Mechanical Mind

The useless mechanical mind is very active, while the useful recording mind has fallen silent; it can’t do any thinking or even note down the experiences!

Perhaps it is waiting for a higher mind to act from above.

How is it that when I talk with someone, with whom I do not usually converse, his thoughts and ideas hover round my mind for a long time?

It is the nature of the mind acting for itself to do that. It always chews and rechews the subject in which it has been engaged, provided that the talk catches on to its memory.

Why does my mind chew and re-chew what I hear from others?

It is a movement in every mind; you probably did not notice it before when the mind was not accustomed to silence. For everybody whatever takes hold of the mind tends to be ruminated like that.

I am afraid I may go mad if my mind continues to be so restless.

That is absurd. There is nothing to get mad about in that. It is a normal movement of the mind which has to be got over like other movements. Things have to be taken quietly and simply (difficulties included), not unduly magnified like that.

My mind often wanders, thinking about unimportant things. This movement has a strong power of recurrence, in spite of my efforts to check it.

You must go on rejecting it till you get the mastery of it.

The mechanical mind is a part of the constitution of human nature and its activity is a well-known phenomenon, not due to something wrong in the spinal chord. What is unusual in your case, is the absolute helplessness of your will in the face of this very ordinary phenomenon. If that is due to the spinal chord, it is another matter, but the real cause there too is psychological.

The mechanical and subconscient minds are stirred up by the inertia. When the inertia is strong they become more active.

That only means that they take advantage of the inertia to be active. There is no other activity in the mind, so they become active, and there is no will or energy to stop them, so they continue. But the inertia itself is not a dynamic principle. The nature of inertia is apravritti [immobility] — the action of the mechanical mind is a pravritti [movement] though a tamasic obscure pravritti.

Cannot the mechanical mind be fired out by a spiritual Force? What is the need of transforming it?

You can’t fire out a part of the being. What is called the mechanical mind is necessary for the maintenance (in the physical) of things gained — it is by conservation and repetition that Nature does that. The subconscient is the basis of conservation and the mechanical mind is the means of repetition. Only they have to be enlightened and change and conserve and repeat the new divine things and not the old undivine ones.

When I asked if the subconscient and mechanical mind could be changed by a direct higher action, you replied, “It is possible if you can bring the direct higher action into this part of the consciousness or else let the Force pass there.” I have often concentrated the higher Force on this part and also on the vital but without any result.

It is a question not merely of concentrating but of bringing the Force into that part and keeping it there long enough to bring light and silence. If the Force does not pass there, it means that something obstructs and does not let it pass.

Can knowledge and experiences change this mechanical mind?

Knowledge and experiences can change it only if they act within it and occupy it driving out the old things. The other way to get rid of it is to develop the psychic being and its power over the nature.

Can knowledge and experiences act within the mechanical mind to get rid of what is in it?

The question is whether they merely act upon it or act within it and occupy that plane of the nature.