Why Your Mind Matters
November 2016
By TA Balasubrramanian
Take a look at your own nature. You are walking on the street, and someone meets with an accident. The person is bleeding profusely. For a moment, it definitely upsets you. But you soon return to your current activity. However, if the victim is a family member, you rush to help, and you remain engulfed in grief and worries. Both are human beings. But the difference is that you are not involved with one, and involved with the other. Had your nature been of love, you would have been equally sad, or remained unperturbed in both cases. Love is a universal quality, whereas involvement is its perverse, narrow form.Deep Trivedi, the author of this fascinating book, invites you to introspect and imagine many such situations to drive home distinctions about how the human mind works. This is a cogent compilation of ideas, explorations and insights coupled with research findings drawn from psychology.
Trivedi is a well-known speaker and writer on the novel subject of spiritual psychodynamics. In the 19 chapters that form the core of the book, Trivedi delves into the various states of our ever-wandering minds. Each exploration of these states becomes the theme of a chapter. The themes range from complexes (such as a superiority or inferiority complex) and involvement (entanglement with others or with situations) to expectations (that create problems in relationships), creativity, ambitions and contentment. The themes are explored with appropriate anecdotes and stories, some drawn from mythologies, and others from the author's personal experiences. In particular, Trivedi often makes clear distinctions between the functions of the brain, and that of the mind which is a specific area of confusion for most people. For example, the brain is an expert at analytical thinking,whereas the mind is a swirl of emotions.The production values of the book are worth mentioning. All the pages have a creamy sepia tint. The brown text is easy on the eye. Chunks of text are interspersed with appropriate illustrations, mostly based on the image of a muscular figure in various action poses. The key insights of each chapter are highlighted in vertical sidebars, with extra large typefaces. This makes it easy for you to recall the gist of each chapter. Trivedi balances information and persuasive stories to create a compelling case for us to pause, reflect and understand the inner workings of our minds. If you are keen to examine the foundations of your puzzling mental and emotional states, this is a structured and engrossing source of knowledge. However, even if you are merely curious about the functions of the human mind, this is a breezily readable trove of insights from an expert teacher.