Chapter 1 - Self-control

“Self is the lord of Self, who else could be the lord?”
“One’s own Self conquered is better than all other people; not even a god could change into defeat the victory of a man who has vanquished himself and always lives under restraint.”—Dhammapada.

Every religion can be divided into two parts, one of which may be called the non-essential and the other the essential. Doctrines, dogmas, rituals, ceremonies, and mythologies of all the organized religious creeds come under the head of the non-essential. It is not meant by this that they are useless; on the contrary, the very fact of their existence proves that they are helpful and necessary at certain stages of progress. What I mean is, that it cannot be said that they are absolutely necessary for making one live a purely spiritual life. A man or a woman may be highly spiritual without performing any of the rituals and ceremonies ordained, either by the scriptures of the world, or by any religious hierarchy. A man or a woman may be truly religious without believing in any creed, doctrine, dogma, or mythology. Those who think that these non-essentials are indispensable for attaining to the ultimate goal of religion, have not yet grasped the fundamental principles that underlie all religions; they mistake the non-essential for the essential; they cannot discriminate the one from the other; they lack the insight of spiritual illumination. Those who understand the essentials of religion and strictly follow them in their every-day life do not disturb themselves about the non-essentials; these simple and sincere souls alone reach the goal of religion by the shortest way possible.

The essentials of religion are principally two: Self-knowledge and Self-control. Self-knowledge means knowledge of the higher Self, the divine nature of man; and self-control is the restraint of the lower self or selfish nature. True knowledge of the divine Self comes when the lower self is subdued. In ancient times, Greek philosophers understood these two as the essentials of religion, therefore over the temple entrance at Delphi the phrase “Know Thyself” was so conspicuously engraven. Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher, interpreted this motto by saying: “It behooves all men to know themselves and to exercise self-control.”

In India, the ancient Seers of Truth understood the essential part of religion so well that they tried their best to keep it separate from the non-essential part of the popular religion of the masses. The result of such attempts was the discovery of the system of Yoga. The system of Yoga deals entirely with the essentials of religion; it does not teach any dogma, creed, ritual, ceremony, or mythology. Its main object is to teach mankind the different methods of attaining the knowledge of the true Self, and the practice of self-control. A true Yogi is one who has perfect control over himself, and who has acquired self-knowledge. The science of Yoga explains what self-control is, how it can be acquired, and what is the nature of self-knowledge. A Yogi therefore reaches the ultimate goal of religion and spiritual perfection without wasting his energy in the practice of non-essentials.

The non-essentials of religion are like a huge heap of husks, under which lies hidden the kernel of the essential truth; wherever there is too much of non-essentials, there prevail religious corruption, superstition, and false theology, the main object of which is to convince the ignorant masses that the heap of non-essential dogmas, doctrines, ceremonies, and rituals must be observed by all who wish to be religious. But the science of Yoga, being free from dogmas, ceremonies, and rituals, suffers neither from corruption, nor from superstition, nor does it need any theology. It is pure and simple. It welcomes to its fold all sincere and earnest souls who are searching for higher truth and spiritual life, and seeks tp make them spiritual by giving the essentials of religion as their highest ideal. It teaches them the method by which self-control and knowledge of the supreme self can be acquired.

Self-control means the control of the lower self, or the animal nature of man, by developing the higher powers that are latent in the individual soul. Having ascended the grades of evolution from the lower animals, man lives at first on the animal plane; then as he rises higher and higher, the latent powers of the soul gradually begin to manifest and overcome his animal tendencies.

