By Victor M Fontane
Our consciousness at the present moment is materially contaminated. The Bhagavad-gītā teaches that we have to purify this materially contaminated consciousness.
When we are materially contaminated, we are called conditioned. False consciousness is exhibited under the impression that I am a product of material nature. This is called false ego. One who is absorbed in the thought of bodily conceptions cannot understand his situation.
Divinity is intrinsic to us. What we call soul or consciousness is pure and divine. The mind is the tool the soul uses to see itself and to see the world, to experience itself and to experience the world. The soul can experience its intrinsic divinity only when the mind is no longer in turmoil. It is true that the soul is pure and divine, that it is never subject to change, and that peace and bliss are its intrinsic nature, but once embodied, the soul must use the mind as a tool to experience its own inherent attributes. If this tool is contaminated, the soul has no chance to experience its own nature; instead, it helplessly experiences only what the mind presents to it. In other words, when the soul is accompanied by a disturbed mind, it loses its self-awareness. That is why this pure and divine, ever-perfect soul finds itself in bondage and craves liberation.
Spiritual practices in all traditions aim at enabling us to discover our inner divinity. We visit shrines, recite scriptures, perform rituals, and meditate on sacred objects in the hope these practices will purify our mind, burn our bad karmas, add to our virtues, minimize our bondage, and bring about inner purification. But unless we undertake these practices with a clear and still mind, their effectiveness will be compromised by an agitated, wandering mind. By focusing on the mind, yoga takes us directly to the cause of our inner disturbance and clears the way for us to discover our divine nature. The Yoga Sutra tells us emphatically that the soul can be established in its true nature only after the mind has become still. By implication, it also tells us that a confused mind is not fit to follow any path—that in order to do any practice successfully, we need a disciplined and focused mind. Chanting, praying, repeating mantras, and reciting scriptures are of little value when done with a scattered mind. A practice can be effective only when the mind is fully with us, for only then can we employ it to attend our practice.
Things that contaminate our divine consciousness and do not allow us to purify our mind:
Thoughts - scattered mind.
White noise - White noise refers to a noise that contains all frequencies across the spectrum of audible sound in equal measure. Because white noise spans multiple bands of sound, it is sometimes referred to as broadband noise. Anecdotally, people often liken white noise to the static that comes from an untuned radio or television.
Regular noise - Distracting environmental noise.
Afflictive emotions - All kind of emotions that ultimately comes from and disappear on the inferior mind.
Beliefs - All kind of believes that we learn from others but not created by our own experimentation and practices.
Faith - Believes on things that otherwise cannot be proven as real.
Vedanta traditions give the solution to avoid this contamination factors called Pratyahara.
This procedure involves withdrawal of senses, or sensory inputs into our physical being, coming from our five senses and position them in our heart. One of the most common practices for withdrawal of the senses is bringing the attention inwards towards the breath, observing it without trying to control it, as connection with the external senses and stimuli are all gradually severed. Another method is to concentrate on the point between the eyebrows, the third eye. Another common technique is to first reduce physical stimuli, then concentrate on one sense, such as hearing. The mind has a natural tendency to roam between the sensory inputs. In this situation, as there are no longer any other significant sensory inputs, when the mind gets tired of hearing, it is forced to turn inward.
In other words, concentration is a skill that we need to practice over and over to be able to achieve Pratyahara.
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