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Since ancient times, the human philosophers have realized the importance of mind in governing the human affairs. They knew that a persons external circumstances were the result of his internal thoughts. They were aware that if the person thought riches, he would be riches, while the thoughts of poverty, success and failure would produce the corresponding effects in the persons circumstances. Today, modern science has acknowledged the truth of these findings. Hence it becomes crucial for a person to control his mind.

Yoga has specific techniques which deal with the science of mind control. We will study the nature of mind as is recognized by yoga in this chapter. Shankaracharya has defined mind in four different ways as per its functions: manas for the job of resolving and doubting; buddhi for the decision and judgment; asmita for the consciousness of its individual existence and chita for remembering the previous experiences. Mind is a vast collection of thoughts and traces of the past experiences. When you are born, your mind is the collection of samskaras collected over the previous births. Those samskaras, whose fruits have already been enjoyed have been wiped out. But as you grow up, new samskaras are being added continuously due to various acts performed by you from birth to death. This translates into the law of karma which states that the events one faces in his life are the results of the activities done by him in the past and his mind at birth contains the samskaras from his previous births. Our

Yoga recognizes five factors, basic to the mind of every person. They are called kleshas because they are the forefathers of every human misery. They are: avidya which is the false knowledge or ignorance of ones true self in relation to the objects; asmita or ego feeling since in yoga, body and soul are two different aspects; raga is the liking of pleasurable experience; dvesha or aversion to pain; abhinivesha or fear of death. Yoga understands the human behaviour from the perspective of these five qualities which are assumed to be present in a person since birth and are considered as the impurities of the mind. They make a person unstable and agitated. Hence yoga has given way of dhyana and pranayam to cleanse your mind.

Kevin Pederson, the webmaster for Yogawiz,mentions all about http://www.yogawiz.com importance of yoga, history of yoga, mind control and meditation technique through Mantra Yoga. Yoga recognizes the importance of having a healthy mind in your life.

In Yoga, understanding and chanting of OM has a great significance. Om is a syllable(akshara) or a word in Sanskrit. There is no syllable or word neither in Sanskrit nor in any other language of the world as great as OM. the syllable OM is in itself a great hymn(mahamantra). Vedic hymns are chanted only after chanting of OM.

Upanishads, the fountainhead of Indian spiritualism describe OM as Brahman. Brahman is the ultimate reality or divinity in the whole universe. All worldly things, all names and forms are only the manifestation of Brahman. The world appears to exist because of Brahman. The sense organs in the body cannot realise Brahman. The senses only feel worldly things. The senses feel worldly things for Brahman as Atman(soul) exists in all living beings.

In order to feel and realise Brahman one has to chant OM and practice Yoga. Practice of Yoga is meaningless without knowing and chanting of OM. OM should be chanted with full exhalation. Sound should come out equally from mouth and nose. With a full inhalation again one should chant OM with full exhalation. This way one should go on chanting OM for atleast half an hour before doing yogic exercises. The ultimate aim of chanting and practicing Yoga is to realise the Self(soul) that is Brahman.

By chanting of Om cells in the body becomes alert, active and concious. Elements causing disease in the body get destroyed. By chanting OM for a long duration one feels the bliss and freshness. Mind becomes free from ill-thoughts and gets concentrated. While chanting OM one should keep one's mind on the sound of OM. However the technique of chanting of OM should be learnt from a Master.

Author Premansu Chand preaches and practices Yoga. To know more about spiritualism and Yoga readers may go through his book 'Quest for truth: the spiritual and yogic way' which may be collected from http://www.bn.com or http://www.amazon.com