Adishankara in his “Tattvabodha” has answered the question of “what is Shama?” as “Mano Nigrahah”. Mano Nigrahah translates as “Resolution of the Mind”. Normally, the tendency to describe Shama as Mind Control or Mind Destruction. You are what you are because of the mind which is giving credence to the idea of you by the thoughts. And thoughts are nothing but the mind. Suppose if one has to be asked, who he was, and the answer could be he is a male, a doctor, from India, Tamil Nadu, son of so and so, etc., will come. If you analyze none of the above statements can be sustained permanently and they may merely be sustained only in thoughts. Therefore, mind destruction means the destruction of the person himself.
Similarly, mind also can’t be controlled because mind is nothing but a collection of thoughts. The thoughts are generated through the interaction between the sense organs and sense objects or generated as emotions from the subconscious mind and they can’t be controlled because it is the very nature of the mind (being full of thoughts). Then how do we interpret “Shama” and what one should do for spiritual progress?
None of the sense organs can complete their task without the backing of the mind. It is the nature of the eyes to see and report (both “physical eye” the hardware and the “ability to see” the software), but the analyzation of the reported “sight” can’t be done without the mind and after that only one can classify the objects seen in terms of the their colour, texture, distance, shape etc., Like all the sense organs are called as “Karanas (equipment)”, the mind is also a karana (equipment) and infact it is called as “Antahkarana (inner equipment)”. Mind is the backer of all the interaction of the sense organs with the sense objects of the world and it is also the backer of all the emotions that well up during such interactions and in time is responsible for recollecting the events as thoughts as well.
Therefore the mind can be looked at as Cognitive Mind (responsible for processing the knowledge that rushes in though the sense organs), Emotional Mind (responsible for processing the emotions which swell up through the interactions whether they are current or from the past) and Recollecting Mind (responsible for remembering the transactions and generate thoughts around it). Whichever mind is at the forefront, what is clear is that the Mind is an equipment capable of processing the information (in the form of thoughts) and converting it as a retrievable record and postulate the experience in terms of the lessons learnt (this is how the intellect is built up). As such an equipment (the mind) designed to program and perform its task need not be reined upon to change the set of thoughts, the equipment (the mind) is processing at that point in time, because there is nothing bad or good about the mind. It is only doing its job and hence no need to waste time and energy in working for controlling the mind. Then the natural question is what is then Shama and how should I deal with mind in order to help me progress spiritually.
As we have seen, there is no bad mind or good mind, and as it is unnecessary and is futile to work on the type of thoughts by controlling the thoughts, the way to move forward is to become aware of the thoughts. The moment one becomes aware of the thoughts, and when the objective is clear in terms what needs to be done (goal is properly identified), then automatically the goal clarity will prompt the mind to not sit on non-value added thoughts. In other words, the mind becomes available for spiritual progress. There is a story, once a Brahmin who by chance rubbed an antique lamp and out came a genie. Genie told the Brahmin that he has to keep it engaged completely not leaving a moment to be free and if it is not done then warned the Brahmin that it will devour him. Brahmin engaged it by asking for all the material benefits, but soon couldn’t continue and was exhausted. Remembered the condition put by the genie and as he was pondering what to do, he sees a pole and asks the genie to go up and down the pole and instructs the genie that when he calls it to do some work it has to come out of the pole and should go back after it finishes the work. He lived very happily and led a very successful life. In this story, we are like the Brahmin and the genie is our mind. We will be consumed by the mind if we don’t support the mind and engage it properly and make it available for us when we need. The pole can be likened to Japa, which we can take it up and engage the mind with.
Making the mind available for engaging it in the tasks we want. Even if the pursuit is for material well-being, a calm and clear mind is the requirement for successfully completing the pursuit and the same applies for spiritual goal also.
Concluding, SHAMA is nothing but making the mind available at the present moment to undertake the needed task. Making the mind available is nothing but “resolution of the mind”.
