Mind and maladies : an Indian approach Indian approach to human
mind has nothing to do with case studies that one finds in clinical psychology .Here, there is no patient but only some states of mind that may keep on changing according to the fluctuations of thought. Thus, all saints educate us to manage thoughts. It is these flimsy flickering of ideas can have disruptive results on our mind i e mind will go on with the process of visualization. This in turn will pave the way for distracting our attention form present and we may roam in past or future. Mind is most subtle of all; and words can not define it since words are partly indebted to it. So the western psychology has long since been mooching around the notion of different divisions of mind .The problems of mind are usually generated by the wanton thoughts; yet it is not altogether so, for instance in the case of certain nerve disorders and the other maladies. The Indian thoughts in this regard are expounded by the Vedas, the vast body of literature of yore investigated the features of mind. What transpired is a unique vision that tells behind the thoughts there is a force: Purusha, or the agile awareness. It can be easily understood when observe the reading process, there are times when we read we can not focus properly while still the reading is going on. We may be producing words in the mind but we can not decode meaning and send them to the core our being. This sending things to the core of the being is a most subtle process. In fact, where are we sending this information or anything ? , indeed we send them to an intangible element which we call “I”. So mind is only an instrument of this intangible element and thoughts are like pictures on a screen. To project motion pictures on a screen needs a projector or machine. The western approach to thoughts is to deal with picture on the screen , where as the Indian psychology deals with the intangible thought generator in us. Once you begin to take care of the machine you can manage the flow of thoughts and all the resultant problems as well. Instead of cleansing the machine western approach is to clean the wave of pictures sweeping on the screen. This is a flawed way since most of the thought-related-mental-agonies(TRMA) are fundamentally related with the distorted view on the world and on person himself. Mind is only an instrument, is it is so evident from the words like thought, think and thinker. There is a thinker and without thinker thinking is impossible. Thinker is always projecting pictures from past and present and also the misgivings of future, subsequently Mr. T (Thinker) identifies with the thoughts and starts to experience all the resultant worries. Once the projector gets dull for sometime Mr. T has momentary relief. Most of the medicine may elate somebody only for span of time and in the course of time the resilience power of mind will be lost for ever .As a result, one needs medicine to support as much as a staff supports an old man. In the firmament of the mind thoughts flick and go every time but the thinker must change his approach of following each of the thoughts and getting lost in the labyrinth of them, he should assume as a watcher of this process. Indian psychology, as we find in various texts teaches how to be a watcher and develop a disinterested approach to life. Then the practitioner will have balance and his inner universe will be from darkness. Indian psychology brings light where as western psychology takes mind for an organ in the body so one needs medicine.