The ancient sages of India said there are six ‘shapes’ or ‘enemies’ (Arishadwarga) that the mind goes into. Greed, anger, stinginess, false pride or ego, attachment to materialistic things and jealousy. All of us would recognise these shapes. We know that when our mind goes into one or more of these, it is the first casualty.
Say we lose our temper. Before anyone else gets affected, we experience and are affected by that anger in our mind first. It may take a long time to cool down properly. One hundred times we may resolve, ‘I never want to do that again. Why did I lose my temper? I should have restrained myself’. But one hundred times we may again jump into these shapes in a similar circumstance. Why does this happen? It is because the mind has become so habitual – it seemingly acts automatically. This means we have lost control of our mind, we are unable to restrain it.
So that is why it is important to remedy this for us to regain control of our mind. Only then there is peace, security and contentment. Meditation is that method taught since ancient times to purify the mind of its habits, cool it down and bring it under our control. As Meditation Master Shiva Rudra Balayogi (Babaji) says,
‘When you are driving a car on the road, imagine how it will be if that car has no gears and brakes. Such a car can be disastrous for the driver and dangerous to others. The uncontrolled mind is like that. When emotions take over and one lets loose the tempers of the mind, such a monkey-mind can be disastrous to that person and dangerous to others. We need to regain control over it and bring it to a halt like a runaway car.’