Self-control is not manifested in the character of any man who ignorantly obeys the dictates of the senses, and blindly serves the internal masters of passion, anger, greed, self-delusion, pride, and egotism. Those who can control themselves, or check the mad rush of the mind toward sense objects, and who cease to obey those animal impulses which are standing like fierce enemies in the path of spiritual progress, enjoy undisturbed peace as long as they live, thus reaching the highest goal of freedom; but those who are constantly guided by sudden waves of passion, anger, pride, jealousy, and hatred, are always disturbed in their minds; they are restless and unhappy. How can persons who are slaves of their senses expect happiness? Happiness comes in the state of perfect freedom, and not in slavery; that freedom again can be acquired only through the practice of self-control; therefore those who desire to enjoy unbounded happiness and peace of mind on this earth should struggle for freedom by learning to practise self-control.

The attainment of self-control is easy for those who have learned to study their own minds, and who, after discovering their weaknesses, try to reform their own characters. Like the lower animals, the natural tendency of human beings is to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. As long as man lives in the darkness of ignorance, and cannot trace the causes which make him happy or unhappy, and as long as he does not understand whether happiness and pleasure come from external objects or from within, so long he fails to be master of himself. Right discrimination of the conditions which make one happy or unhappy is the surest guide in the path which leads to the attainment of self-control.

Now let us examine the present conditions of our minds. They are naturally attracted by the objects which are pleasing to the senses, or which help in fulfilling the purposes and desires that are extremely strong in us. The majority of mankind are attached to those objects which give pleasure, both sensuous and mental. They are never attached to anything or anybody where they do not find pleasure. In the same manner it can be shown that the natural tendency of the mind is also to get away from pain. The eyes are pleased to look at the beautiful colour which attracts them, the ears are pleased to hear sweet words, melodious notes, and good music. We like to smell sweet fragrance, and to taste the things pleasing to the palate Yet that which is pleasing to the senses of one man may give pain to another. A China-man enjoys Chinese music, but it is painful to our ears. Similarly, the music which is delightful to our ears, gives no pleasure to a China-man. Western music seems like howling and screaming to many Oriental ears which are not trained to it. Many people enjoy curious flavours and high seasoning, and others are disgusted by them. Some people enjoy the burning sensation in the tongue and throat produced by red pepper, while others feel pain from it and shun it. The same colour or same sound or taste which is pleasing to one, may be a source of intense discomfort to another. This shows that pleasure and pain are not the inherent properties of the objects of senses, but that they depend upon the conditions of the mind and body which come in direct contact with those objects.

Mind has tremendous power over the body. If a certain idea gets possession of the mind it affects the body and produces corresponding changes in the whole system. The same mind which found pleasure in a certain thing at one time, dislikes the very sight of that thing if new ideas happen to get a hold upon it. For example, animal flesh gives pleasure to a meateater as long as he thinks it is the right kind of food, but when the nobler principles of vegetarian diet dawn upon his mind and convert him into a vegetarion, the very odour of meat will be offensive, and may make him feel ill; his stomach will refuse to digest animal flesh, and it may even become a cause of pain and suffering to him. Therefore, it can be said that there is nothing in the universe from which all individuals can derive absolute pleasure or absolute pain, or that can even please the same individual at all times. Those who seek pleasure from the objects of senses cannot stick to one particular enjoyment at the time. If they try to enjoy the same thing day after day, they will soon tire of it; satiety is the inevitable result, and with that comes loss of interest.

Suppose a lady who is passionately fond of the opera should constantly hear the same opera day and night, without hearing or doing anything else, she would surely tire of it in a few days. Constant change of the objects of pleasure is absolutely necessary for those people who seek pleasure from the external world. It is for this reason that many people who are too poor to afford much variety in their pleasure delude themselves by thinking that wealth would give them all they desire, and envy those who possess large fortunes, foolishly believing that the rich must be always happy. In this way, they often fail to enjoy the pleasures within their reach, thus making their life a burden. They fail to understand that wealth has its own trials, that are often only little more bearable than the ills of poverty. The truth is that true happiness can only belong to him who can control his mind. The practice of self-control would be a great blessing to all these unhappy people; it would make their lives happier and better worth living.

