Dhrtaráśt́ra uváca, that is, Dhritarastra is asking:

Dharmakśetre Kurukśetre samavetá yuyutsavah;
Mámakáh Páńd́aváshcaeva kimakurvata Saiṋjaya.

[“O Sanjaya, now that my children and the children of Pandu have gathered on the battlefield of Dharmakśetra, of Kurukśetra, eager to fight, what is taking place?”]

Here dharmakśetra means the physical body of the human being, and kurukśetra means the saḿsára [world] around us. Mámakáh is “the men of my party”. Who is the speaker here? It is Dhritarastra. Who then is Dhritarastra? It is the blind mind. To whom does he speak? It is Sanjaya, the viveka [conscience], whom he is addressing. “My party and the party of Pandu were samavetáh, that is, ekatritáh, ekatribhútáh [‘assembled together’].” But why were they assembled together? Yuyutsavah. The root verb yudh plus san (“desirous of”) plus the u suffix gives us the word yuyutsu. Someone who is willing to fight, ready for battle, is called yuyutsu in Sanskrit. The verb yudh plus san in the sense of “willingness and readiness for a battle or war” gives us yuyutsa, and when the feminine t́á is added [to form a complete word], we get yuyutsá, which means “desire to fight”; while the term yuyutsu means “one who is willing to fight”. [And yuyutsavah is the plural form of this.] “The men on my side, and the men on Pandu’s side, ready to fight a battle, have assembled together.” But where have they assembled? On the dharmakśetra of the physical human body and the kurukśetra of the saḿsára. “And who did what, which side did what? Tell me, O Sanjaya, O viveka, please tell me.”

The Mind Has Ten Agents

Now we come to the next part of the shloka: mámakáh Páńd́aváshcaeva. Here mámakáh means “men on my side”. But who really are they on the side of Dhritarastra, that is, the mind? They are in fact the ten indriyas [organs]: the five motor organs and five sensory organs. The organs of speech, the hands, the feet, the anus and the genitals – these are the five motor organs. While the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue and the skin are the five sensory organs. Now, the mind is the master of all these ten organs. As the scriptures say, Indriyáńáḿ mano náthah manonáthástu márutah – “The mind is the master of the sense organs, and air is the master of the mind.” The master, the controller and presiding lord of all the organs is the mind; and the one who controls this mind is the sádhaka, the intelligent one. The sádhaka controls the mind by controlling maruta [air], which means by controlling the váyus [ten vital-energy currents in the human body], which means by práńáyáma [controlling vital energy by controlling the breath]. The expressions of the indriyas are práńa. Práńa is energy; and vital energy is called práńáh. You must have read about this in my book Idea and Ideology. When one wants to have control over práńa – the expression of the indriyas – one has to control the váyus first. Á – yam + ghaiṋ = áyáma, “that which is being controlled”. And that by which such control over práńa – the expression of the indriyas – is being effected is práńáyáma. Hence, práńa + áyáma = práńáyáma. Práńán yamayatyeśa práńáyámah - “That which gives control over the expressions of the indriyas is práńáyáma.” It is not that the indriyas alone are controlled by práńáyáma; the master of the indriyas – the mind – also comes under control through práńáyáma. Thus the mind, although the master of the indriyas, is obviously reduced to the same status as the indriyas. That is why the mind is said to be the eleventh indriya. There are many scholars who are not inclined to accept the mind as a separate entity at all. There are others, however, according to whom the mind too is an indriya. Though the mind is not exactly an indriya, because it has two roles to perform. It has a specific role like an indriya, and also has another role as the controller of the remaining ten indriyas.

So what is implied by mámákah? The ten indriyas stand for the ten assistants of the mind. With their help, the mind works, even rules over them and controls them. If the indriyas were not under control, the mind would lose its value, would be useless; and its existence would be reduced to complete nothingness. The eye sees because the mind wants it to see; the ear hears because the mind wants it to hear; and the nose smells because the mind wants it to smell.

If a mind does not want, nothing else can work. Imagine yourself walking on the street in Calcutta with your mind roaming over to Dhaka. Suppose further that one of your old acquaintances happens to pass by you. You will not notice the person, simply because your mind is in Dhaka. You could not direct your mind to him. When, afterwards, you meet the same person, he or she will say: “I met you the other day, but you didn’t look at me or speak to me.” Then you will say: “I was thinking about something else” - which means your mind was engaged elsewhere. So you see that without the active support of the mind, neither can the eye see, nor can the ear hear. This is the real truth. Suppose you are deeply engrossed in thinking about some object. Someone tells you something, repeats it two or three times. But there being no reply from you, he says: “You are not listening.” Then you say: “Yes, yes, I was thinking of something else.” Such things happen.

Whatever importance, whatever mastery, the mind possesses, flows from its being the director of the ten sense organs. In addition to that, I say that I do not admit mind as a separate indriya, even though some people assert it to be so. This is because of the fact that the manana kriyá [cogitative function] of the mind has a certain speciality. What then is this manana kriyá? It is because of this manana kriyá that we say mana [“mind”]. The meaning of the root verb man is “to reflect”, “to think”.

