The Gita and the mind

How to control the mind: the Bhagavad Gita, explained by a psychiatrist

Doctor chose psychiatry because the mind fascinated him. Many of his classmates went into better paid fields. Years later he found that the Gita “revolves so much around the mind”. In this podcast he reads the Gita as a psychiatrist. Here is what he teaches about the mind, from three episodes.

Where the mind sits

He starts with the Gita’s picture of a person. At the bottom is the body, with five senses that take in the world and five organs that act on it. Above the body is the mind. Above the mind is the intellect. Above all of them is the Atman, the true self.

Why is the mind above the body? He gives two reasons. First, its pleasure is greater. A mother saves the last piece of her favourite dessert all day. Her child asks for it, and she gives it away. Her tongue misses out, yet she is happier watching her child eat it. Second, the body can be locked up but the mind cannot. A man in a jail cell can still relive a day on the beach. The mind can only go where it has been, though. To picture a place you have never seen, you need the intellect.

What the mind wants

He compares the mind to the ocean. The surface has ripples and waves, but at its deepest point the ocean goes down almost seven miles. The mind is that deep, and much of it is old habit. It wants three things, in order: to stay alive, to avoid pain, and then to find pleasure for the senses. It also carries fears, phobias, obsessions and sadness, and it is stubborn.

The mind also controls the body faster than we think. One frightening thought can take a heart from 70 beats a minute to 100. As a young doctor he hypnotised a man who was dying of asthma in intensive care, and under hypnosis the man’s breathing returned to normal. Illnesses the mind worsens are called psychosomatic. As he says, that “doesn’t mean that they’re in your mind”, only that the mind can influence them.

Why the mind is so restless

In Chapter 6 Arjuna asks the question we all ask. Verse 34: the mind is restless, turbulent, strong and obstinate, “as difficult to control as the wind”. The Sanskrit words he uses for it are chanchala and asthira. It jumps like a monkey from branch to branch, and even when you hold it in one place it keeps swaying from side to side.

Modern life feeds this. He remembers when a news channel showed one presenter on a plain screen. Now there are tickers, prices and headlines all at once. His advice is to slow down: “focus your mind on one thing and one thing alone”. Multitasking only lowers the quality of the work.

How to control the mind, the Gita’s way

In verse 35 Krishna agrees that the mind is restless and hard to control. Then he says it can be controlled, with practice and dispassion, abhyasa and vairagya.

Abhyasa does not only mean studying textbooks. It means a routine, something you keep doing over and over again.

Vairagya, letting go, comes through knowledge, good company and prayer, not through willpower. He warns against what he calls funeral renunciation. After a loved one dies, people lose interest in films and food for a while, and then the old desires come straight back. Forcing yourself is the same: it only suppresses the desire.

Practice works like the gym. Nobody lifts 100 pounds in the first week. You start with 5 or 10 and build up. At first you cannot keep your mind still for a fraction of a second. With time you may reach a minute or two.

Lift yourself by yourself

Chapter 6, verse 5 puts the responsibility with us: “Lift yourself by yourself. Don’t lower yourself. His self is his friend. His self is his enemy.” He compares it to the English saying about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. The same mind that holds us down is the one we use to rise.

These pages share teachings from the Gita, not medical advice. If your mind or your health is troubling you, please speak to a doctor.