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Guru Teg Bahadur on Human Mind[1]
- Harbans Lal
Introduction
Among
the authors of the Sikh scripture, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the ninth Sikh
prophet Guru Teg Bahadure is credited with writing over a hundred verses, and a
dozen hymns directly addressing the problem of human mind, and its impact on
human destiny. These verses and hymns constitute more than 20% of all of his
writings included in 16 of 32 raags of the Granth. A search in the
Srigranth.org comes up with one hundred and twenty two citations of Guru Teg
Bahadure to contain directly the term mann, the term, which he interchangeably used for mind. Further, almost all of the couplets or
sloks of Guru Teg Bahadure that were
written to conclude the Sikh scripture, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, are
addressed to mann.
Some
examples of the verses and hymns written by Guru Teg Bahadure will be
explicated in appropriate sections of this paper. However, here a statement
that Guru Teg Bahadure regarded the undisciplined mann to comprise the
human mind may sum up the Guru’s concern. In this role, it was considered a
vital, though unreliable instrument to influence the human insights and
intellectual processes both at the time on hand as well as during their earlier
development. Further, mann’s
overwhelming allegiance is to animal genes and to human sensory inputs. They
carry information of human cultures and environment that engender countless
layers of intellectual smog on the nature of consciousness associated with mann.
Both, the genetic slavery and the limitation of sensory information, often
predispose the human mind, and human consciousness, into overlooking the spiritual
realities. This fact alone could become a limiting factor in the progress of
human evolution as well as to arouse concern of the holy men in their efforts
to liberate the human mind.
Mann as substrate
of future evolution
Many
theologians and human psychologists regard human evolution as the greatest
advancement in the history of planet earth. Human evolution accomplished the
unprecedented human development in the life of our planet.
The
major instruments of human evolution in the past were the environments and
their effects on the animal and human genes. However, it is questionable
whether the changing environments will continue to be instrumental in causing
future evolution of any significance. According to contemporary research on
evolution, the role of changing environments is considered to be diminishing in
engendering the future evolution. This is because of the growing magnitude of
human power in changing the environments to suite human comforts and survival
needs.
It
is not difficult to understand why human mind may be the new driving force in
the evolution of humankind. Surely, humans need not evolve in future or any
specific physical trait, such as superior speed or agility; these have been
taken up by the cultural developments in the modern society. Rather, the
greatest human ability would appear to be their abilities with their
information processing skills and skills to take them to new mental heights and
consciousness. Minds, endowed with spiritual characteristics, might guide this path
of evolution in order to create super humans of gods.
Today,
researchers of human evolution recognize the human culture and the human mind,
as the two basic substrates of the future human evolution. Acceptance of this
belief among the psychologists, philosophers and anthropologists alike has
increased their concerns on human mind and its environment. Therefore, both in the East and in the West,
people are becoming increasingly concerned with the factors that influence
human mind and its development; the mind being the substrate of the next stage
of human evolution.
To
respond to the evolutionary challenges of the future world, Western scientists
are engaged in investigating mostly external world such as skies, stars, and
cyber spaces. They search central principles of the outside world to gain power
that can maneuver the environment to the human advantage.
In
a stark contrast to the orientation of Western science, Eastern faiths
particularly Sikhism begins with a premise that the human mind is central to
understanding and maneuvering the natural world and their own evolution as a
whole. Mind is a primary source of both human joy and human misery. Therefore,
it is the state and the working of mind that will be instrumental in the future
human evolution. Further, the objective of future evolution will not be as much
the human body as the human mind. Instead, in the future it will be the human
mind that will be the major concern of the human development.
The
fifth Sikh Guru and the major author of the Sikh scripture Guru Arjan voiced
the above concern when he elaborated all other phenomena necessarily preceding
the human mind. He wrote that one
needed to grasps the mind before all other phenomena might be satisfied.
First,
you must grasp your mann (mind), then you may satisfy your other urges.
Guru
Arjan, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p, 281.
The
founder of Sikh faith, Guru Nanak, paraphrased it in this way to alert human
beings.
Human mind serves as the inscription continually being written on the inscription paper of human body. The ignorant person is the one who does not read into these inscriptions.
Guru
Nanak, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 662.
Thus,
the Sikh tradition considers human mind (mann) and human consciousness (surt) as
the primary targets of introspective evolution of human beings.
The
Mann concept
There
is no unanimity on any one term in English language to adequately define the
Punjabi term mann. However, the Gurbani
exegetes have been using the term “mind” for years to explain the concept of mann
written in The Guru Granth Sahib. Their consensus to date has been to
equate the faculty of mind with mann.
More
recently a more functional term, menome, was suggested to define mann
(Lal, H, 2005) as it was felt that the linguistic concept of mind, although is
adequate to define mind, it is still not sufficient for scientists and
researchers to comprehend the entity of mind.
The present paper will use the term “mind” interchangeably with mann
or menome. The
latter term was coined to relate to a more contemporary meaning of mann, as understood by modern
biological and psychological sciences.
In
the new terminology, the mann is described as the menome,
meaning that it is a complete set of memes. The term "meme" is
derived from the Greek word mimesis, which means imitation. British biologist
Richard Dawkins introduced this term to describe simply as a unit of
intellectual or cultural information that is perceived by human beings, and
which survives long enough to be recognized as such.
Memes
are formed, when the human nervous system, which is already amply endowed with
a storehouse of evolutionary instincts, reacts to a new experience. The
resulting mental activity, then codes the new experience in a form that can be
stored and further, communicated to others. A complete set of memes in
combination with past instincts, then becomes a human faculty that we termed as
“menome,” to explain the concept of mann
in the Guru Granth vocabulary (H. Lal, 2005).
