project itself in a different manner altogether. So, the way in which this refracted
medium functions determines the nature of our life itself.
Minds differ. Just as mirrors may differ—the position, colour, structure, thickness,
etc. all may change from mirror to mirror—in the same way, mental characteristics
differ due to reasons which are peculiar to different individuals themselves. It is the
mind that drags the consciousness in a given direction—just as, in this analogy I
mentioned, it is the position of the mirror that will determine in which direction the
light of the sun is projected. This position of the mirror of the mind is the tendency of
the mind towards objects. It is this tendency that determines the location, or the
position, of the mind.
Everyone is born with certain groups of tendencies. The tendencies are the
requirements of the constitution of the individual in a particular manner, just as in a
vast set-up of a national government, for instance, there are different officials placed
in different positions and each official functions in a restricted manner,
notwithstanding that this restricted position of the official has a connection with an
unrestricted background of an entire government. Likewise, the limitation of the
personality is motivated by certain urges with which the individual is born, and these
urges are the peculiar proclivities of the individual which makes one different from
the other, so that even from childhood we can find that there is a distinct mark of
isolated predilection in a particular individual which will mark it off from others.
This predilection, or idiosyncrasy, of different individuals is due to the direction
taken by these groups of tendencies with which one is born. And, the mind is nothing
but a bundle of these tendencies.
Sometimes, in traditional language, we call these groups of tendencies prarabdha
karma. We are compelled to move in a particular direction on account of our
personality being nothing but an embodied form of this distracting principle. This
mind that we are speaking of, through which the Infinite is reflected or refracted, is
not an outside medium that we operate as independent individuals. It is not a
fountain pen with which we write a book and which is not vitally connected with our
body, which we can throw off after some time—not so. What we mean by ‘mind’ is
nothing but the totality of what we really are in our individuality—the whole
structure of our tendencies, ways of thinking, etc. We will study in the system of
Patanjali, in a future sutra, that these so-called tendencies condition the place in
which we are born, the time period into which we are born, the society into which we
are born, the length of life which we live, and the various types of experiences we
have to pass through in life.
All these things are already determined even before birth, so that one can say when
the child will die even while it is inside the womb itself. The time is fixed because
death, transformation, experience, or any kind of encounter in personal life is an
event which automatically follows as a consequence of the seeds that are already
sown at the very commencement of these groups of tendencies that are manufactured
within—just as we can predict an eclipse even a hundred years hence. Today we can
say that there will be an eclipse after a hundred years. How do we know it? We know
it because of the collocation of certain movements of planets, mathematically
calculated.