Maunam

 Austerity of the mind is higher than the austerity of body and speech, for if we learn to master the mind, the body and speech automatically get mastered, while the reverse is not necessarily true. Factually, the state of the mind determines the state of an individual’s consciousness. Shree Krishna had stated in verse 6.5, “Elevate yourself through the power of your mind and not degrade yourself, for the mind can be the friend and also the enemy of the self.”

The mind may be likened to a garden, which can either be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild. Gardeners cultivate their plot, growing fruits, flowers, and vegetables in it. At the same time, they also ensure that it remains free from weeds. Similarly, we must cultivate our own mind with rich and noble thoughts, while weeding out the negative and debilitating thoughts. If we allow resentful, hateful, blaming, unforgiving, critical, and condemning thoughts to reside in our mind, they will have a debilitating effect on our personality. We can never get a fair amount of constructive action out of the mind until we have learned to control it and keep it from becoming stimulated by anger, hatred, dislike, etc. These are the weeds that choke out the manifestation of divine grace within our hearts.

People imagine that their thoughts are secret and have no external consequences because they dwell within the mind, away from the sight of others. They do not realize that thoughts not only forge their inner character but also their external personality. That is why we look upon someone and say, “He seems like a very simple and trustworthy person.” For another person, we say, “She seems to be very cunning and deceitful. Stay away from her.” In each case, it was the thoughts people harbored that sculpted their appearance. Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “There is full confession in the glances of our eyes, in our smiles, in salutations, in the grasp of the hands. Our sin bedaubs us, mars all the good impressions. Men do not know why they do not trust us. The vice glasses the eyes, demeans the cheek, pinches the nose, and writes, ‘O fool, fool!’ on the forehead of a king.” Another powerful saying linking thoughts to character states:

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

It is important to realize that we harm ourselves with every negative thought that we harbor in our mind. At the same time, we uplift ourselves with every positive thought that we dwell upon. Henry Van Dyke expressed this very vividly, in his poem “Thoughts are things.”

I hold it true that thoughts are things;

They’re endowed with bodies and breath and wings

That which we call our secret thought

Speeds forth to earth’s remotest spot,

Leaving its blessings or its woes,

Like tracks behind as it goes.

We build our future, thought by thought.

For good or ill, yet know it not,

Choose, then, thy destiny and wait,

For love brings love, and hate brings hate.

Each thought we dwell upon has consequences, and thought-by-thought, we forge our destiny. For this reason, to veer the mind from negative emotions and make it dwell upon the positive sentiments is considered austerity of the mind.

Maunam

Maunam is the attribute of a Muni. But the ordinary meaning of this word is silence. Our Dharma Sastras have prescribed the observance of maunam (मौनम्) on various occasions. We are asked to observe maunam when taking food. In this context, maunam means only non-speaking (silence). Controlling the urge to speak is one among the many steps leading us to our spiritual goal. Those in charge of the administration of education in this State are having under consideration the question of commencing the day’s work in schools with prayer. As the students are drawn from different denominations, one difficulty confronting the authorities is to find a prayer acceptable to all denominations. Besides that in the higher rungs of the administrative hierarchy, there are some who have no faith in God, and to whom prayer is something which goes against their conscience. So, it has become difficult to take any decision in the matter. As the propaganda of certain parties is beginning to poison young minds, the Government is anxious to do something to retrieve the situation. So, it appears to have hit upon a compromise, and there is a proposal to assemble all the children and make them observe silent prayer for two or three minutes before the commencement of the day’s work. Maunam is an important method of worshipping God. Maunam in this context does not mean merely silence. It is also the process of keeping the mind free of all thoughts. It implies that we should keep all our senses under perfect control, so that during the period of silence, the limbs may not move even involuntarily. Such a maunam will enable the divine spark within every one of us to become active in its progress towards the realization of the Paramaatma. The waves of thoughts that continuously rise and fall in our minds keep the all-pervading Atma hidden from us. Once the flow of thoughts is checked, the Atma begins to function. This kind of maunam is also an attribute of a muni. That is why we have been enjoined not to think for a while every day – tooshneem kinchit achintayan तूष्णीम् किञ्चिन्तयन्.Therefore, the decision of the Government in favor of observing silent prayer, though a compromise, is really a step in the right direction and a blessing in disguise. This practice of maunam need not be confined to students alone. All of us are students all our life. If we do not make a conscious effort to practice maunam, to keep all thoughts away, we will regret later for having lived a purposeless life. From “no thought”, we can develop the practice of “God thought”, thinking of God. We can repeat the name of God and also concentrate our mind on the Divine Mother, or Lakshmi Narayana, or Uma-Maheswara. A person who has fallen into bad company has to seek the help of a policeman to free himself from that association. Once he is assured that his former evil associates will no longer trouble him, he can discontinue the police protection. Similarly, we seek the grace of one or the other manifestation of the Supreme Being to purge our hearts of all impurities, so that the Atma within us can easily realize the Formless and All-pervading God. Good association leads to “no association”, which in its turn leads to realization of the Ultimate Truth or the Supreme Bliss. Thereafter the Atma is freed from further births. That is the import of the following Bhaja Govindam verse: सत्सङ्गत्वे निस्सङ्गत्वम् निस्सङ्गत्वे निर्मोहत्वम् । निर्मोहत्वे निश्चलत्वम् निश्चलत्वे जीवन्मुक्ति: ॥ Sat-sangatve nissangatvam, nissangatve nirmohatvam; Nirmohatve nischala tattvam, nischala tattve jeevan muktih. When we associate ourselves with the Sat, the identification of the “I” with this human frame will cease, and the “I” in each of us will get identified ultimately with the Brahmam. The “I” feeling will persist only so long as we regard ourselves as something separate from “He”; it will get itself obliterated with the dawn of the consciousness of the Oneness of God.