Before we can control the natural tendency of the mind to seek pleasure in external objects, we must know that the feeling of pleasure depends upon the feeling of pain. If we do not have any feeling of pain whatever, we cannot enjoy a pleasant feeling. Pleasure is pleasure only when it stands in relation to the feeling of pain. Whenever we compare one sensation or feeling with another, we find one more pleasing than the other; the less pleasing one is ordinarily called painful. The tendency of our mind is to seek objects that are more pleasing than those which we already possess, or happen to enjoy, and the moment we find a thing which we think would produce a more agreeable sensation than the things we now have, we crave to possess it. Having satisfied the craving, if after comparison we discover that the latter is not better than the former, we remain as unsatisfied as before, and may even wish to go back to the former condition. Thus we can understand that although pleasures and pain may arise in different individuals from their contact with the same objects of senses, the natural tendency of mind is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. We are attached to those objects from relation with which we derive pleasure, but the moment these cease to yield us gratification, we become indifferent to the very things we so eagerly desired; sometimes we grow to hate them and wish to get away from them.

Our minds are constantly seeking new objects of pleasure through the gates of the senses, and attach themselves to every fresh object that promises to give us a pleasant feeling or sensation. While this attachment lasts, the mind becomes a slave to it. If anything happens to come in the way and prevent the mind from enjoying a particular pleasure, the mind tries to overcome the obstacle. The stronger the opposing power, the greater is the mental struggle to subdue it. If the desire be very strong and we cannot succeed in gratifying it by ordinary means, we often get enraged and adopt more violent measures, thus losing all possibility of a peaceful state of mind.

That simple desire for enjoyment takes the form of a ruling passion, agitates the whole mind, and manifests in the form of anger and unrest. In that agitated state of the mind, we lose the sense of right and wrong, memory grows dull, understanding gets confused, we lose foresight and act like brutes. Passion is the stronger form of desire; the same strong desire, when acting under opposition, takes the form of anger. Desire is the first stage, passion is the second stage, and the third stage is anger.

Passion and anger, again, lead to hatred, jealousy, and many other wicked feelings which are expressed outwardly in the form of vicious acts. He who can control his mind from being disturbed by passion and anger, has obtained self-control. The control of passions and anger comes when the mind does not seek pleasure from external objects, but learns by experience that pleasure which can be derived through the senses, is very transient; it lasts for a few seconds only, and its true source is not in the object itself, but depends mostly upon the mental and physical conditions of the enjoyer.

We have seen that passion and anger are the second and third stages of desire; these desires, according to the Yogis, remain in the subconscious plane of our minds: Here a question arises: What is the cause of these desires? A Yogi, trying to trace the cause of desires, says that they are the outcome of the dormant impressions in our minds, or the awakened state of these impressions. He further says that when we enjoy any external object through our senses, our minds are impressed with certain changes which are produced while we are in direct contact with the thing. When we eat an apple, the impression of its taste is left in the mind. When we hear a musical note, an impression of the note, pleasant or unpleasant, remains in the mind. Similarly, all the impressions which the external objects leave in the mind, will remain there in a seed form or dormant state, by the law of persistence of force. None of them will be lost; whatever things we have enjoyed or suffered in our lives are stored up in that seed form, or in the form of dormant impressions. These dormant impressions are the causes of our desires.

Some of the Western psychologists have supported this theory of the Yogis. Professor Beneke says in his Elementary Psychology: “What has once been produced in the soul continues still to exist, even when it has ceased to be excited. That which was conscious merely becomes unconscious, or lives in the internal substance of the soul.” Sir William Hamilton admits the existence of the latent impressions when he says: “The whole we are conscious of, is constructed out of what we are not conscious of.” He explains the psychic activity of the subconscious plane by comparing the chain of impressions or thoughts with a row of biUiard balls, of which, if struck at one end, only the last one moves, the vibration being merely transmitted through the rest. But a Yogi says that these dormant impressions are the seeds or real cause of desires.

