:: Article 7

I think it is very important to understand the nature of the mind at a very young age. As we grow up it becomes increasingly difficult to do so because all our thoughts would have become rigid. We must understand the difference between the ‘Thinking mind’ and the ‘working mind’. The thinking mind is the ‘me’ that posits a past and the future. The working mind is the mind at the moment doing the job. To live in this society, the working mind must function well. Our success and failure depends upon the quality of our functional thoughts. It is a well known fact that our work suffers if we anticipate results. Smooth functioning of the mind is required to do a job well and more importantly we should be anchored in the present moment. This fact is very well illustrated in sports. For example in cricket we refer to a batsman in form. It simply means that he is playing the game effortlessly. His hand’s and feet move with an elegant grace. It seems to us as though the bat hits the ball out of its own volition with no one actually hitting it. To watch a Vivian Richards or an Adam Gilchrist bat is to see poetry in motion. To me, this is a perfect example of the working mind doing its job unhampered without the intrusions of the ‘me’. You can contrast this with another batsman who is struggling to keep his place in the team. His batting would be a self conscious effort, because his mind is projecting the outcome of his stroke play and his future in the team and not about the shot perse.The same is the case with any job that we do. I have observed that good and efficient software programmers are those who do not work for deadlines. They focus all their energies in solving the problem at hand and more importantly they enjoy what they do.

This is the Karma yoga the Bhagavad-Gita talks about. Do the job in hand with all the functional knowledge that one has got but do not worry about the outcome. Results are never in our hands. It never was. If we were to diligently analyze our actions, we would to out utter surprise find that even though we have initiated many activities; the end result was always dependent on forces beyond our control – hence unpredictable. Read the biographies of eminent scientists and discoverers and you will find not one of them thought of the prizes and the accolades that their work would bring them. It is the sheer joy of pouring heart and soul into whatever they were doing that filled their lives.

I remember many years ago Swami Chinmayananda had come to speak on Vedanta in the Rabindrabarathi auditorium in Hyderabad. That was the first time I was listening to him. I had already heard a lot about him and his vibrant oratory. The auditorium where he was to speak had excellent acoustics. Swamiji was known for his punctuality and he walked in exactly at the scheduled time of 6.30P.M. With a flowing beard, Piercing eyes, a beaming smile, clothed in a silk ochre robe – he looked like a patriarch from the past. I would never forget the first words that he spoke with his deep throated voice. He said “Let your mind be where your hands are”. I was shaken. I don’t remember much of the lecture then after. But this line remained with me ever since. Observe how true the statement is. We are always worried either about the past or the future hardly paying attention to the present moment.

A Zen story to conclude:

A student seeking enlightenment approached a master. As soon as he entered the master pointing to the hills yonder said “Look at the magnificence of the mountains”. The student bowed asked his question “Master, teach me the way to eternal peace”. The Master hardly paying attention to him and looking outside the window continued:” The flight of the birds is a scene to behold”. The student reiterated his question. To which the master enigmatically replied “The touch of cold air on my skin is bliss”. The student began getting irritated and started to walk out when he heard the voice of master saying “ I have been teaching you the path, Remain in the NOW”.