Thakura that we alwayshave desires. Desire cannot be stopped. But if we transfer our desiresto please the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that is the perfection of life. As soon as the desire is transferred to lording it over materialnature, it becomes contaminated by matter. [

SB

3.26.31p]The essential point is that the mind, which is contaminated by materialattraction, has to be bridled and concentrated on the SupremePersonality of Godhead. [

SB

3.28.7p]In these two quotations, five basic points can be discerned. The five points make upthe foundation of this introduction, and indeed the whole series I plan to write. Whatare they?1. The essential substance of the mind is the mode of goodness, whichis the energy of Lord Aniruddha, who is the localized Supersoulfeature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.2. When that

sattvik

mental substance is dedicated to the Lord, it istransformed to Krishna consciousness, the state of infallible goodnessabove the three material modes of nature.

3. To dedicate the mind to the Lord, we must channel the flow of ourdesires toward His lotus feet. Hence there is no question of "controlling the mind," "fixing the mind," "pacifying the mind,"without the reformation of desire. Our quality of mind is subject to thequality of our desire.4. From the logic of the above point 2, it is clear that the originalcondition of the mind is Krishna consciousness. That original conditionis contaminated as soon as our desire flows toward the lording over of matter.5. Thus what we know to be "the material mind" is in essence

thecondition of material attraction.

The mind is a real thing because it is the energy of the Supersoul. Thus on theenergetic level our mental activities--thinking, imagination, visualization,concentration and so forth--are real movements. They are real movements that unfoldas per a complex pattern. And why so complex? Why does the study of the mind'smovements (the study we know by the word psychology) become so mysterious andconvoluted? That is because the mind moves

according to our desires.

Hence, it is ourdesires--meaning, in our present state, our material attraction--that complicates ourmental processes.The mind can be perceived as a real thing due to the fact that by nature's arrangement,the movements of the mind have physical effects. These effects are both immediateand remote. In

Bhagavad-gita

your immediate environment is called "the field of activities." What is that field? It is your body. The remote environment is practicallyeverything beyond your body.Because the body and the world surrounding it respond to our state of mind, we havethis often-discussed notion of "mind over matter." Some people believe "mind overmatter" means that they can change themselves and their whole world simply by amental adjustment. However, as indicated above, changes of mind, or what we termmental activity, is itself impelled by desire. Yes, you can control matter with yourmind. In fact this is happening constantly. But what controls your mind? Desire.To wrest the mind from the control of desire is not easy. (Actually, it is impossible;the only option we have is a choice as to whether our mind shall be controlled bymaterial or spiritual desire--but more about that later.) Repeatedly we find ourselvesgirding up for a final battle with our desires, the aim being to defeat desire once andfor all and to be free of it at last. This is very daunting, to say the least.But before we enter the fight we must know that our desires constitute an extremelypowerful and mostly invisible army called

kama

(lust) that has captured our senses,mind and intelligence. This is made clear in

Bhagavad- gita

3.40. In the purport, SrilaPrabhupada explains that the mind is the reservoir of all ideas of sense gratification,and therefore lust infiltrates the senses and the intelligence from the mind.After their minds get them into trouble, people are so quick to say, "I never wantedthis!" But are you so sure you know what you want? Desires are by nature more

subtle than the mind. To illustrate this fact, I offer you a quotation from a 1974

Srimad-Bhagavatam

lecture by Srila Prabhupada:Just like in the water, in a pond sometimes you will find all of a suddenone bubble comes from within. Phat! That means the dirty things arewithin, stocked.The surface of the pond is the surface awareness of the mind. The bubble that risesfrom the bottom of the pond is a desire. Suddenly, phat! There it is, a filthy desirebreaking into our sublime thoughts. "Why?" we ask ourselves. "Why am I againtroubled by this nonsense which I thought, after so many years of chanting HareKrishna, I had rid myself of?"Well, the point here is that it is not all that difficult for

sadhakas

(devotees engaged inthe practice of

bhakti-yoga

under rules and regulations) to make the visible surface of the mind calm and peaceful; yet mostly we don't even know about the host of desiresthat lurk beneath the surface. That stock of hidden desires is sometimes called thesubconscious, a more subtle level of mental activity than commonplace thinking.This rising of desire bubbles, this unexpected bursting of the subconscious into yoursurface awareness, demonstrates that your mind is capable of reproducing any type of sensual impression you have ever experienced. It can even manufacture impressionsyou have never before experienced, as long as they are constructed out of knownelements. (We find in Srila Prabhupada's books the example of the mind combiningthe known elements of "gold" and "mountain" to create an impression of a goldenmountain.) Thus the mind is a most formidable television into the storehouse of subconscious desires. By the power of mind you may see, hear, taste, smell and feelthings that are not directly present before the senses. As

sadhakas

we control ourexternal sensory impressions. For example we do not permit our eyes to see formsthat stimulate lust. But the mind is capable of introducing such forms into ourconsciousness even without the help of the eyes.Except in deep sleep, the mind is always active. It is always responding to yourvarious desires. Not only that, but there is also a feedback. As you contemplate themind's "show," new desires are generated out of the mind's contemplation of themind! Therefore it is often said that the mind produces unlimited desires.

maya manah srjati karmamayam baliyahkalena codita-gunanumatena pumsahchandomayam yad ajayarpita-sodasaramsamsara-cakram aja ko 'titaret tvad-anyah

O Lord, O Supreme Eternal, by expanding Your plenary portion Youhave created the subtle bodies of the living entities through the agencyof Your external energy, which is agitated by time. Thus the mindentraps the living entity in unlimited varieties of desires to be fulfilledby the Vedic directions of

karma-kanda

[fruitive activity] and thesixteen elements. Who can get free from this entanglement unless hetakes shelter at Your lotus feet?" [

SB

7.9.21]