Edited by: Mohan Rajagopal
A human being has five avenues using which they interact with the external world. These are the five senses of sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch. All manner of distractions become possible due to these five senses. Think about it: a tasty dish, nice perfume, pleasing music, and comfortable clothing are nothing without the senses. It is these senses which supply the mind with sensory input based on which we make value judgements about the world around us. This is why I believe that instead of isolating individual distractions, we should investigate their underlying cause, that is, the five senses.
If you observe closely, the will to act using the senses (I want to pick up that pen from the table) and the interpretation of all sensory information (the room smells of roses) are all present in the mind. This is why, when we are unconscious or asleep, despite sensory exposure to the outside world, we feel nothing. A painkiller or similar medication also has the same effect, wherein our senses feel pain but fail to communicate the same to the mind, resulting in no pain. One can therefore conclude that the senses are under the control of their master, our mind. If so, how come most of us complain that we are distracted? This is possible only in the event that we lack control over our minds.
So far, we have managed to narrow down the root cause of distraction as being a lack of control over our minds. This lack of control is what gives rise to five classes of distractions, with each of our five senses being responsible for them. There is still the matter of answering the second query, which is, “How do you deal with them?”. This question, believe it or not, is central to all spiritual traditions all over the world. In the remainder of this article, I can only attempt to briefly underline what the answer is, in my particular case. I believe that though the means may be different, the ends are always the same in this matter. So, each of us should ideally find our own means to control the mind.
The most simple method to control the mind is practice. Those familiar with fitness and sports would agree that practice does two things: (i) imparts capability and (ii) perfects capability. There is tremendous power in repetition. Focusing the mind is no different. At first, one will fail many times. The most challenging is the constant internal dialogue that the mind will initiate to prevent us from regaining control. This is the common pessimism and indiscipline we are all familiar with. Yet, those who persist do eventually prevail and they swear by the tried and tested method of practice. Little by little, they try to wrest control of the mind, primarily by exercising the intellect to override the mind. For example, it is hot outside and the mind is craving ice cream. At this stage, instead of giving in to the mind, one simply denies the mind. If done enough times, the mind will tire and never crave anything, to begin with.
The second method, which should be followed after considerable progress has been made in the method of practice, is that of meaningful engagement. The mind is not meant to remain idle. It seeks out something or the other to occupy itself. The only instances where it can remain idle are in deep slumber or deep meditation. For most of us, those two states are only accessible for a portion of our day. Therefore, even a controlled mind needs to be engaged somewhere or the other. Otherwise, it risks falling back into old habits of being scattered and distracted.
This engagement, in my case, is in the remembrance and worship of my chosen deity, Sri Krishna. This means that whenever I sense that my mind is idle and liable to be distracted, I engage it in thinking of, taking the name of or listening to praises of Sri Krishna, as the case may be. In doing so, not only is my mind calmed and better focused, but it also becomes purified. You see, thoughts arrive in our mind from the depths of our subconscious, which is affected in turn by our environment, the company we keep, and our diet, among a host of other factors.
Thus, the tendency to be distracted is a result of a lack of coherence and goal orientation in our subconscious. Addictions, too, are present in the subconscious and are hard to get rid of for the simple reason that they are not accessible to us directly. Only indirectly and after a long time can one get rid of an addiction. The use of meaningful engagement which may or may not be religious(a scientist can think of his next big discovery all the time, instead of Sri Krishna) is just an indirect way to discipline our subconscious. It should go without saying that physical discipline goes hand in hand with mental. External activities like organising one’s bookshelf or ironing one’s clothes may appear mundane, but if done with the right attitude, can fundamentally change one as a person.
The five distractions and the solution to dealing with them, as underlined here, are in fact universal. All of humanity struggles with the same five manners of distractions. Thus, it is the need of the hour to educate ourselves to overcome this most basic handicap, common to all of us. The mind is an extremely powerful force. It can tilt the balance between a sage and a sinner. We must guard it and direct it in such a way that it benefits all of humanity. Controlling the mind and in turn, the senses is a crucial first step in this direction.