Control the subconscious

The key aspect to controlling the mind and senses is to control the subconscious mind. The conscious mind can be controlled by the exercise of willpower temporarily. However the subconscious mind is more subtle and carries impressions from the past, which can manifest at any time under certain circumstances. The subconscious mind responds most to thoughts that have a strong emotion attached to them. The emotion can be a positive one, such as faith or love, or a negative one such as anger or fear. In the absence of dominant positive thoughts, our subconscious mind will pick up any random impulse and act on it. For example, a song or jingle playing on the television can get fixed in the subconscious unknowingly, such that we may be humming it without even being aware that we are doing so. The way to consciously embed positive thoughts into our subconscious mind is by the process of autosuggestion. Mantra repetition is one example of autosuggestion.

The mantra is internalized in five stages:

• Likhita - through writing
• Vaikhari - through speaking
• Upamshu - through whispering
• Manasa - through thinking
• Ajapa - through uninterrupted inner repetition