convoluted folds while at ease, but bright red, smooth, and tense when he became angry. Both the face and the stomach turned pale when he was upset by fright. Depression shut off the flow of gastric juices and his stomach was almost incapable of digesting food. The subconscious or instinctive mind is termed chitha in Vedanta philosophy. Much of our subconscious mind consists of submerged experiences, memories thrown into the background but recoverable. As the body grows old, the first symptom is that it is difficult to remember persons and places. It is not hard to find the reason. The mind, as we know, generally remembers through associations. In old age, one can still remember passages that have been read in school and college. But at the same time, one is hard put to remember a passage read the night before. This is because the subconscious mind has lost its power of grasping and storing ideas, as the cells of the brain have degenerated. By the degeneration of the brain cells through overwork, worries, and anxieties, memory power is soon lost and very little impression is put into the subconscious mind. The reasoning processes are limited to the field of consciousness alone. The field of subconscious mentation is much greater than that of conscious mentation. Messages, when ready, come out like a flash from the subconscious mind. Only a small percentage of mental activities come into the field of consciousness. When we drive a car through a crowded street, even though we are talking to friends in the car or solving some problems, the driving, turning, stopping are done almost subconsciously. When we sit and try too hard to solve a problem we may fail. But during sleep, at times, this kind of problem is solved subconsciously and is projected to conscious mind during wakening. During that period the subconscious mind is working like the man at the wheel while driving. Even in sleep, this mind works without any rest and solves problems, arranges, classifies, compares, sorts all facts, and works out a proper, satisfactory solution. With the help of the subconscious mind we can remove tension from external and internal organs and give them proper relaxation. All the involuntary vegetative functions of the body that are below the conscious plane are under the able management of the subconscious mind. Subconscious intelligence as instinct rarely fails. An animal almost instinctively knows a poisonous herb from an edible one, but the work of instinct is limited. It works like a machine. Then comes a higher state of knowledge (intellect), which is fallible and makes mistakes often; its scope is larger. We call it reason. It is much larger than instinct, but instinct is surer than reason. Animals know instinctively what to eat and what not to eat. When they are sick, nature prompts them to fast. When a dog is sick, we see that he does not like to take food. The internal mechanism is controlled by the subconscious intelligence, which prompts the dog to take nature’s remedy of removing poison through fasting. This portion of the subconscious mind is still with us, helping us in various ways. But owing to the development of reasoning power, man has lost most of his instinct, though it still plays a great role in our daily life. Even such animals as dogs and cats lose much of their instinct owing to association with man and, subsequently, suffer like man. Instead of guiding and giving proper suggestions with the developed intellect, man interferes with the natural work of the subconscious mind through wrong suggestions and thus adds miseries to his life. With the help of the subconscious, we can change vicious nature by cultivating healthy, virtuous qualities that are opposed to undesirable ones. If we want to overcome fear, we must mentally deny fear and concentrate on the opposite quality, courage. The positive always overcomes the negative. Even distasteful tasks and duties can be changed by cultivating a desire and taste for them. All actions, pleasures, and experiences leave subtle impressions on the subconscious mind. Revival of these impressions induces memory. Great Yogis dive deep inside this mind to obtain knowledge of past lives. Such occult phenomena of the mental world as telepathy, thought-reading, hypnotism, mesmerism, distant healing, psychic healing, etc., clearly prove the existence of extraordinary functions of the mind. From the automatic writing and other experiences of a hynotized person, we can clearly infer the existence of the subconscious mind. All geniuses have control over the subconscious mind. If an idea is planted in the mind, it grows at night through the operation of the subconscious. Those who know how to manipulate the subconscious mind can turn out tremendous mental work through the automatic process. When the subconscious is at work, the conscious reasoning part of the mind is completely at rest or working only partially, supervising the subconscious mind. Therefore, one feels more relaxed even after hard work. All great individuals have control over the subconscious mind and know how to make it work for them. This ability of the subconscious to operate automatically results from association with the unfolding intellect. Mind is the greatest force on this earth. He who has controlled his mind, is full of power. He can bring all minds under his influence; one is struck with awe and wonder at the marvels and mysterious powers of the mind of a man.
file:///C|/...20books/save/Complete%20Illustrated%20Book%20of%20Yoga%20The%20-%20Devananda%20Vishnu%20Swami/index.html[5/29/2012 10:45:06 PM]