By Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati
When was the last time you said, ‘i am happy,’ or ‘i am angry,’ or ‘i am frustrated?’ When was the last time you explained your state of being as caused by a reaction in your mind to something that happened outside of you? ‘You made me angry . ’ ‘He infuriates me . ’ ‘I can’t take her anymore . ’ Most of us say things like this to ourselves and others pretty constantly.
Try this first: A 60-second exercise
Before reading any further, take just a moment and close your eyes. Allow the breath to slow and bring your awareness to your breath low in your abdomen, below your belly button. Just anchor there for a few seconds. Then, very deliberately, start repeating the word ‘Hate’ over and over in your mind. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Keep repeating it for about 30 seconds. Then stop. Return to your breath for a moment and then start repeating the word ‘Love’. Over and over. Love. Love. Love. Love. Do that for 30 seconds. Then return to your breath for a few moments.
Do you notice a difference in the way your body feels between the two words? For most of us, hate causes contraction, tightening, while love causes opening, expansion, and a loosening of tension. If you’ve forgotten already, do it again – it’s only a 60-second exercise.
What this reveals about you
I share this exercise for two critical reasons. First: our thoughts, emotions, mind, and body are intricately linked. There is no separation. The neurotransmitters flooding synapses in our brains are speaking directly and loudly to the walls of our intestines, to our immune system, to our adrenal glands. So, nothing is ever ‘just in the mind’.
But the second reason is far more important. It is this: You are not your thoughts or your mind. You were there whether hate or love was being repeated. You were the conductor, not the instrument being played. You were the one in charge. The ability to determine what we think, how we think, and the state of our minds is an inherent part of our human capacity. This is what neuroscience calls ‘emotional regulation’ and what the yogis have called sakshi , witness consciousness, for thousands of years.
If we are the watcher – the witness consciousness, the one who is aware – then by definition we are not the mind.
Most of us don’t realise this. We say, ‘i am angry,’ or ‘i am depressed,’ or ‘i can’t control my temper.’ Or my anxiety. Or my addiction. But what our rishis have been telling us for thousands of years is that our minds are in our hands, as long as we are paying attention.
The one who was always watching
Anchoring our sense of identity in that pure, unchanging, unchangeable light of awareness is the key – not only to emotional and mental health, not only to healing anxiety, depression, and the endless turbulence of the monkey mind – but to freedom itself.
There is a teaching that says: mana eva manushyanam karanam bandha mokshayoh. Mind alone is the cause of both bondage and liberation. Fuse with its monkey nature and you live in constant bondage. Extricate yourself from that identification and – through re-identifying as the knower of the mind, the witness consciousness, the observer self – set yourself free.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