Memes
are coded units that can pass from menome to menome or from one human mind to
another, and thus impact on human thinking process. It is comparable in its effects on
society to those of the chemically coded instructions imprinted on the human
gene that pass the genetic information from one generation to other.
In
understanding mann in terms of the
newly proposed terminology, it is important to accept the fact that the
smallest building brick of mann is a
meme. The meme is a unit of stored cultural information for any human being,
and is comparable to the gene, which is unit of the stored chemical information
forming the evolutionary human history.
Mimetic
information passes from one human being to another and from one generation to
the next. It also passes from one society to another society. It is this aspect
of the memes that make them instrument of the future human evolution.
Etiology
of Mann
Numerous
memes form a menome or mann. In the light of new sciences of mind and the
modern psychology, first
this mann is inherited at birth as an instinct. In the later part of the human
development, it acquires a different mode of growth or development. It grows
through mimetic mode of transmission. This transmission is further explained, later
in this paper. In the following
sections, we explain the genetic history and mimetic history of mann.
Instinctive yokes from Pre-natal history
To
understand the instinctive mann, one
must search into prenatal human biography. We must reach far back in time for sequences,
from the lives of our human and animal ancestors, with whom we share the
genetic connections.
Christian
theology interprets the human pre-natal history, as the doctrine of original
sin, when it believes that we are born with a sinful mind. The Eastern
religions invoke the law of karma [H. Lal, 1995] to define the development of
animalistic human mind. The modern science considers our mind to be the sum
total of animal and human evolution completed to date.
Whichever
way you may interpret, it is for sure that our prenatal biography has impacted
our mind today, and that has happened throughout the history of the animal
world. During the preceding life cycles, we have passed through numerous forms
of life that ranged from unicellular organisms, to primitive humanoids. The
Sikh theology supports the evolutionary doctrine when it says,
I
wandered a great deal in so many incarnations of species including mountains,
trees, birds, and beasts-.
Guru
Arjan, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 1366.
What
is important is that such a history has permanently placed filters of
animalistic instincts, within human minds, to view the present world with their
detrimentally biased eye. For example, whereas the evolutionary traits were
evolved as great mechanisms to ward against any physical danger, they were made
equally powerful in placing obstacles in the way of apprehending true reality,
of any new consciousness.
The
eternal Guru, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, paraphrases the animalistic nature of humanoid
traits in this way.
Even
though human beings belong to the homo-sapien class, their traits are of the
animals.
Guru
Arjan, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 267.
Says
Nanak, they are human beings in form and name only; by their deeds they are
dogs (animals) who wait at the door of his master (mann) for orders.
Guru
Nanak, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 330.
The
humans are nothing more than animals wrapped up in human skin; they are
blackened-hearted within.
Guru
Arjan, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 1284.
Do
not call them human beings; they are just animals and unintelligent beasts.
Sri
Guru Granth Sahib, Guru Amar Das, P 1418.
Humans
within are beasts, birds and the many varieties of beings and creatures.
Sri
Guru Granth Sahib, Guru Arjan, P 237.
Our
seers tell us that our mind is comprised of instincts, beliefs and attitudes
that are remnants of a long evolutionary history, which left behind
overwhelming animalistic imprints.
Therefore, prevalent nature of our beliefs, attitudes and practices are
all expressions or reflections, of the understanding we derive from those
imprints.
Simply
put, the modern biology defines, and the religious theology accepts, a definite
relationship of evolutionary inheritance to our present mind in this specific
way.
More
specifically, the evolutionary experiences were chemically encoded in the
genes that were passed on to us at the time of birth. Written in the genes were
the experiences, and instructions developed thereof. They were passed on more
or less unchanged, for many millions of years from ancestor to ancestor, and
down to our parents and finally to us.
Complicity of Post-natal experience
The
second influence on the making of our mann
or mind is that of memes of our present culture, to which our mind is
exposed after birth, i.e., mind’s post-natal biography.
The
present manifests itself in the environments in which we are born, and in which
we grow. These environments include the fashions in living styles, as well as
the moral, cultural or institutionalized religious systems around us. They are
imposed upon us under a variety of pretensions. In reality, all of them are
evolved, mostly as the result of historical accidents or arbitrary and willful
mystifications invented by those in power. The purpose of these is the
regimentation of life in a certain pattern.
After
birth, our mann is progressively fashioned through the mimetic
environments. In order to increase their acceptance among populations, our
mimetic environments are variously glorified, through the use of many
prestigious designations such as culture, tradition, or societal norms.
The
present continuously broadcasts memes to our brain. These memes are formed into
our menomes or mann, when the human nervous
system reacts to any experience, and codes it in a form that can be communicated
to others. At the moment of its creation, the meme becomes part of a conscious
process, intentionally directed by the human mind. However, immediately after a meme has come into existence, it
begins to react routinely with, and transform the menome of which it becomes a
part.
For
example, once the discovery of electricity forms a meme, it begins to suggest
hundreds of new applications, which are interactive with other memes. In this
way, it ensures a continuous replication and a long life for itself. Similarly
every information we digest has a life of its own, although its existence is
sometimes symbiotic, and sometimes parasitic, relative to our lives.
A
meme makes its own opportunities for replication, and manifests its own
phenotypic effects or concrete effects. The memes have been described, as the
“viruses of the brain,” because a meme requires only minds to feed on, and it
will replicate images of itself in our minds non-stop.
