We need to be cautious of Arishadvarga, the six internal enemies that pollute the mind and every one of us is forced to deal with them. As already mentioned, if we control the first one which is Kama, the “Desire”, we could control the rest. Developing simplicity, humility, forgiveness, love, compassion, reducing selfishness and Ego do help in controlling the never-ending demands of the desires.
Let us say for some reason I am possessed by a strong desire to own and wear an exorbitantly expensive dress which I happened to see. I am convinced that I would be extremely happy and delighted if I could get that dress. Let us say now that exactly the same expensive dress is made available to me on one condition that I can wear that dress inside a closed room in my home with windows and doors closed and no one including the family members should get to see me. I can wear the dress any number of times and I am allowed to look at myself in the mirror and admire, but no one should be able to see me. Would I be happy wearing that dress and honoring the condition?
I cannot respect the condition because the dress is considered useless if nobody gets to see me wearing it. The rampaging desires of the mind immediately drop once the condition was put. That’s because the mind with its agitating desires was conspiring to possess the dress, not because of true love for it but because by wearing it I wanted others to appreciate how stunning I look, wanted jaws to drop hearing the price and pamper my Ego by showing off my vanity.
By examining closely our own desires of the mind, the trickery of the mind gets exposed and the mind becomes very uncomfortable because it is not used to and does not like being very closely watched or observed. Actually, it is really not trickery of the mind but it is trickery of the wretched Ego. It is because of the Ego, the mind behaves that way and generates imaginary, fancy, self-centered thoughts.
The very process of observing the thoughts renders the thoughts powerless, the intensity of the desires weakens and the calm and serene silence is experienced.
Ramana Maharshi emphasizes that enjoying the silent mind is our true nature which is our “being”. He says the constant practice of this technique would make our mind quiet, our false ego would take flight, the desires would recede and the feelings of inadequacy would subside.
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