Mind and its function

Children, we always use expressions like, ‘I had a thought in my mind’, 'I feel like this in my mind’, 'Patriotic thoughts always come to my mind’ etc. When we refer to mind, we sometimes wonder, what exactly do we mean by 'mind' ? What is its form and how does it work ? Let us know more about the mind and its function.

The mind is divided into two parts. One is 'external mind' (conscious) and one is 'internal mind' (sub-conscious). The internal mind is 9 times larger than the external mind. Functions of both the minds are different. Thinking with awareness is the function of the external mind. For example, laughing on hearing a joke, watering of the mouth after seeing ice cream etc., such thoughts come to the external mind.

Function of the internal mind

Friends, as mentioned earlier, the internal mind is 9 times bigger than the external mind. From this, we can imagine how important its role must be. Internal mind plays a major role in the development of our personal traits. Good or bad sanskars are imprinted on the minds of children knowingly or unknowingly through parents, relatives, neighbours, teachers and society. For example, parents teach their children to ‘Always speak the truth’ however, when they receive a phone call which they do not wish to answer they tell the child, ‘Tell him, I am not at home'. In such a situation a sanskar is imprinted unknowingly on the child's mind that, ‘To avoid somebody we can tell a lie’. Here the father does not realise that he is teaching his child to tell lies.

Sanskar kendra (Centre of impressions) of the mind

Such sanskars, which are imprinted unknowingly, create sanskar kendras (centre of impressions) in the internal mind. Bigger the sanskar kendra, stronger is the effect of that sanskar on the child’s mind. Thus, good or bad sanskars get imprinted on the internal minds of children. The thought that comes to the mind is being expressed through their behaviour or talk. The impression of sanskars that are created knowingly get imprinted on the external mind initially and later after a period of time, it gets imprinted directly on the internal mind.

Friends, let us clean our internal mind by increasing our virtues. Let us introspect and make a list of virtues and defects present in our internal mind.