The human form we have attained is believed to be the gift of God that we got due tour good deeds in the past (purva punya). We have thus gained a physical body sustained by food, a mind (that we do not know much about), a nervous system carrying pranic energy, emotions, feelings, etc. and finally a soul, like the solar battery (automatically charged day and night). These are supposed to be functioning in a synchronized manner, however, they are not! The mind should be under our control, control of buddhi. It (the mind) is an adjunct of our Self and it should not become our master and control us. But it is so controlled by ego that our entire life is controlled by this whimsical mind, full of desires, ambitions, dreams, aspirations, and God knows, what else? Hence it is this quixotic mind that is our main problem in life.
By the way, one may ask: why the control of the Mind, 'manoniyantran'? The aim of life is happiness and happiness is a state of Mind. It is the Mind that gives the impression of joy or sorrow, happiness or unhappiness; and, it is the Mind that normally controls our life and activity and we suffer due to our sheer ignorance and our inability to control our thoughts. Actually, it is the Intellect, 'Buddhi' that has got the discriminative power and it should guide the Mind and enable it to keep us happy and successful through the power of discrimination. This 'Buddhi' is the Intellect that gets its power of discrimination, the 'light' or Knowledge from the soul or the 'spirit within'. In the absence of this reflected light of the Soul, the 'Atman', the Mind goes on rampage, dwells on anything and everything that the senses dwell upon, and mistakes all illusory, or the 'make-believe', or the magical objects of the world as real and get us into trouble. In the absence of this intellect's guidance or discriminative power, we fail to 'see things as they are' and get everything wrong in our understanding. This ignorance governs our lives until and unless we realise the 'Reality' of this world.
Who will guide us in this endeavour of 'seeing things as they are' and knowing the 'Reality' of this world? Who will lead us from 'Asat' to 'Sat', from 'Ignorance' to 'Knowledge'?
If we look back to our cultural and spiritual heritage in the Ancient Scriptures like the Vedas and Upanishads, the Brahma Sutra, and the Bhagavad Gita, we realize how our forefathers lived a life of contentment, happiness, peace, and prosperity and held the 'spiritual' values in high esteem. These Ancient Scriptures are a source of Knowledge and provide invaluable guidelines in the form of sutras (aphorisms), mantras, tantras, and yantras. Only knowledgeable persons can guide us in this respect. A benevolent siddhi-purusha, an attained person or Yogi only can help us. It is the spiritual attainments, sadhana, or spiritual power that can help us to understand the meaning of life and get us liberated from bondage. But, such a Guru or teacher of excellence who can guide us is not available so easily, with the result, we are forced to look to the Lord for his 'divine grace' and pray Him for enlightenment and emancipation.
If we look at the science of 'Manoniyantran', i.e., Mind Management, in the light of modern science, it is still in its early stage of development. The technique of 'mind control' is still not well undertood in its entirety and all the progress made so far in mental sciences like psychiatry, para- psychology, psycho-analysis, neuro-science, phrenology, etc. do not help us much. They treat Mind as a separate entity through techniques of hypnotism and take recourse to medication, administered to brain, that is harmful in the long run. The treatment should be holistic treating the body, mind, and soul in its totality, unity, and homogeneity. Such a science has not yet developed.
The Ancient Indian Sages treated the Soul, 'the Atman', as the spirit or power behind the physical body and considered it as the supreme commander of the body and mind. The study of the inner world of man is better known as 'spiritual science' perfected by the Seers, the Rishis, is based on the Veda and the Upanishadic doctrines; and, this aspect does not come within the purview of modern science that concerns with the outside world. The ancient Sages considered Man as something special, made of three types of bodies- the sukshma sharira (the subtle body), the Karana (causal) sharira, and the sthula (physical) sharira; rather, these are the Adhidaivika (Mind/Consciousness), Adhyatmika (Spirit), and the Adhibhoutika (Matter) sharira, respectively. Ancient Indian Sages and Seers had a clear vision of this. They could get mastery over the Mind and use the Intellect to control the entire mechanism of this human body, including the subtler aspects and they had the ability to stop breath and control the movement of Prana in the body, control pulse beats and heart beats. By controlling metabolism they could control the flow of oxygen nd minimize its damage to cells while supplying the essential life breath and purifying blood. This secret of Yoga and Pranayama is still not well understood by our generation, today. The ancient Sages could live hundreds of years without any physical ailments and, it is said that some Yogins live without solid food for years and years with the help of Suryopasana technique!
