The mind is not an instrument of knowledge but it has a great formative power that is needed to organize life. Its first role therefore is to moderate the impulses, desires and vagaries of the vital, to teach it to be reasonable, to bring our lower members under the control of the discerning mind.
Then, the mind helps in individualising our being around the ego-centre by synthesizing our life around the highest ideal we can conceive of.
The mind can also helps us detach and look at things dispassionately, reflect calmly and see them for their true value.
Finally the mind can fall inwardly quiet and open in a peaceful receptivity full of aspiration towards the Light and Truth that is beyond it. It can then give form to the knowledge it receives and express it through the apparatus of speech.
These are the roles of the mind and the intellect. As we can see it has its own place in the yoga. It is only when it arrogantly believes it can or has the true knowledge through its analytical processes that it fumbles and bungles and fails and tumbles.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