Let us suppose that the mind substance is like a sea, that the surface is the conscious plane, and that the dormant impressions lie deep below surface. Here we should remember that anything that remains in a dormant state, is bound to manifest when the conditions become favourable. Forced by their inward nature, when the dormant impressions begin to manifest, they may be said to rise up slowly from the bottom of the sea of mind in the form of minute bubbles. We may call this bubble the subtle state of desire, or the awakened impression. Then it gradually rises to the surface and appears larger and larger in size. Let us call this bubble state of the awakened impression, desire; then the bubble of desire, after playing on the surface of the mental sea for some time, bursts there and takes the form of a wave, and agitates the whole sea of mind, transforming it into one mass of impulse. The mind becomes restless, peace is disturbed, power of discrimination becomes dull, we do not know whether good or bad results will follow should we yield to the impelling impulse; we are forcibly driven headlong toward the object of desire, whatever it be, mental (like ambition, pride, etc.), or merely sensuous. In fact, our controlling power having been overcome by that wave of desire, we can no longer call it desire. It temporarily takes the form of a ruling passion, or strong impulse. That tremendous impulse controls our nerves, muscles, and the whole body; struggle to gratify this longing, only to find, when we have attained the thing and gratified the longing, that the satisfaction is but brief. The tempest that wrecked our selfcontrol gradually subsides, and the particular desire that provoked it returns again to its dormant state; then a temporary peace of mind is regained and we remain happy for a time.

In the meanwhile another dormant impression gets ready to appear in the form of a bubble. Slowly it rises up from the subconscious to the conscious plane, and the same process is repeated. This ever-recurring series of desires and their temporary gratification forms the daily life of all such persons as have not learned to control their minds. When this fleeting peace of mind, or so-called happiness, has been secured, the desire subsides into a dormant state for a longer or shorter period. This process is continuously going on in each mind at every moment. Suppose a person is invited to a dinner party, where he partakes of something very delicious which he never tasted before and which he likes immensely. Do you think that the impression of that taste will be lost- as soon as the dinner is over? Certainly not; it will remain in the mind and engender a desire for the same thing again; the memory will recall that impression and it will become the cause of a fresh desire. In this manner it can be shown that every new impression is the cause or seed of a new desire.

When a man begins to drink intoxicating liquors he feels a peculiar sensation; it drives away his dullness, exhilarates him, excites his nervous system, and makes him happy for the time being. After the effect of the stimulant is over, the impression of the agreeable feeling it produced is left in his mind; for some time it remains latent, then it rises up in the form of a desire, or bubble, to the surface of his mental sea. Rising to the surface, it bursts and produces a wave, or impulse, which intensifies the desire and leads him to drink again. The fresh exhilaration creates another impression, which stamps itself upon the former, and the process goes on with increasing frequency. With every fresh yielding to desire, the old impression is deepened, until the series of stored-up impressions becomes so strong that it forms a part of his nature and becomes what we call habit. Similar processes have produced all varieties of habits, good and bad, which we find in different people in different countries. A kindred process produces what we call instinct in the lower animals.