As already stated, modern psychiatrists and medical scientists treat mental ailments with medication that is very harmful in the long run. This sort of treating a part of the body for any ailment is detrimental to the over-all health of the body. Moreover, such treatments are temporary and the ailments recur after a lapse of time. On the contrary, the spiritual exercises are more helpful since they give a wholesome treatment to the body rooting out the cause ofillness through the mind and, some sort of transformation also takes place in the long run for those who want the ultimate spiritual attainment.
Thus, there are two types of solutions to the problems of life. One is the short-term solution to the immediate problems of life that disturb our peace of mind and cause the physical ailments. These can be treated through the practise of yoga- the Vedantic way of life, with the Knowledge of Vedic Sciences such as 'Ayur-veda', nisarga chikitsa (Nature Cure), pranayama, dhyana, austerities such as Sadachara-Sadvichara, japa, tapa, and vrata, niyama and upavasa (residing near God or thinking of God), and dietary restrictions to gain purity of mind and body, concentration, 'chitta ekaagrata'. The second one, a long term solution, is the more difficult one leading to spiritual fulfillment through Yoga- particularly Raja Yoga; this is the long-term solution to the problems of not only this life, but also that of emancipation or liberation called 'mukti', or 'moksha'. It is the ardent desire of every one, tired of this life or not, to seek a permanent solution by way of emancipation or release from the cycle of repeated birth and death- the 'metempsychosis' - entanglement in Sansar.
Indian Philosophy believes in 'Karma'– both ‘prarabhdha’ (earned over past lives) and ‘sanchita’ (collected in this life due to acts of commission and omission). It is firmly believed that the present life of ours is a continuation of many previous lives that we have lived and worked to attain our desires and the fruits of such action bother us even today. There is no doubt that what we are enjoying or suffering in the present life is due to the good acts and bad deeds, sins or crime, committed in the past lives in addition to what we are gaining in the present life. Just like the neem seed brings forth a neem tree and a mango seed gives the mango, our good deeds give us good life and our misdeeds make us suffer, if not in this life, in the lives hereafter. There is no escape from this Karma. It is like a bank account. Whether you have plenty of money or loan, it does not matter; loan has to be returned with interest! You will certainly enjoy the fruits of good deeds. Time is not important here. Many people have received state honour and rewards at their ripe old age for their service in the past!
People who do not believe in 'life after death' should remember the scientific dictum that, "nothing is created and nothing is destroyed and the sum total of product remains the same forever"; so also, our Soul remains here forever but take different bodies to fulfil their desires and, in the course of each life, the person suffers or enjoys the fruits of his past deeds! These fruits of the deeds are embedded in the 'germ cell' that produces repeated births, just as the entire plan of the Banyan (Peepul) tree is hidden in the small Banyan seed, or just like the sesame seed holds the oil within, or for that matter, butter and clarified butter, ghee is latent in the milk.
It is the desire- the blemish of the soul that keeps the 'germ cell' alive and active causing birth and death repeatedly, endlessly. The emancipation or release of the 'blemished embedded soul', or redemption from bondage is achieved through intense meditation culminating in 'Samadhi' transcending time, space, and causation. Practise of Yoga- 'Hatha Yoga', Jnyana Yoga, or 'Raja Yoga', culminating in 'nirvikalpa samadhi', and the "Realization of the Self", i.e., 'Enlightenment' is the only solution offered to the suffering souls! And, that can be obtained by numerous spiritual practics, adhyatma sadhana, yoga.
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