Can you control your thoughts? Can you control your mind? How can you control your thoughts?

Who is unsteady (chanchal) and who is steady (achal)?

Questioner: Why is the human mind unsteady (restless)?

Dadashri: It is unsteady (restless) by its’ innate nature. It is not something that can ever be made still. The mind must (be left to) remain in its own function. Otherwise, if it is made still, it will become blunt.

Questioner: My mind is unsteady and it remains steady only for a little while.

Dadashri: But it is a wrong doing (liability) to turn the mind’s unsteadiness into steadiness. The mind is unsteady and the Self is steady. However, if you try to steady the mind, the (relative) self will become unsteady. That is how it is, all this is in balance. They are all counter-weights. If you place five pounds on this side, there is no telling how high the scale will be tipped on the other side.

Questioner: The mind keeps on wandering so I want to decrease its unsteadiness.

Dadashri: Why are you taking on suffering that is not your own? Just look at the kind of knowledge that prevails; they tell you, ‘This is unsteady so now make it steady!’ This (mind) is mechanical, so how can it be made steady? You can attempt to steady it by closing the nostrils, press on them and it will become steady (one will die)! But then, of what use is that? When one dies, it will be steadied. Once the nostrils are closed, it will be quiet! It will be permanently quiet. But that is of no use, is it?! People would not prefer that; they will say, ‘On the contrary, he is dead!’

Questioner: What should a man do to control ongoing thoughts? 

Dadashri: What benefit will you get out of controlling them? What is the benefit there? Ongoing thoughts are separate and You (the Self) are separate. You become engrossed in thoughts you like but do you become engrossed in thoughts you don’t like? Why not?

Questioner: Because the interest is not there.

Dadashri: Then, why do you join in with thoughts that you like?

Questioner: But all the great people ask one to attain control over their thoughts.

Dadashri: But what I am asking is, when you don’t like the thoughts, do you have control over them or not?

Questioner: I am saying this because the mind is unsteady.

Dadashri: What is not unsteady here? You tell me. You keep on talking, that too is unsteady. The mind is not the only unsteady part, which part here is not unsteady? The Soul (self) that you believe in and know of is unsteady (sachar, sa- with, char- movement). Sachar means unsteady and the absolute true Soul (Self) is achar- steady (achar, a- without, char– movement). Thus the world is ‘Sachar-achar’(unsteady-steady). Have you heard the word ‘Sachar-achar’?  

So you have remained in this illusion, the Soul that you have remained in, what you have believed to be the Soul, that Soul is unsteady. And once the illusion is removed, a steady (state); the Self is attained; thereafter, everything is done. Therefore, all this is indeed unsteady. Hence no one has been able to keep their mind under control. They merely do such egoism, that is all. What do they do? They do the egoism (of) ‘I keep the mind under control.’ Whether it is kept under control or not is a natural phenomenon.

Questioner: What does one have to do to keep the mind under control?

Dadashri: How can you keep it under control? Even going to the toilet (defecation) is not under your control, so how can this be kept under your control? These people are doing unnecessary egoism. What will you do after gaining control?

Questioner: Surely there can be many uses once it comes under control?

Dadashri: Right now, the mind badly wants to go to America, but can you go? The fact is; if you are weak, the mind will be unsteady; if you are not weak, the mind is not unsteady at all. The mind is the ‘boat’ that takes you to your final liberation. The mind is unsteady by nature. And if it were not unsteady, you will not even remember to eat or drink. So now, tell me, what is it that you want to do?