Am I the mind?

By reading my last blog post one might have got the idea that he is not body. But then who are we? Lets find out the answer for this in upcoming lines...

Any neophyte in spirituality would say that I am not the body but its hard to tell what we are actually. Such person thinks that he is brain, or feelings, or mind but soul or Atman is beyond the mind and even superior to intelligence! As a student of Bhagvad Gita, I refer to this verse for understanding between the mind and me (soul). Lord Krishna says,

indriyani parany ahur
indriyebhyah param manah
manasas tu para buddhir
yo buddheh paratas tu sah

The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence. (Bhagvad Gita as it is 3.42)

This verse clearly explains that we are neither mind nor intelligence nor feelings but we are different. If there were no senses then we would be just like a block of flesh without any actions so senses are superior to dull matter (our gross body) because they provide a way to see and understand things. But would just senses suffice to make a complex being like us? no so the mind which controls the senses is called superior here as without it we cannot use our senses. Further the differentiation of the mind and the intelligence is said. Normally we think that mind means intelligence, but its not that. We develop intelligence according to our experience whatever we learned till now. For example, we don't jump from top of building because our intelligence explains us that it is dangerous for us to jump and can damage our body hence intelligence is superior to mind. But then further Lord Krishna even differentiates us from intelligence and says that we (soul) is even higher than intelligence. Its confusing but we can visualize this by image below:

As can be seen from above image the soul(we) are superior in hierarchy. This applies to all living things anywhere from small microorganisms to complex living beings like us. Just we have a good type of body which has the sufficient intelligence to search answers for important questions like Who am I? , Why am I here?, Why we die? , Why we cannot live forever?, Why there is pain and sorrow in life?  so on and other animals don't have any intelligence to search for such questions. But we are different than them and can search answers. We are superior because we decide the ultimate outcome of our action. So whatever attachments we have with this world is just illusion created by our mind. Our true attachment can only be with God and no other thing/person, this seems contradicting but its true. I will prove this statement correct in future posts in this blog. Below image gives a visualization of the soul and mind by a computer analogy.

One can understand by thinking on this analogy what soul is. As seen the hardware is body and the software (without which the body/hardware is useless) is the mind and lastly the user which is soul (without user/soul the whole software and hardware is useless). So we are actually the user of this body and mind. So it should work according to our wish and not other way around. As we ignore some features of the software which we don't need in the same way we should ignore some thoughts which are blocking our spiritual endeavors and focus on what is important.

Further Lord Krishna says:

evam buddheh param buddhva
samstabhyatmanam atmana
jahi satrum maha-baho
kama-rupam durasadam

Thus knowing oneself to be transcendental to material senses, mind and intelligence, one should control the lower self by the higher self and thus—by spiritual strength—conquer this insatiable enemy known as lust. (Bhagvad Gita as it is 3.43)

So we should learn to control ourselves by knowing our self superior to our mind and intelligence and should act in that way. Once anyone understands himself as the soul by thinking deeply he can differentiate the illusions created by mind and the world. The lust is also in the mind and not us, as we are superior we can control the mind and get rid of lust.

If one think rationally by considering the above verses and going back in flashback, we can understand that we have been programmed that this is happiness, sorrow, etc by using different mediums like movies, other people, etc. But any rational person can think that happiness which we get is don't last longer and we get bored with the thing/person which gives us happiness in some time. For example, if I buy my dream car I will get compliments by people and they will admire me for some months and I will feel happy. But after some period I will get bored by the same car for which I worked very hard and my dream car would feel like a normal car. This is because we cannot be happy by anything we get from materialism and hence spiritualists call it illusion.

Today suicide rates are increased more than before because so called modern people have become so entangled with materialism and competition that they don't try to search information about self or soul by reading literature like Bhagvad Gita and fall prey to illusion created by mind and world. I don't understand where this competition will take us, ultimately everyone have to die and leave all the success which was earned by hard work. I am not suggesting to leave work and sit idle and not even Bhagvad Gita suggest, one should work but there should be no attachment or proprietorship and should work in knowledge about himself. The reason for this detachment will be cleared future in posts on this blog.

I hope my explanation was easy to understand. If you have any questions/suggestions please let me in know in comments. Follow this blog and be tuned for future posts.