Who
should I tell the condition of the mind? Engrossed in greed, running around in
the ten directions, you hold to your hopes of wealth. ||1||Pause to
contemplate|| For the sake of pleasure, you suffer such great pain, and you
have to serve each and every person. ||1|| You lose this human life in vain,
and You are not even ashamed when others laugh at you.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 411.
Further, Guru Amar Das points out the helplessness of human
mind in proceedings toward its goal.
The
mind is churning with so many waves of thoughts. How can one with such a mind
be emancipated in the Court of the Divine?
Guru
Amar Das, In: Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p.
1088.
In
today’s world, memes are created jointly by society, religion and contemporary
technology. Cultures are irrepressible springs of memes. All interactions between an environment and
psychic energy form memes. The cultural memes give rise to distinctive mann
or menomes, which take over the control of human behaviors. Art, literature,
religion, customs, gestures, traditions, symbols, language, myths, technology
etc. are all forms of culture. All of them give birth first to memes, which
then modify the mann.
For
example, a person who spends a lot of time in painting and decorating his
house, polishing and re-arranging furniture, and talking about it to his
friends and neighbors, gradually includes his house in his brain first as a
meme, and then as a part of his menome. When the backyard garden sprouts, his mann makes him feel proud and happy, a
freeze on the plants becomes very distressing, and a new home in the
neighborhood may cause gut-wrenching jealousy. In other words, ownership of a
home, which is only an environmental object for our comforts, becomes part of mann
when we pay attention to it in a cultural way. It palpably affects our
feelings, beyond the realm of home ownership.
Attention
to one’s car, office, place of social gatherings or worship, relatives and
friends are other examples of the cultural memes, that form the bases of mann.
The same can happen with the relationship of a person with images in their surroundings,
or the objects people wear on their bodies, and the way the body externals are
carved. The red ‘power tie’, tinted hair, plastic surgery, jewelry, fashion
clothing, blue and red or other gaudy turbans, are among many such examples.
Guru Granth lists many such examples.
Mann as etiology of human misery
Pre-Natal Instincts as Causes of Human Agony and Sufferings
A
basic cause of contemporary unhappiness is the incompatibility of animalistic
tendencies of human mann, with our
spiritual aspirations. This leads to
unexplained anxieties, and diverse forms of mental anguish.
Inexplicably
tied in the cycle of birth and death, human beings spend considerable time in
passing through the life roles of plants, birds, animals and other subhuman
species. Since the life roles played in the times past left a very deep
impression on our mind, they influence our mental and intellectual development
a great deal, at every moment of our life today. They have smudged our
consciousness black, because of the dark environments in which they were
nourished, and under the perverted motivations that continuously strengthened
their perpetuation. In the Guru’s words, they left a layer of filth on our mann.
This
mind is blackened with filth accumulated over many cycles of birth and death.
Guru
Amar Das, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 651.
In
the course of our evolutionary history, the principle of the survival of the
fittest, was erroneously assumed to be the sole determining force for our
development and intellectual growth.
“Survival of the fittest” and its impersonal assertions for survival
produced many attitudes that were selfish, shortsighted and suitable only for
animals, or other pre-human species.
Many of them are illustrated thus in the scripture:
People
just don't understand that their intellect and understanding are perverted;.
They are filled with greed and corruption.
Through millions of incarnations they wandered as lost and confused;
they were ruined through this wandering around.
Guru
Amar Das, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 27.
To
emphasize the perverted nature of our instincts the Guru narrates each one of
the many motivations acquired in the past life cycles.
Hate,
conflict, sensual desire, anger, emotional attachment, falsehood, corruption,
immense greed and deceit: so many lifetimes are spent in these ways. Prays
Nanak: uplift those minds, show your
mercy!
Guru
Arjan, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 267.
A
study of prenatal history of the evolutionary experiences tells us, that the
principle of survival was the only experience practiced for many life cycles.
Those principles as imprinted on human minds, guided our primitive human
ancestors in the selection of behavioral strategies that were considered the
best for their physical survival in their periods of evolutionary history. The
strategies developed by our ancestors for their own survival, may not be
suitable for living today.
The
problems that our ancestors were conditioned to solve, were at very different
level than they are today. They learnt to spend most of their time in searching
and fighting for food when hungry. They had to develop physical skills and
mental anger to fight to death in self-defense, if, either a danger was perceived,
or a challenge of attack was imminent. They courted members of the opposite sex
for purpose of procreation, and preservation of the gene. In other words, their
needs were of sub-human type, and their acquired skills were animalistic at
best, when compared to the needs of today.
Now
that we have achieved the fully developed human format in body and brain, and
our need of survival and emancipation are significantly elevated, there is a
need to erase and replace the imprints of sub-human psyche. However, they are
still very much alive in our mental apparatus as Guru said,
You
have been a beast and the imprints of the beast mind are not erased.
Guru
Nanak, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 903.
The
mind is consigned to countless forms of reincarnation into beasts, ghosts,
camels and donkeys.
Guru
Arjan, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 1224.
Although
the imprints of sub-human psyche are very alive in us, they are the lessons
from our sub-human history and, therefore, are of little advantage in the ever-
developing new world. Rather, they are there to impede our spiritual progress,
for which we were born. Further, their expression in our present life is a
cause of many unhappy moments.
Meme-centered culture as substrates of pain and sufferings
As
it is discussed above, human mind or mann is nothing more, than a
menome of memes and genes. The role of genes has been described in the above
sections. Let us consider cultural memes in this section.
