If we try to digest properly the implications of the Geeta's

advice in the light of Vedic lore, it becomes amply clear how

actions performed without egocentric desires purge the mind
of its deep-seated impressions and make it increasingly subtle
in its purification and preparation for greater flights into the
Infinite Beyond. To explain this, we will just try to review a
little the conception of the mind and its functions in our dayto-
day life.
Mind is man. As the mind, so is the individual. If the mind
is disturbed, the individual is disturbed. If the mind is good,
the individual is good. This mind, for purposes of our study
and understanding, may be considered as constituted of two
distinct sides - one facing the world of stimuli that reach it
from the objects of the world, and the other facing the 'within'
which reacts to the stimuli received. The outer mind facing
the object is called the objective mind; in Sanskrit we call it
the Manas, and the inner mind is called the subjective mind; in
Sanskrit, the Buddhi.
That individual is whole and healthy in whom the objective
and subjective aspects of the mind work in unison, and in
moments of doubt, the OBJECTIVE MIND readily comes
under the disciplining influence of the SUBJECTIVE MIND.
But unfortunately, except for a rare few, the majority of us
have minds that are split. This split between the SUBJECTIVE
and the OBJECTIVE aspects of our mind is mainly created
by the layer of egoistic desires in the individual. The greater
the distance between these two aspects of the mind, the greater
the inner confusion in the individual, and the greater the egoism
and low desires which the individual comes to exhibit in life.
Through the five 'gateways of knowledge', the organs-ofperception,
all of us experience the world of objects around
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 3
us at all moments of our waking state. The innumerable stimuli
that react with our sense-organs (receptors), create impulses
which reach the OBJECTIVE MIND and these impulses filter
deep down to the subjective stratum through the intervening
layers of individual egocentric desires. These impulses, thus
reaching the SUBJECTIVE MIND of a person, react with the
existing impressions of his own past actions that are carefully
stored away in the subjective layer and express themselves in
the world outside through the five organs of action (effectors).