According to the principles of general psychology, the mind has two functions – to think and to preserve in memory. Peoples’ memory has its specialities, and people’s thinking has its specialities. You should be aware of those specialities.

The objects with which people frequently come in contact are the objects that occupy their thinking. Even if they try to think of any other object, their minds go back and again to those objects. Manana [thinking] is a natural function of the mind and it is determined to a very great extent by certain conditions.⁽¹⁾ A farmer who is engaged in cultivating his land might be thinking of so many things, but frequently will revert to the thought: “Will it rain today?” The flow of his thinking is being obstructed by thoughts of paddy and rain, because it is with paddy and rain that he must keep busy.

And regarding preserving in memory, one interesting point to note is that it is the events to which we give importance that we will retain longer in our minds, longer in our smarańa [memories]. If, on the other hand, an event does not have as much impact on the mind and fails to evoke any interest, the mind will forget that the next moment. We forget by night-time what we ate in the morning, simply because we give it little importance. We might enjoy the food while eating, but immediately afterwards it becomes unimportant. Hence it is said that in order to improve your memory, nothing in the world should be slighted. Everything should be given equal value. Sama pluśińá sama mashakena sama nágena sama ebhistribhirlokaeh – “You should give the same importance to a white ant” (pluśina means “white ant” – in Hindi it is diimak, in Bihar it is danya, diinya) “and” – sama mashakena – “to a mosquito. And you should give that same importance” – sama nágena – “to an elephant and” – sama ebhistribhirlokaeh – “to the three worlds of heaven, earth and hell.” Then and only then will your power of memory awaken. Otherwise, if you go on making small differentiations, you will not be able to keep your balance of mind. As a result, your memory will not improve. Yogis tell us that if you want to improve your memory, the easiest method is to meditate upon a person whose memory is very sharp. This is the shortest route. Anyway, I have now presented before you all the functions of the mind.

Now, the functions of the mind are smarańa rákhá [preserving in memory] and manana [thinking, cogitation]. How does manana operate? Manana means that the mind will rush towards objects which are in agreement with your acquired samskáras [mental reactive momenta], that is, towards your samskáraja samiti. This rushing towards, this positive movement, is positive manana. When, on the other hand, you see an object that is not in agreement with your mind, that is, that is not to your liking, your mind rushes away from that object. This is negative manana. Think of a gentleman whom you like. You will not see his faults, simply because you like him very much; and whenever you happen to meet him, your mind immediately runs towards him. Such things do happen, as I have seen. This is my own experience. Notwithstanding his vices and demerits, which I am aware of, I do not hesitate to welcome him: “How are you? Sit down. I haven’t seen you for a long time!” I say all this, because there is an affinity between our propensities. You have the same experience, I presume. Now take the case of another person who is free from any faults, but is not in tune with your propensities. You will look down upon him as an unwanted nuisance. You are adversely disposed towards the man. This is negative manana. Such things do happen in everyone’s life. Yes, this is thinking in the negative. This is how manana goes on.

Once you realize the truth, you may be on your guard so as not to overdo your expressions of liking or love for someone; and not to be antagonistic to a person not to your liking. In this way you can maintain your mental balance. If somebody speaks the slightest ill of a person you do not like, your natural inclination will be to seize upon the idea and exaggerate that out of proportion. On the other hand, you will be at pains to amplify, in hyperbolic terms, even some little praise of a person you like and love; and will hasten to add: “Well, this is not his only virtue, you know. He has so many other remarkable qualities, such as this one and this one.” Such is human nature. Now, the functions of the mind – the two I have just mentioned, namely, manana and smarańa – are carried out with the help of the ten indriyas – the five motor organs and the five sensory organs.

Now, something in brief about the motor organs. It may happen that the poor fellow you dislike is saying something good. Yet those good words will not be appreciated by you. What is the nature of your hand? It is a motor organ. You may give someone a big slap. Your hand will easily rise and glide towards the face of someone whom you dislike. When, on the other hand, a man you like happens to talk nonsense, you will simply bear with that, with infinite patience.

Very often we speak of someone as having great patience. What a tolerant man he is! we say. How does that come about? Simply because the man is neutral by nature. So he does not focus on differences among different people’s conduct. Therefore his mind remains cool. Actually, the fact that his mind remains cool does not mean that he is a good man. The reason for his calmness is this psychological reason. So those of you who are a little short-tempered or a little fussy about things – do not think that these are special faults of yours. I have explained to you the cause behind these things. If you want to rectify these things, then remember what I have told you. Then you will be able to do the right thing at the right time. Sometimes in practical life you have to display a little bit of anger, otherwise the equilibrium of the world will be disturbed. To a little boy you may have to say “I’m going to spank you” to get the results. But to an adult you will say “Listen, this is not good” – that will be enough. Doing this sort of thing is sometimes necessary in this world, and it does not mean that you do so because your mind is enslaved by your indriyas. Rather, some such things are necessary for the sake of an adjustment with the practical world.

So today I have told you only this much – that the mind rules over its kingdom with the help of its ten indriyas. The mind has ten agents.

Footnotes

(1) But thinking can also be controlled to some extent, whereas the functioning of the sensory indriyas is determined entirely by external conditions. –Trans.