WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MIND AND THE BRAIN?

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Many people do not know the difference between the mind and the brain. Mind is concerned with emotions. It will tell us what it likes and what it does not like about each matter. The brain will tell us what is good and what is bad in each matter.

For example, let us imagine that you go to a car showroom to buy a car. You see that 50 different models are displayed there. As we see all the 50 cars from a distance, our mind will focus on just one or two cars out of the 50 cars. Our mind will instantly inform us which of these cars are liked by it and which of these are not liked by it. Our mind will not bother about the finer technical details such as how many persons can travel in this car, whether we can afford it, does it run on petrol or diesel, etc. It will just convey to us that it likes this car and it does not like that car.

But our brain will gather a lot of information and make a lot of analysis. It will prompt us to go to the car showroom’s office and ask for details such as which car costs how much, which car can be bought on loan, will this car suit all the persons in our house, will it suit for our office use, whether it can be parked in our garage, etc. The brain will get clarifications to all such questions and it will come to a conclusion after two or three days or one week. Then finally the brain will tell us that a particular car out of the 50 cars is the best one that we can buy.

We may observe here that there will be no connection between the car liked by our mind and the car chosen as the best by our brain. In the same way, in every matter our mind may take a different decision and our brain may take a different decision.

If we go and sit in a hotel, our mind wants to eat some heavy food. But our brain tells us that we will get stomach pain if we eat heavy food and it advises us to eat some other food.

Thus, every second in our life and at every place our mind and brain take different stands and we struggle in between these two. The reason for all the problems faced by all the people in the world is the confusion regarding whether to do what is liked by the mind or to do what is prescribed as good by the brain. This confusion is the biggest enemy to the mental peace. If we understand this we will always have mental peace.

When the brain and the mind operate separately we get confusion. When the brain and the mind function together we get wisdom. Who is a wise man? People whose brain and mind take the same decision are called wise men. Wise men never have such confusions.

You may observe that children in some families play well and enjoy themselves. They are happy by doing things desired by their mind. These children are called mischievous children. They may even break many things in the house as a part of their play. They will do a thing only if they want to do it. If they do not like to do it, even if it is a very good thing they will refuse to do it.

A child which lives like this from a very small age only as per its mind’s desire will not use much of its intelligence. Others will be troubled a lot by the behaviour of this child. At the same time, this child will always be happy to look at. This is because it will always be smiling and enjoying its time. In this way, some children are brought up as they wish. These children will do only what is liked by their mind. But they will never use their brain and think what is good and what is bad.

A child which grows in this way may, at some point in time, get struck up in life, not able to move further, not use its brain and it may get hurt in life when it grows up. At that time, that child, whatever may be its age, will get hurt in life, get dejected with life and it will decide not to live as wished by the mind anymore and to use its brain from then on.

After taking this decision, this child will start living using its brain, with a different perspective of life. But now it will not do what its mind likes. If we see these children, as elders we will observe that they are well off in life, do very good professional work and they would have achieved name, fame, money, etc. But they will not be happy and peaceful because they will not be doing what their mind desires. All the people will praise them as very intelligent but at the same time blame them that they are not capable of enjoying life.

The second type of children will be intelligent right from birth. In some houses, the children will never do any mischief and always obey what the elders say. They will never break anything. They will sincerely go to the school and get good marks. They will listen to all the elders and will act intelligently. The parents will proudly say that their children are smart and obedient.

But these children will never do anything desired by their mind and keep on living for several years with the tag of being intelligent. At some point in their life, they will think that only because they were intelligent they never got to enjoy the life and will decide to stop being intelligent and to start living to their heart’s content from then onwards.

At some point in time, these children change their nature, leave their intelligence and start living as per their mind’s liking. All the people will praise these people saying that they are very nice people, they are helpful to others and they never create problem to anyone. But at the same time they will blame these people saying that they do not know how to live smartly.

Thus, we can classify the people in this world into two categories. The first category people know how to survive and derive benefit for themselves but do not have selfconscience. The second category people are nice to everybody but do not know how to survive. You can now understand which of these two categories you belong to.

All the people in the world can be divided into three categories:

(1) Those who live as their mind desires and do not bother about their brain.
(2) Those who live based on their brain and behave without self – conscience.
(3) Those that have self-conscience and also use their intelligence.

Just think which of these categories you belong to. The third category people are wise men. Most of us fall in one of the first two categories. Irrespective of whether you belong to the first or second category, you will not have peace, satisfaction and joy in your life. But, you will always have plenty of worry, anger, fear, tension, etc. The reason for this is the fight between the mind and the brain.

What could be the reason for a person’s mental confusion? One is that we may worry, “I have taken wrong action in that matter. I did not act properly. I could have done that way, I could have done this way. Oh, no! I made a mistake!” Otherwise, we will get angry on others and blame them for the wrong decisions that we have taken or we may be afraid of many people. Thus, we may get fear about the things that are going to happen from new onwards. The reason for this is the wrong decisions that we took.