The stored-up impressions of one life are not lost by the death of the body, but will remain latent for some time and will become the causes of future desires in another life. Each one of us is born with the stored-up impressions of his past birth, which will re-appear in the form of various tendencies, desires and habits. This is the explanation of the wide variations we see in members of the same family, for which heredity alone, or even heredity plus environment, fails to account. As the number of impressions increases, desires also increase, as has been said; if we allow the desires to rise up and play in our minds, they will take the forms of passion and anger, disturb mental peace, create new impressions, and be in turn the causes of fresh desires. Thus, there is no hope of controlling the mind by mere gratification of desires. There is no hope of satiating the craving for enjoyment by getting the objects of pleasures; this is simply putting fuel on fire, or oil on flames. The more we enjoy, the more will desires increase. Foolish people, who have never analyzed their minds, indulge their desires and seek pleasure from outside objects. No one has succeeded in attaining self-control by being a slave to desires, nor has any one become free from desires by gratifying them. Therefore, a Yogi says: “As fire is not quenched by butter, so the fire of desire will never be put out by the objects of pleasure. The more butter is poured on a fire, the more it will flare up; similarly, the more the objects of desire are indulged, the more the desires will increase. If a person were to possess all the objects upon this earth, still his greed would not stop, he would seek something more.” Do you suppose that a man who works hard to become a millionaire will ever be satisfied with his possessions and cease to acquire more? He will go on seeking to add to them as long as he will live. A poor man desires to be rich, a rich man desires to be a millionaire, and a millionaire wants to be a multi-millionaire, and so on; where is there any rest? Where is there happiness? When will his thirst for possessions or enjoyment cease? Will he ever acquire control over his mind? Perhaps not in this life.

Thirst for enjoyment is the real disease in us; its various symptoms are passions, ambition, pride, hatred, jealousy, anger, etc. Tremendous mental strength and will-power are required to control the restless mind from taking the forms of waves of passion and anger. The perfect restlessness of the mind of an ordinary person who is the slave to his desires and passions has been vividly described by a Yogi; the poet could not find a better illustration than to compare it with a monkey, who is restless by nature; then thinking this was not quite enough, he added drunken monkey, stung by a scorpion. When any one is stung by a scorpion, he jumps about from place to place for nearly two days, so you can imagine the restlessness of that poor monkey; still the poet found something lacking in the simile, so he completed it by saying: "At last the monkey was possessed by a demon.” Is there any expression by which we can describe the wretched state of that poor monkey? Such is the ordinary state of our mind. Naturally it is restless, but it becomes more so when it drinks the wine of ambition, still more when it is stung by the scorpion of jealousy; but the climax is reached when the demon of pride enters the mind and takes possession of it. In such a case, how difficult it is to bring the mind under control. To conquer mind is more difficult than to conquer the whole world. He is the greatest hero and the real conqueror of the world who has conquered his own mind. “He that ruleth his spirit is greater than he who taketh a city.” A Yogi says: "If one man conquers in battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if another conquers himself, he is the greatest of conquerors.” Therefore we should pay special attention to the study of the mind; we should learn to analyze its nature and constantly watch over its various modifications, trying to develop and strengthen the will-power.

A Yogi develops his will-power by daily practice; he rouses up the higher powers and continues to fight against his greatest enemies with firmness and determination until he accomplishes his end. Perfect self-control of a Yogi is that state of mind where no desires or passions of any kind disturb the peace and tranquillity of his soul. Such a state can be acquired more easily by removing the bubbles of desires before they take the wave form of passions, that is, by attacking them while they are in their weak state. This can be done either by right discrimination of the nature of desire or by comparing the transitory pleasure which results from our contact with the objects of senses, with the serene, peaceful mind which is undisturbed by desires or passions. We should also remember that the highest ideal of our life is not pleasure of the senses, nor slavery to desires and passions, but the attainment of mastery over the lower self, and the manifestation of the supreme Self.

There is another way of obtaining self-control, through concentration and meditation. Concentrate your mind upon the supreme Self and do not let it be disturbed by any other thought or desire at that time. Those who have read the Light of Asia will remember that when Buddha sat in meditation under the Bo tree all the dormant impressions began to rise in his mind. They are described as the attendants of Mara, the personified evil thought. But Buddha said: “It is better to die on the battlefield while fighting with enemy than to be defeated and forced to live like a slave, seeking little bits of sense pleasures and enjoyments.” With such a strong determination Buddha became master of himself; whosoever will display similar determination of purpose and strength of character, will surely attain perfect self-control. They alone who have acquired self-control enjoy eternal peace and happiness in this life and attain the goal of all religions, the knowledge of the divine Self.