There was a beautiful garden with lots of fruits and flowers on top of a mount. The chief gardener would stand on top of this mount and look at the people in the garden and would call out to everybody, saying that there were lots of fruits in the garden like mangoes, bananas, and papayas. He would invite them to come and have those fruits. But when they went there, he would come down the hill, and he would change his mind. He would ask them to go away.
Then, he would go up the hill. Sitting there, he would again call out to others to come savour the fruits from the garden, adding what he would do with all the fruit alone, and that he was there to offer them to everybody. And, if they were happy, he would be happy too. He would talk philosophically, but the moment he came down, he’d be back to square one. The people started thinking he was a little crazy. He lost all his credibility. He himself was surprised and didn’t understand what was happening to him.
A wise man in the town suggested people should dig below the hill and see what was there. They dug the place up and found the throne of a very well-known king who was known for his generosity, righteousness, and highly spiritual life. When he died, they could not find anybody else fit enough to sit on his throne because it was such a powerful seat. So, people finally buried it under that mount, and it is said that the throne had the vibration of positivity and generosity, which had an impact on the gardener when he went up the hill.
So, even the place you are in has an impact on the mind. Even in your house, you can see that you feel different in different rooms. A place where there there has been singing, chanting, and meditation has a different influence on the mind.
The nature of the mind is to waver, just like the nature of water is to flow. There are five factors that influence the mind the most: Food, place, time, past impressions, and associations or actions.
The food we eat sustains our annamaya kosha. Let me explain this to you: we all have five bodies — Annamaya kosha, the physical body; Pranamaya kosha, the energy body; Manomaya kosha, the mind; Vijnanamaya kosha, the wisdom, and Anandamaya kosha, the bliss. [1]
Food greatly influences the mind. There is a Hindi proverb, ‘Jaisa ann waisa mann’. If you eat at the wrong time, or the food is not well digested, or it is the wrong food, or it is stale food, it has a certain impact on your body and mind. Even the way you have earned the food also impacts your mind and behaviour. There’s a story about this.
The king of Narendra Nagar used to host saints and seers for lunch in his palace every day. Once, a saint stole a silver vessel from the palace. The king was surprised to find a saint stealing a utensil. After four days, the saint brought back the vessel. This surprised the king became even more! The king convened a meeting of learned people in his court and asked them to explain this occurrence.
The group of learned people met and debated on the matter, and finally asked the king to find out what food was served to the saints on that day. When the king enquired, it was revealed that some thieves had stolen some rice and daal from a village. The stolen grains were confiscated by the state and brought to the palace, and the same grains were cooked for the saints on that day. The effect of the food stayed for three days. Once the effect of the food faded, the saint wondered why he had stolen the vessel! He came back and returned it.
Food is not only what you eat. The environment is also food. Air is food for our lungs. Water is also food. Heat or warmth is also a kind of food. Peace and joy are food for the soul. The aim of all of these food sources is to increase your ‘prana’, or the life force level.[2] Fresh food has more prana, while frozen food has very little of it. Similarly, you find a difference in the prana level when you eat fresh vegetables and eat thoroughly baked and deeply fried food. Everybody should have a little bit of knowledge of the right nutrition. If you look at the food habits of two or three generations before, Indians had a very good sense of what to eat and when! My grandmother wouldn’t have a meal without some form of spinach in it. And, she would have different types of leafy vegetables on different days of the week. It was almost like a ritual. She would fast on Ekadashi. Occasionally, she would gently fry or bake one edible variety of white coloured flower and eat it with grated coconut!
The quantity of food also impacts the mind. You may have noticed, when you eat food in moderation, you feel energetic, and when you eat too much, you feel dull and lethargic. This is why our scriptures advocate the practice of Mitahara — which means to exercise balance and restraint in eating food. From time to time, fasting on fruits or juices is also good. Gives your organs a much-needed holiday. Otherwise, we use and overuse them so much, they would have gone to labour court if they could.
The next thing is the influence of a place on the mind. Every place you are in has a different impact on the mind. Even in your house, you find that you feel different in different rooms. A place where people sing devotional songs, chant, and meditate has a different influence on the mind.
Time also impacts the mind. Time effects both the matter and the mind. You keep an apple for too long, and it starts to rot. When you look at any object, you can know how old it is. Our body changes with time. Similarly, time also has an impact on the mind. People seldom notice this! How you feel in the morning is different from how you feel in the afternoon, or how you feel in the evening is different from that at night, isn’t it? The state of mind and the feeling also change with time.
Similarly, thought patterns also get affected by time and the seasons. Winter, summer, spring, and autumn, seasons affect the mind differently. People in olden days did an in-depth study on this: how the moon affects the mind as per its location in constellations. Or, how the different angular placements of the moon have a definite impact on the mind. That is why they would use terms like ‘Tarabala’ and ‘Chandrabala’. The moon stays in each constellation for two and a half days, then it moves to the other constellation. So in two and a half days, you will notice your moods change.
Someone’s behavior cannot be taken out of context. It should be seen in the context of space and time. If your time is good, your worst enemy will be friendly; if your time is bad, your best friend behaves like an enemy to you. Instead of pointing fingers at anyone, the wise people said, “Kalaya tasmai namaha” — that is, “I surrender to time! I bow down to time!”
The past impressions, or the sanskaras, again have a different impact on the mind. Awareness, alertness, knowledge, and meditation all help erase the past impressions.
The people or events you are associated with also have a say on your mind. The company of truth is the resting place for the mind and spirit. If you sit with someone who is all negative, you carry all that negativity with you, and suddenly you start feeling those emotions too. And, if you spend time in good company, you feel there is a change in your mental state. Good company flips the situation. Do you know what is good company? Definition of a good company is when you go and sit with someone, share your problem with them and you walk away feeling there is no problem at all, or it can be easily solved. You feel lighter. And when you go talk to someone and you feel the problem is heavier than you thought, and you walk away from them with a heavy heart, more depressed and more anxious-that is bad company. Such company cannot let the love blossom in your heart.
Next is, how your actions or inaction influence your mind. You have no control over the involuntary actions. But the voluntary actions that you perform, if you put your awareness and total attention on them, it makes a whole lot of difference in life. This is the power that we all have. If you master the control over your voluntary actions, you will find that your involuntary actions also come under your control. This has happened with many yogis and Siddhas. And meditation is the way to do it. It creates alertness and awareness with which you have the power to act or not act.
This brings the question, “Are we slaves of our mind?” I say no, because there is something beyond the mind, and that is the intellect. When the intellect is strong, it overcomes the impact of all these 5 factors on the mind. When the intellect is weak, the emotions take over the mind.
Now, what if the intellect also gets influenced? Then there is something beyond the intellect, and that is the Self, or the Consciousness. This is where meditation makes a big difference. When you go deep in meditation, your consciousness becomes very subtle, and your mind becomes fresh like a flower. In such a delicate state
of consciousness, all thoughts move away, emotions get settled, and you experience the most tranquil, most benevolent, and most beautiful inner space.
