Does the Human Mind Possess Any “Super Powers”?

You might have read lot about "Mind Power" - the miraculous and amazing power of your mind. There are lot of stories and incidents about the phenomena called - mind over matter. They say if you concentrate and focus your mind, you can perform many fantastic things - miracles.

Really? Do you want to live in fool’s paradise? If not, let's analyze the facts and truths.

Let's make it simple. You have a stand-alone personal computer, laptop, tablets or at least a mobile handset. Every device has two segments - hardware and software. The basic hardware consists of processor, hard-disk (storage), memory and wiring. The software has operating system and programs in it. The power of the device depends upon the speed of processor and size of the memory and storage. Of course, it needs energy (electricity) to operate.

Any stand-alone device has a limited power within this stipulated, predefined system. But when it gets connected to Internet (wired or wireless) - you can unleash unlimited powers. You can do zillions of things using the same device.

Our mind (aka brain) is similar to such a device. It is hardware plus software. Before going deep in to that, let's see the limitations of the mind

Limitations of the stand-alone Mind:-

The mind can NEVER live in the intense present. It thrives on past and future. The moment you come to HERE and NOW, the mind ceases to exist. The mind cannot comprehend the absolute or abstract truth. It needs fact, figures and images. Any belief is Okay with the mind, but NO truth please. Mind cannot KNOW anything beyond the five senses. Mind itself can be called sixth sense, but it cannot understand that.

The stand alone mind cannot experience the divine presence. The mind can understand the concepts, perception or belief about god. But it can never experience the GOD. (I have discussed these points in many articles (See http://udaypai.in/) - hence not repeating here.) So the mind has no powers of its own as fantasized by the fiction-writers.

The mind survives only with the ego. Ego means the feeling of "I” or the memory of "I". This ego makes the stand-alone mind insecure. So it always seeks psychological security. That’s why we clinch to so-many beliefs, faiths and superstitions.

The hardware part of mind:-

The hardware is the content of mind or the material that mind is made up of. "Mind is a material? It has physical form?" You might ask. Yes it has.
Our ancient scientists (ancestors, sages) say it is material. Incidentally, our ancestors used mantra sakthi (virtual, dhyana, enlightment etc) to discover many things in human and cosmos. The Western science use Yantra Sakthi (machines, equipments, computers etc).

In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, mind is looked upon as material. The Chhandogya Upanishad says" anna mayam hi somya mana “means “The mind is verily composed from food.” Food is churned inside by the energies of our body and takes three different forms: the heaviest becomes excrement, the medium quality becomes flesh, and the subtlest part becomes mind, just as the churning of curds gives the subtlest which is butter.

The Upanishad explains how they conducted the research that we can repeat in modern times too. It mentions an experiment in which a boy was asked to go on fast for 15 days. "Do not eat any food for fifteen days. Just drink water." On fifteenth day, the boy was asked to recite the Vedas that he memorized. "I cannot remember even one verse of the Vedas. Memory has gone. The mind is not functioning." The boy said.

Your mind has been inflamed into action by the food that you have taken. Your mind would perish if you had not eaten well. So the content of the mind is made up of food you eat. You cannot see, feel or taste your mind - it is subtle material and not gross like your body.

The software part of the mind:-

When we are born, our mind has a biological operating system (BIOS) which has some basic minimum commands - like crying, sucking mother's milk etc. Later, we add inputs to it - from parents, relatives, friends, teachers, community, religions, beliefs, reading, learning etc. Those inputs altogether form a huge operating system along with programs fed by your belief system.

That's how mind is been developed. No wonder learned people say God created everything, except your mind. Mind is your creation. And it is the limit of the mind.

A game developed for Windows operating system cannot run in Apple iMac. Similarly, things beyond your inputs have no compatibility to your mind. Your mind cannot understand anything that is not in the inputs.

The fully-loaded (pre-loaded software) mind is known as CONDITIONED MIND. If you have malicious infection (virus or malware) the mind will go wrong. That creates diseases like anger, stress, depression and schizophrenia.

When you realize these basic facts you will know that all those tall stories related to the power of the mind is cinematic or dramatic fiction.

Then, how did our ancestors used the Mantra Sakthi? Good question.

The connected mind is powerful and divine: -

Our ancestors were connected to the cosmic system. The cosmic wisdom stored in the universe (the collective consciousness) is the data center in the cloud computing. Dhyana (meditation is not the apt translation) provided the wireless connection to the servers in the data center.

How to make your mind powerful?

1. Check-up hardware part - Sattvik food will make your hardware strong and powerful.

Provide two plates of food to a modern teen-ager. In one plate keep typical traditional South Indian Idly Sambar and another plate keep a Chicken Burger. What would he/she prefer - irrespective of caste and religion? Of course, Burger!

In my childhood I remember old generation were reciting "Vishnusahasranamam" and "Lalitha Sahasranamam" by-heart. Most of them kept everything in their memory. In today's world, the memory is short term affair. Why? You may attribute this to hi-fi gadget. But truth is that, the older generations were having "sattvik" food and modern generation goes by fast food. The fact is "fast food = short term memory..."

So food is important for brain and mind. Based on this concepts our Ayruveda scholars developed some medicines (Grita - is ghee medicated with ayurvedic herbs and kashaya) that cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB) that can change the mind-set. That’s how they rectified mental diseases in olden days.

2. Check-up software part - The only way to cross-over the limitations of mind is the de-condition it. Run an anti-virus program. It is freely available. It is known as Awareness. It can be achieved only through observing.

3. Get connected to the cosmic network - Use the "I" as a login password. Once you log-on to the Net, you don't even need the password. You are IN. The vastness of the cosmic is waiting for you. This connectedness will make you strong and powerful. You won't have any fear of the stand-alone mind. Because you are connected to the GOD. You become god.

They knew that standalone mind is dangerously weak. They knew that the separation causes ego and fear. Once you are connected, you become fearless. You become one with the vastness. It has programs to correct your system and any aberrations of the mind.

We are all human, we all share the same range of emotions we are capable of feeling. What makes us different is how we react to these emotions. Nobody can perform any power that you cannot.

Miracles of mind or amazing powers are just magic. It is not the true way. If you are attracted to the miracle of mind, you won't learn the true way. The biggest power or miracle is about becoming more fully human. It is the end of ignorance. That's why the greatest Zen master once said: "My miracle is that when I'm hungry, I eat, and when I am tired, I sleep."