If all the decisions that we have taken happen to be correct then we will be happy, joyful and peaceful, won’t we? So, only when we live with the feeling that all the decisions that we have taken are right, we can live calmly, peacefully and happily from this moment onwards without worrying about the past life and without fearing about the future life.

Therefore, from now on, whenever we take a decision, instead of taking all the decisions as per our mind’s desire, instead of taking all the decisions only as per the brain’s desire seeing which is good and profitable, we should come out of these two approaches and think and decide with wisdom whether on this day under these circumstances we should go as per our selfconscience and go as per what our mind says or we should act with intelligence and take one of these two and go as per that alternative.

For example, when we take a particular decision, if we want to take an intelligent decision, we should pacify and convince our mind using our brain and convert it into a decision liked by our mind. In case a decision is to be taken as per the conscience, we have to pacify the brain using the mind and convince it that this is a good decision.

Thus, for every decision that we take in our life, if we reconcile the mind and the brain and we keep them on the same line of thought, then we will never worry about our past life. We will also not fear about our future life. Then, we can live a peaceful and satisfied life. This is called wise brain.

Whenever a decision is to be taken, many people will have confusion about how to decide. We can live a peaceful life if all the decisions that we take are liked by our mind, as far as possible. At the same time, all the people in the world cannot live as they like, as liked by their mind. That will lead to a wrong life.

There is just one condition for living as per the mind’s desire. Our decision should not affect any other person’s mind or body. If we keep this in mind and decide, that decision will always be a correct decision. So, whenever we have a confusion about a decision, we should come out of the two namely the decision liked by the mind and the decision liked by the brain, analyze and see which of these two decisions is good, which is liked by us and in addition which will not affect any others and then take a decision. Then, that decision will be the right decision.

But, while taking a decision, many of us just think about which decision will give us more benefit and which will be favourable to us. No one is concerned about whether our decision will affect others’ mind and body. If we take such decisions that affect others in a detrimental manner and if they curse us, that curse will be affecting us and our life. Life is nothing but our thoughts. If many people think that we should live well, that thought will make us live well. If many of the people think that we should not live well, then our life will not be good.

Many persons in public life pursue many wrong means by doing many crimes and spoiling the lives of many people. Still they are living well for so many years. The only reason for this is that there are a lot of people in the country earning money because of them. More than those affected by them adversely, those who are well off due to them are blessing them that they should continue to live well because if something happens to them, these people’s lives will be affected.

The reason why many people go up fast and then suddenly have a steep fall is the fact that their progress is made by affecting the minds and bodies of many others. Therefore, each and every decision that we take in our business, profession, family and all the other places, should be liked by our mind as far as possible, should be good for us and also should not adversely affect the minds and bodies of others. If we decide in this way and live our life, our progress may be slow but we will never fall down. As time passes, our progress will be faster and our body, mind, brain, financial status, etc. all will flourish.

Some God men have established Ashrams in 120 countries, give training to several millions of people, manage several millions of rupees and tackle all sorts of threats and problems. But they always peacefully and calmly sit in front of mike in some meeting or other and keep on talking about some subject. The secret behind this is that they make all their decisions based on their wise brain.

Even if we have a small company and employ 10 people, we split our hair when the company’s affairs are in problems. When it is so, how is it possible that some Gurus who have Ashrams in several countries, several bank accounts, cases and so many problems can remain blissful, joyful, peaceful and calm? This is because they spend only a few seconds or at the maximum one minute for taking each decision.

Even after learning about how to take correct decisions in big issues we may not be able to take decisions in some issues after thinking over for several years. These people will take decisions in a split second even in such issues and they will remain idle for the remaining time. But many of us struggle for several years breaking our head to manage our affairs, not able to take decisions even for some small issues. Thus, if our mind keeps on thinking about the same issue and is in confusion, we do not get peace and calmness.

S o , f ro m n o w o nwa rd s , i f we understand how to take decisions using our wise brain (Gnana Buddhi), then we can also remain idle. If we remain idle, we can also become wise men. Initially, this will be slightly difficult. But, if we understand this principle and use it, within three to six months from now or at least within a year we can become wise men.

To start with, practice by writing down the small decisions that you take on a piece of paper. What is the decision liked by our mind? What is the decision liked by our brain? What are the likely effects of each of these two decisions? Who all will be affected by these decisions? What are the benefits and drawbacks of these decisions?

Which is the one that we like? Which is the one that we do not like? Write all these on a paper, keep that paper on hand, think and select the correct decision. If we practice in this way, slowly we will be able to take such decisions just by analyzing it in our mind.

Vethathiri Maharishi has asked all the people to take the following resolution every day: “I will not do any harm to anyone’s mind and body during my life time. I will help all those who suffer in all the ways that I can.” All the followers of Vethathiri Maharishi say this resolution three times daily. Let us all take this resolution daily three times.

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