As
defined earlier, memes are artifacts of the interaction of today’s culture that
strengthen the imprints of selfish genes. The memes are selfish, because they
are the ideas or experiences of others, capable of replicating and co-evolving
with great indifference to their impact on host humans. They infect the mind, so that the real
purpose of life is forgotten. This is horribly discomforting, disconcerting,
and degenerating. Guru Teg Bahadure describes it in this way.
My
mind is deluded, entangled in Maya. Whatever I do, while engaged in greed, only
serves to bind me down.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p.702.
Let
me capture this horror graphically.
Imagine
your brain as a sort of dung heap, in which the larvae of other people's ideas
are housed. These larvae continuously use the previously stored food, and are
continually dividing to renew themselves. Then they send out overwhelming
number of copies of themselves, to other similar dung heaps. In reality,
cultural meme spread these copies through cultural messages.
One
thing they are sure to do, is to rob your mind of its meaning as both a master,
and a user of pleasures. They will take charge to make life very unpleasant,
and disgusting. This is the disgust that we are forced to live by our new
master, mann.
Deluded
by doubt, I have wasted my whole life; I have not obtained a stable intellect.
I remain under the influence of corrupting sins, night and day, and I have not
renounced wickedness.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p.632.
A
meme-focused vision of culture and mind is not mere random effluvia of the
human experience, but powerful control mechanisms that impose a largely
invisible controlling structure on a wide range of complex phenomena -
language, scientific thinking, political behavior, religion, philosophical
systems, even history itself. Then they all become tools of our imprisonment
into never ending misery. The phenomena seemingly created for our comforts in
reality, become the prisons of misery for us. Perhaps, this is what compelled
Guru Arjan to describe the meme created by our popular cultures and mythology
as related to psychological bondage.
They constitute the omnipresent environment that we live in today.
Resident
within us are the expression of pleasure and pain. They afflict us through the
heavens, the hell, and the gods. They afflict the rich and the poor alike
through desire for glory. Through the basic malady of greed, it afflicts us in
many many ways. The saints alone live under almighty’s protection. It afflicts us through intoxication
with intellectual pride. It afflicts us through the love of children and
spouse. It afflicts us through material possessions such as elephants, horses
and beautiful clothes. It afflicts us through the intoxication of the wine of
beauty and youth. It afflicts landlords, paupers and lovers of pleasure. It
afflicts us through the sweet sounds of music and parties. It afflicts us
through beautiful beds, palaces and decorations. It afflicts us through the
darkness of the five wicked passions. It envelops those who act while entangled
in ego. It afflicts us through household affairs, and it afflicts us in
renunciation. It afflicts us through character, lifestyle and social status. It
afflicts us through everything, except for those who are imbued with the Love
of God. Exception is that God cuts away the mimetic bonds of His saints. How
can these mimetic illusions cling to him? Says Nanak, illusory memes do not
draw near to one who has obtained the dust of the feet of the saints.
Sri
Guru Granth Sahib, Guru Arjan, P 181.
Aspects
of Mann specifically commented by
Guru Teg Bahadure
Concerns
on human mind, or mann in the
writings of Guru Teg Bahadure may be classified as follows. First of all Guru
Teg Bahadure exhibits a great deal of concern on the animalistic habits of mann as they are the basic roots of our
unhappiness, and they are the cause of failure in our achieving the prescribed
life goals. He then recounted many ways designed by religious and faith leaders
as well as by leaders in the mind sciences for seeking freedom from troubling
tendencies of mind. He considered most of them as futile.
Finally,
Guru Teg Bahadure resorts to seeking help from the Infinite Wisdom to show the
way. The help he sought was to restrain or channelize the mental energies. For those, he expresses his gratitude. He
recounts the eternal contentment one would derive from achieving the goals of
diverting mann from animalistic
tendencies towards its longing for spiritual enlightenment.
Animalistic habits retarding spiritual progress
Guru
Teg Bahadure was troubled by many behavioral tendencies that are instigated by mann. These include unsteadiness of
mind, greed, discontentment, and pursuits of materialistic goals in neglect of
spiritual pursuits. Other behaviors to
which our Gurus drew our particular attention include; restlessness of mind,
fear and paranoia, selfishness and deceit, fanaticism, prejudice and
xenophobia, attitudes of fundamental divisions, animosity among units of
creation, indifference to spiritual advancements.
Thus,
numerous human traits are causes of many problems of dissatisfaction, conflict
and misery today. In this paper, we
will learn about Guru’s concern only on one of these issues, i.e., restlessness
of human mind. As the Guru clarifies,
the animalistic nature of mann, was
seen to present serious incompatibilities with our spiritual aspirations. He targeted restlessness of mind, as the
most troubling among animalistic tendencies.
A study of this fiendish habit of mind will reveal, why its effects
disturbed the Guru.
Still-less-ness
of Mann
Still-
less- ness of the mind has been a subject of research by psychologists and mind
researchers for years. The Sikh concerns on mind’s ceaseless wanderings were
discussed earlier (H. Lal, 2001).
Besides
psychologists, the still-less-ness is also of a great concern to the seekers of
spirituality and the faith leaders like Guru Teg Bahadure. It is because a
fickle mind is a great hindrance on the path of spirituality. The goal of spirituality is gravely betrayed
when the mind wanders away from the domain of the soul.
Guru
Teg Bahadure showed a great concern about the agitation of the mind, and our
helplessness in controlling it. He
expressed his anguish in this way.
O people engaged in spiritual endavours to bring your mind under control, this mind
is difficult be restrain. Fickle
tendencies dwell within it. As a result, it cannot remain unwavering.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 219.
One
of the most troubling characteristics of our mind that attracted attention of
Guru Teg Bahadure is that human mann
is unstable, that it is almost impossible to coast it to ever stand still. This was a major concern of Guru Teg
Bahadure. He put it in this way.
