Sama means mind-control. This is very hard to achieve. The mind
can cause bondage; it can also confer liberation. It is an amalgam
of Rajasic and Thamasic modes, the passionate and dull attitudes.
It is easily polluted. It relishes in hiding the real nature of
things and casting on them the forms and values which it desires.
So, the activities of the mind have to be regulated.
The mind has two characteristics. The first is: it runs behind
the senses; whatever sense the mind follows helplessly, it is
inviting disaster. When a pot of water becomes empty, we need not
infer that it has leaked away through ten holes; one hole is
enough to make it empty. So too, among the senses, even if one is
not under control, one will be thrown into bondage. Therefore,
every sense has to be mastered.
The second characteristic of the mind is: The potency of the
mind can be promoted by good practices like Dhyana, Japa, Bhajana
and Puja. With the strength and skill thus reinforced, the mind
can help the world or harm it. So, the mental power gained by such
Sadhana has to be turned away from wrong paths and controlled by
Sama. The senses have to be directed by the principle of
intelligence, the Buddhi. They must be released from the hold the
mind has on them. Then spiritual progress can be attained.
Manas or Mind is but a bundle of thoughts, a complex of wants
and wishes. As soon as a thought, a desire or a wish raises its
head from the mind, Buddhi must probe into its value and validity
- is it good or bad, will it help or hinder, where will this lead
or end. If the mind does not submit to this probe, it will land
itself in the path of ruin. If it does and obeys the intelligence,
it can move along the right path.
Man has three chief instruments for uplifting himself:
Intelligence, Mind and the Senses. When the mind gets enslaved by
the senses, man gets entangled and bound. The same mind, when it
is regulated by the intellect, can make man aware of his Reality,
the Atma. This is why the mind is reputed to cause either bondage
or liberation.