The
restless mind wanders in all ten directions. It becomes aimless either to
pacify it or restrain it.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 685.
Guru Teg Bahadure’s great ancestor, Guru Arjan, voiced
his concern the same way when he wrote the following verse.
Deluded
by doubt, the mind wanders around in the ten directions. In an instant, these
minds go around four Corners of the world and come back again and again.
Guru
Arjan Dev, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 277.
Guru
Granth sahib is concerned with the commotion of the mind, and after effects of
that commotion. Prominent among these are the wandering mind and the lack of
its concentration in the spiritual domain.
The
mind that wanders through the three worlds comprehends nothing of spirituality.
Guru
Arjan Dev, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1078.
The minds waver and wander in ten directions, devoid of
any direction towards devotion or enlightenment of the soul.
Guru
Arjan Dev, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1013.
Sikh
gurus alert us to the futility of this tendency in many ways. For example, Guru
Arjan says,
When one runs around for the sake of material riches,
one is not satisfied, and one's desires are not quenched.
Guru
Arjan Dev, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 235.
According
to the Guru Granth, the inability to hold the thought in appropriate direction
may be the greatest hindrance to the realization of spirituality.
The
fickle mind cannot comprehend the Divine frontiers.
Guru
Nanak, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1189.
When the mind wavers and wanders bound to blind worldly
affairs, then the Creator does not come
to reside in it.
Guru
Arjan Dev, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1143.
In
fact, it is said, that in the company of the restless mind, we may erase the
effectiveness of any practice of good deeds, or religious disciplines. The
reason is that the evil impulses take charge, and corrupt those well- meaning
impulses, that urge us for undertaking those activities. The scripture
testifies this notion as:
The
good deeds, righteousness, and practice of religion or Dharma, self-discipline,
purity, religious vows and all cleansing ways are a loss in the company of the
fickle mind.
Guru
Arjan Dev, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1388.
The
self-oriented person possesses fickle intellect that is tricky and clever.
Whatever this person has done, and all that this person does, goes waste. Not
even an iota of it finds an acceptable place.
Guru
Amar Das Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1414.
Origination in past lives and nurturing in present environments
Rest-less-ness
of mann is a habit first imposed upon
us by our evolutionary history, and then it is strengthened, by the cultural
memes.
In
our evolutionary history, the animal world learns to constantly take in information
from its surroundings, and muscle its reflexes to fight or flight at every
opportunity, and every challenge. Have you ever seen a cat or a rodent sit
still without a wandering mind? Children, who wish to catch a fish, frog or a
bird, or kill a cockroach, know well the speed, and efficiency of these
animals. These animals exhibit unimaginable ability, to sense any change in
their surrounding.
Animals
at all levels of evolution are always scanning their surroundings for any
danger to life, or to their possessions. They also scan for any opportunity for
food, or for other life necessities. To them the instincts of ceaseless
attention to outside distractions would be very valuable, for the survival of
the species. It is for these reasons, that the still-less-ness was practiced
and preserved very diligently, during each form of life that we have gone
through, until this habit was thoroughly perfected, and selected to be well
embedded in our genetic codes.
To
begin with, our genes have endowed our mind with instincts always to help it
loiter, and to be constantly alert, in order to improve our chances of worldly
survival. These instincts tell us continuously, that if our mind is not alert,
someone will attack or else will take the advantage in some other way. Our
culture also teaches us always to strive for more, just to stay even.
These
evolutionary traits of the animal world, continued to build the earlier forms
of human life. They ensured that we
would always be on the alert, and on the lookout for any danger or any
opportunities. The purpose was that
this trait would help us obtain more things, and to organize more energy, for
our benefit. It should make our
offspring and us more viable. This is
the actual intention of human cultures.
The
seeds of rest-less-ness and discontentment were sowed, during the life in the
jungle. The fertilization of this seed continues to take place during the
advanced human life, in the current civilization. The mode of this
fertilization lies in the influence of human culture on human minds, towards
creating today’s mann.
If
you examine this philosophy deeply, you will reach the conclusion that the
cultural rules practiced in our society now in essence, are similar to the law
of the jungle, where a built‑in paranoia was considered valuable, and
indispensable. Further, to the cultural rules based on the laws of jungle, is
added the influence of the accelerated tempo of modern living (H. Lal, 1996).
Guru
Granth explains the mental evolution of unrest, and distraction in life of a
modern human being, as follows. An
infant is born with animal instincts of a wandering mind, and then is presented
a surrounding of rattles, soon after his/her birth. They continue to distract the child’s attention from Karta Purakh, the creative
consciousness. Saint Kabir says in Sri
Guru Granth Sahib:
A baby is born into this word after leaving the cycle of previous lives. As soon as the infant leaves the womb, it comes into the human civilization, and its culture begins to touch the new comer, the Creative Soul, is forgotten.
Bhagat
Kabir, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 337.
Thus,
the exposure to contemporary cultures does not end with birth. As soon as this
infant outgrows the first rattle, he/she is given another toy, and this process
continues for all of those early years of development. The entire attention
from infancy through adolescence and into adulthood remains occupied with
rattles. These rattles are designed, programmed, and meticulously imposed, as
an indispensable part of human culture. The scriptures describe some of these
toys as:
In the very first part of the human life, the baby
learns to love mother’s milk; second, s/he learns of his/er mother and father;
third, his/er brothers, sisters-in-law and sisters; fourth, the love of
numerous games in the life awakens.
Fifth, s/he does runs after oral satisfactions and intoxicating drinks;
sixth, in his/er sensual desire, s/he does not respect disriminations. Seventh, s/he gathers and indulges in wealth
and property ownership; eighth, s/he becomes a slave to sensory outbursts such
as anger and jealousy; and his/er body is consumed. Ninth, s/he turns grey, and his/er problems of senescence become
overwhelming: tenth, s/he is creamated, and turns to ashes. His/er companions send him/er off, crying
out and lamenting. The swan of the soul
takes flight, and asks which way to go.
Guru
Nanak Dev, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 137.
Culture
is actually meant to be a human response engineered to create protective
mechanisms, for human existence. It is there outwardly, to minimize the impacts
of undue competition, and unexpected dangers. The make-up of these mechanisms,
in the form of a still-less mind, should permit us to temporarily feel safe, and
relax our guard. Instead, the background of the strong impulses that were
built-in as the genetic instructions take over, and misguide the interpretation
of the protective mechanisms. As a result, there is a further amplification of
the animalistic influences, which are continuously exerted, by the cultural
rattles. This way, we end up with a mind that is always accelerating in its
tendencies to be restless, self-oriented, and wandering. The wandering nature
of a civilized mind is depicted in the scripture as:
The intellect of the self-oriented person
of today, manmukh, is fickle; it is full of tricks and cunnings.
Guru
Amar Das, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1414.
In
conclusion, with the cultural imprisonment continuing, the minds of most people
learn to keep wandering, and never have any opportunity to learn, how to calm
down, and be still. Our genes have programmed us to be such, and then our
culture has taken over the process from
the genes. The culture focuses our attention on the things of the world
in such a way, that we never gain the capacity either to sit quietly or to
ponder on any single thought.
The
restlessness of mind has become so mighty in today’s life, that we are
helplessly assenting to its might and, in the process, giving up every control
on ourselves. We call the situation as ‘out of control.’ Guru Teg Bahadure again warned us about this
helplessness as:
Numerous
unfulfilled desires are promoted to reside in the mind of a sinner, so that the
sinner’s mind becomes very fickle, and the fickle consciousness constantly
wavers; it cannot be brought under control.
Guru
Teg Bahadur, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1186.
Many
approaches of little avail
Guru
Teg Bahadure shows his concerns on the animalistic tendencies of mann, by exhibiting a great deal of
desperation with human inability to control them. He described how one might
ask for help from a variety of places, but get no help from any source. In the
following verse, he calls for any one who might teach his mann that has drifted away from its path.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 219.
Towards
his goal of receiving help, he related the outcome of those who traveled to
distant places, in order to seek pilgrimage. These too, he rejects as an
approach, to subdue the mental instincts and tendencies.
People
bathe at sacred shrines of pilgrimage, and adhere to fasts, but they acquire no
control over mind.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 831.
Disappointed
from the places of pilgrimages, he seeks help from scriptures. He finds that
even the wisdom of scriptures is of no avail. Similar to efforts at
pilgrimages, he discards them as unsuitable solutions to his mental turbulence. For example, he
writes,
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 411.
While
describing the futility of many approaches and paths that he attempted, he
wrote that most of these approaches
were not only futile, but to the contrary, they further led the mind into the
grip of tendencies, that diverted the mind away from the original goal.
I
have tried so many things, but the pride of my mind has not been dispelled.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1428.
Know
that such religion is useless to him. I speak the Truth for his sake.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 831.
O
mann, you have not accepted the Guru's Teachings. What is the use of shaving
your head, and wearing saffron robes?
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 633.
I
listened to the Guru's Teachings, but spiritual wisdom did not well up within
me; like a beast, I fill my belly.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 685.
Besides,
religious approaches to please the mann,
Guru Teg Bahadure enumerates many worldly pursuits, that also failed to harness
the mann. The Guru considered it
futile to run after wealth and possession, as they only appease the further
conquests, that human mind desires.
Engrossed
in greed, running around in the ten directions, you hold to your hopes of
wealth.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 411.
Like
Guru Teg Bahadure, other contributors to the Sikh scriptures voiced similar
concerns. For example, Guru Nanak says,
The insatiable lust is not appeased even with
world-loads of wealth and possessions being available.
Guru
Nanak, In: Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1.
Similarly,
Guru Arjan say,
After earning a thousand, a person runs after a hundred
thousand. Satisfaction is not obtained by chasing after illusions and mirage.
Guru
Arjan, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 278.
Guru
Teg Bahadure developed a pointed argument to illustrate our primitive
sensibilities. He actually enumerated many of our behaviors of primitive
development, in order to warn us of their limitations. In general, what our primitive instincts tell
us to do is, to follow the strategy that our primitive ancestors were able to
develop, many lives ago. For example, our instincts first tell us to give up
pursuit of peace and instead nourish crooked vigilance, and still-less-ness of
mind.
Further,
our mann should help us devise our
life goals, primarily to feed ourselves, defend our borders and ranks, and
pursue sensual interests in members of the opposite sex for procreation.
Guru
Teg Bahadure illustrated in detail those traits of human mann that were derived from the past history, that could not be
harnessed, in order to warn us against their deceptive powers. For example, he
enumerates conditions of human mann in
the following hymn.
Those who are making efforts to harness their mind, pay attention to this ! You are often unable to restrain your mind. Vacillating desires dwell in your mind, and so it cannot remain steady. ||1||Pause to contemplate||. The heart is filled with anger and violence, which causes all good sense to be forgotten. The jewel of spiritual wisdom has been taken away; making every mental faculty helpless. Nothing can withstand it. ||1|| The Yogis have tried everything, and given up; the virtuous have been attempting to control the mind by singing God's glories, and have grown weary. Nanak in divine obedience realizes that, when one seeks the grace of the Infinite Wisdom, only then these efforts will begin to succeed.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 219.
From
these behavioral tendencies backed up by the human mann, it is clear that we are loaded with many perverted traits,
derived from millions of years of evolutionary development, and our
evolutionary exposure to human cultures.
Gur
Teg Bahadure reaches the conclusion, that he was helpless in his efforts of
bringing mann under control. He
explicitly states that he made numerous efforts to overcome tendencies of mann, before reaching the conclusion,
that he ought to seek the grace of the “Infinite Wisdom.” He prays for saving
human beings from the grips of mann. The following hymn of Guru Teg Bahadure
is an illustration.
Xh mnu nYk n kihE krY ] sIK isKwie rihE ApnI sI durmiq qy n trY ] mid mwieAw kY BieE bwvro hir jsu nih aucrY ] kir prpMcu jgq kau fhkY Apno audru BrY ] suAwn pUC ijau hoie n sUDo kihE n kwn DrY ] khu nwnk Bju rwm nwm inq jw qy kwju srY ]
This
mind does not follow my advice one tiny bit. I am so tired of giving it
instructions - it will not refrain from its evil-mindedness. It has gone insane with the
intoxication of Maya; it does not chant the Creator's Praise. Practicing
deception, it tries to cheat the world, and so it fills its belly. Like a dog's
tail, it cannot be straightened; it will not listen to what I tell it. Says
Nanak, enumerate forever the Name of the One, and all your affairs shall be
adjusted.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p.536.
Like
a dog's tail, which will never straighten out, the mind will not change, no
matter how many things are tried.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p.633.
Hurdle to achieve goals of life
It
is well established by Western scientists, that unavailability of instruments
beyond unaided human vision, is a hurdle towards examining our outside world such
as the moon, planets and stars. Western scientists invest a great deal of
resources in devising other physical tools to investigate their world.
Similarly and in the same sense, Guru Teg Bahadure, and other authors of the
Guru Granth refined many spiritual techniques for stabilizing, and refining the
human mental processes. They used these processes in new ways to observe the
creation, and its connection to the creator or Infinite Wisdom (Vaheguru); This
Wisdom is considered responsible for the creation and maintenance of our
universe. In the Western history of
science, it may be considered similar to Galileo’s efforts of improving, and
perfecting the telescope for observing the heavens.
Guru
Teg Bahadure brought to our attention a fundamental damage that our memes and
their storehouse, mann causes to our
life goals. As the mann is
essentially under the control of genes and the memes, genetic instructions and
then mimetic lessons provide rather generic wisdom. They apply only to physical
and environmental situations. They prompt us to act in ways that generally
tended to be useful in the past for similar situations. For example, human
beings might be genetically equipped to avoid a snake or other dangerous
animal, but incapable of avoiding unscrupulous salesmen, clerics, saints, and
many materialistic role models, who may be more poisonous for our consciousness
and spiritual ambitions. Thus, they are miss-matched to our needs of
enlightenment.
These
mismatches are the cause for many of the mental, as well as socio-political
tribulations of today. Guru Granth writings alerted in favor of many human
tendencies that should be nourished, to weaken the animalistic tendencies. They
include seeking of divine guidance, divine grace, spiritual wisdom and mindfulness
of divinity.
Guru
Teg Bahadur puts it in this way.
The
human beings do not let in their minds the knowledge of the creator and
sustainer. Day and night, they remain engrossed in illusionary input. Then how
can they sing glories of the Infinite Wisdom? Rather, they hand-cuff themselves
to illusionary relationships with children, friends, and other worldly
possessions. Like the deer's delusion, this world is transit; and yet, every
one beholds it and chases after it. The real source of pleasure and liberation
is the master of creation. Only the dim-witted forget this. Says Nanak, among
millions, there is scarcely anyone who attains the divine meditation.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 219.
Guru
Teg Bahadure warns that our precious opportunity in life will pass away without
fullfilling our desires to reach our goals. Instead we will succumb to the god
of death.
That
of the the mind remains in the mind. He does not meditate on the ONE, nor does
he perform service at sacred shrines, and so death seizes him by the hair at
the appointed hour.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p.631.
In
thought, word and deed, I have not sung the Divine's Praises; this thought
worries my mind.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 685.
The
mind is absorbed in Maya - it cannot escape it, my friend. Nanak, it is like a
picture painted on the wall - it cannot leave it. ||37||
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1428.
The
Yogis have tried everything and failed; the virtuous have grown weary of
singing God's Glories. O servant Nanak, when the Sustainer becomes merciful,
then every effort is successful. ||2||4||
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 219.
Conclusions
The
Sikh theology describes sophisticated and elaborate doctrines on the origin,
and nature of mann (mind), and its interaction with the
faculty of
higher consciousness or surt. The mind in term of mann, and consciousness in term of surt has been the primary subjects of
introspective exploration since the birth of the Sikh tradition. Further, Sikh doctrines formulated active role of
these faculties in communicating with divine, the higher wisdom.
It
is because of those reasons, that our gurus wrote a great deal towards defining mann and educating their followers about
it. They claimed it as their effort towards the goal of promoting appropriate human
evolution for humans to becoming gods.
The
objective of this paper was to outline some of the views of Sikh theology on
the origin, development and more importantly, the purpose of the faculty of mann. A treatment of the related mental faculty, surt, has been
presented in elsewhere (H. Lal, 2003; H. Lal, 2005).
The
ninth Guru, Teg Bahadure, made a major contribution in articulating the
theology of mann. He examined
traditional techniques for probing the mind first-hand. In doing so, he
outlined many endeavors to train the attention of the mind so that it could be
diverted towards spirituality and to experience divinity that we describe as naam simran. Through naam simran we
may obtain the quiescence of mann and
achieve bliss of ultimate salvation.
The
restless mind wanders in the ten directions - it needs to be pacified and
restrained. Says Nanak, whoever knows this technique is judged to be liberated.
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 684.
Just
as science found unaided human vision to be an inadequate instrument for
examining the moon, planets, and stars, Saint Kabir, a contributor to the Guru
Granth, regarded the undisciplined mind as a blind mind, and an unreliable
instrument for nurturing the consciousness and ultimate spirituality. If
someone tries to do so, one is merely selling knowledge for money and one is
wasting the precious lifetime by doing so.
You are blind in
your mind, and do not understand your own self; how can you make others
understand, O brother? For the sake of material gains, you are selling false
knowledge; your life is totally wasted.
Bhagat
Kabir, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 1103.
In
this manuscript, an
effort was made to construct a science of the mann in a manner that the
Gurbani concepts are described in the new terminology of biological and
behavioral sciences. Mann is defined
in terms of memes and their menome. The
hold over mann is described as
mimetic engineering. This mimetic engineering is analogous to the discipline of
genetic engineering of mine. It leads us to define mann in the contemporary idiom, and helps us connect to “surt”
or consciousness. The conversion of mann,
assists us to transform the human body and its actions into the spiritual
concepts. Guru Granth illustrates this relationship with a metaphor very common
in Indian folk lore.
Make
your mind the bull, and surt the road to travel. Then, prepare packs full of spiritual wisdom to load them on the bull.
Prepare this way to take your life
journey.
.
Bhagat
Kabir, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 1123.
Guru
Amar Das wrote about the relationship between mann, and the spiritual tendencies of the seekers in the following
metaphor.
The mind is the elephant, the Guru is the
elephant-driver, and the Guru given knowledge is the whip. Wherever the Guru
drives the mind, it goes. Says Nanak, without the whip, the elephant wanders
into the wilderness, again and again.
Guru
Amar Dass, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 516.
Our
gurus refined faith techniques for stabilizing the mental attention, and
educating and refining mann, to use
new ways to insure bliss and peace, much as Galileo improved and utilized the
telescope for observing the heavens.
Guru Granth’s paradigm and
the science behind it, allows us to manipulate complex patterns of replicating
memes into spirituality that have consistent and predictable manifestations in
the form of precisely altered cultural phenotypes. This paradigm takes the
control of human behavior away from the materialistic cultures, and hands them
over to the inner faculties of human consciousness, which is a pure bliss.
There is no pain in that state. Guru Teg Bahadure illustrates this paradigm in
the following manner:
Holy
Saadhus: forsake the pride of your mind. Sexual desire, anger and the company
of evil people - run away from them, day and night. ||1||Pause to contemplate||
One who knows that pain and pleasure are both the same, and honor and dishonor
as well, who remains detached from joy and sorrow, realizes the true essence in
the world. ||1|| Renounce both praise and blame; seek instead the state of
Nirvaanaa. Says respectful Nanak, this is such a difficult game; only a few
Guru Oriented Gurmukhs understand it!
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 219.
O mother, I have gathered the wealth of the
Craetor's Name. My mind has stopped its wanderings, and now, it has come to
rest. ||1||Pause to contemplate|| Attachment to Maya has run away from my body,
and immaculate spiritual wisdom has welled up within me. Greed and attachment
cannot even touch me; I have grasped hold of devotional worship of the Divine.
||1|| The cynicism of countless lifetimes has been eradicated, since I obtained
the jewel of the Naam, the Name of the Divine. My mind was rid of all its
desires, and I was absorbed in the peace of my own inner being. ||2|| That
person, unto whom the Merciful ONE shows compassion, sings the Glorious Praises
of the Craetor of the Universe. Says Nanak, this wealth is gathered only by the
Gurmukh. ||3||3||
Guru
Teg Bahadure, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, p. 219.
One
may quote the following verse of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, to
conclude this essay on mann. Guru
Nanak advocated harnessing of mann to
be the highest spiritual path. Joining this path, in his words, ensures a
triumph over the materialistic world.
Let
the highest and best path be the path suitable for all people. Conquer your
mind to conquer the world.
Guru
Nanak, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, P 6.
References
Lal,
(Bhai) Harbans. Forehead: A
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in Sikhism and Comparative Religion, 14 (2), 4-23, 1995.
Lal,
H., Inmates of Sensory Illusions, From
Both sides of the Ocean, 32 (March-April), 14-17, 1996.
Lal,
(Bhai) Harbans. Guru Granth on Still-less-ness of Mind, Studies in Sikhism and Comparative Religion, 20: (1), 52-65, 2001.
Lal,
Harbans. Surat: Higher Consciousness
of Divine Engagement, J. of Understanding
Sikhism, 5: (1), 29-35, 2003.
Lal,
(Bhai) Harbans. Surat: Higher
Consciousness of Divine Engagement,
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Religion, 24 (1): 45-70, 2005.
[1]
Developed from Guru Teg Bahadur Lecture Presentd by the author at the Punjabi
University, Patiala, Noember 2002. An earlier version was published in J.
Studies in Sikhism and Comparative Religion, Vol. 26, 46-70, 2007. For comment
write to the author at: japji08@yahoo.com
Copyright©2008 Harbans Lal. About the author
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