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    Excess heat in our physical system is referred to as "fever" and fever leads to unpleasant outcomes. Similarly, mental fever has symptoms such as anxiety, excitement, intoxication, agitation, etc. Overly strong excitement destroys understanding, thoughtfulness, and judgment.  When strongly excited, a person thinks the unthinkable and does things he would otherwise consider sinful. Such a state is undoubtedly undesirable for humans. We lose mental peace when we come under the spell of worries, sadness, desperation, fear, anger, and restlessness, quite often as a result of a difficult situation in our lives or as a result of a conflict with another person. Conversely, when we are suddenly successful or suddenly rich, we get caught in pride, jealousy, extreme pleasure, and extreme indulgence. Stimulation, whether positive or negative, does strange things to our internal state, leading to dreadful consequences.

People who are prone to sudden excitement or sudden anger often have weak minds. They find it hard to focus the mind, making success a distant reality. Majority of their thoughts are short lived. This is how mental imbalance not only becomes a major roadblock to success, but it also leads to decline.

Mental imbalance is the root cause of failure

Mental disturbance renders it impossible to succeed in both the material as well as the spiritual worlds.  This is because a stable mind is essential to gather up the concentrated strength and resolve that we need in order to succeed. A stimulated or angered mind is like a shaking hand; it makes it impossible to aim correctly. In the state of restlessness, it is extremely difficult to differentiate between the right and the wrong courses of actions.

Mental imbalance and stimulation leads to haste. This impetuosity can often lead to narrow views and childish behaviors. Imagine a child playing the role of a gardener. The child plants the seed, waters the earth, waits a few minutes, and then checks to see if the seed has sprouted or not. On seeing an unsprouted seed, the child buries it back in the sand, waits a bit more and repeats the action. On getting frustrated with the failure to sprout the seed, the child proceeds with alternative strategies like putting some stems in the ground and then waiting for the stems to grow leaves and fruits.

Further, the child just goes ahead and ties some stones to the stems, as if the stones were fruits. This garden is far from satisfying to the child. The child eventually destroys the garden and moves on to the next play. What is surprising is that we, the adults, often exhibit this childish behavior in our fields of experience.  We start something with great gusto. This initial excitement turns into haste and we can hardly wait to succeed. Waiting becomes a painful exercise. Then, disappointment sets in, and we often abandon the effort. We repeat this often, with various tasks and resolutions, small as well as big, throughout our lives. Similar to the child, we adults are unable to anticipate roadblocks and difficulties on the path to success, in our haste for instant gratification.

In olden days, a disciple had to prove immense patience for acceptance by a Guru, the teacher.  The upanishads mention activities such as herding cows, and collecting wood, as examples. Lord Indra underwent a long and arduous wait before acquiring knowledge. The gurus knew that patience and perseverance are essential for success. In order to ensure that the hard work of instruction and teaching did not go waste, the gurus made these qualities as prerequisites for learning. One might learn the alphabet and earn a certificate or two, but that is far from learning anything useful. To a person of restless and eager disposition, therefore, learning makes little difference.

Haste and restlessness obstruct the road to success. It takes time for actions to bear fruit. For the cotton plant to turn into cloth, it goes through several tiers of strenuous processes and contraptions. In this age of great upheaval and social change, those who do not have the perseverance to see the cotton seed through the difficult stages should not expect to see any cloth at the end. The road to success is commonly laden with delays and difficulties. Sometimes, circumstances can make these obstacles quite daunting and we need time and great effort to overcome them. Even further, we have to be ready to face repeated downturns, and sustain our efforts with unyielding patience and hard work. Eager and restless people are not capable of this unshakable patience and give in to roadblocks, often creating a trail of repeated failures.

Distractedness, doubt, and a fickle mind is a type of mental ailment. What if the work is not finished? What if some unforeseen difficulty crops up? What is the result is unexpected? Such dilemmas, a lack of trust, and a lack of enthusiasm keep the mind confused. There is no devotion to the task at hand, leading to a half hearted effort. Such a mind is always looking for something "else" to do. Nothing gets done, as a result. To make matters worse, mistakes and debacles increase. Anything planned with half a heart is planned poorly, without a thorough consideration of the pros and the cons. Such planning therefore is more imaginary than real. Leaving one job unfinished and starting another half-baked one eventually leads only to frustration over failures.

Mental imbalance causes spiritual downfall too

Other than the materialistic effects discussed so far, mental imbalance has spiritual effects as well. Agitation of the mind causes a surge in ego and greed. Ego and greed lead to all sorts of spiritual frailties. Ego intoxicates; a man with a bloated ego believes himself to be substantially superior to others. He expects people to wait for him, listen to him, and consider him important; when they don't, he gets bitter and offensive. When he sees someone acquire more money, more fame, or more strength than him, jealousy takes over. To satisfy his ego, he needs to be very accomplished. Accomplishment and accolades often require strong character and persistent hard work. Overcome by his ego, his mind is often driven to the alternative and easier path of dishonesty and impropriety.

Mental imbalance can also have the converse effect, that of a lapse in self esteem.  A man with a low self esteem considers himself unworthy and stays so. An inferiority complex overshadows all his intuition, robbing him of all his strength and courage. He is unable to succeed and he is unable to defend himself against any injustices of which he becomes an easy target. Just like the ego ridden man, the one with a low self esteem also takes refuge in dishonesty, albeit for different reasons.  Cheating, tricking the system, shortcutting, bribery are some of the ways this refuge manifests. He is ridden with mental problems such as depression, guilt, frustration, fear, and anxiety.

In summary, acquiring as well as safe guarding self esteem is the natural and positive tendency of our soul. When we obstruct this process, mental balance is destroyed and we tend toward dishonest and spiritually inferior means.

Mental balance and equanimity

Mental balance resonates well with the equanimity mentioned in the Indian Scripture, Srimad Bhagvad Gita. When we feel just as powerful to abstain as we do to indulge, we are in a state of mental balance and equanimity.

To manifest this equanimity in real life, it is not enough to merely unattach; we must also give up all aversion. Some ascetics fell into that trap. They tried to attain equanimity by giving up all attachment by way of staying averse to the material world and going far away from it, thus eliminating all chances of serving mankind. In their pursuit of getting out of the joy – sorrow cycle, they just severed contact with the material world.

Equanimity is the state of mind resulting from the conjunction of two attributes that take us in opposite directions. Compassion inspires us to alleviate suffering in fellow human beings.  Emotional indifference, on the other hand, removes us from the sufferings of others. Mind is balanced when we have compassion as well as indifference in equal measure. Compassion has the strength to connect and bond humans, whereas indifference has the power to alienate and to avoid extreme attachment with them.

Contentment and hard work follow a similar pattern: the first inspires retirement and abstinence from working and the second inspires action and involvement. There are many such pairs of attributes that balance each other out, like majesty vs. modesty, accurate speech vs. sensitive speech, self-defense vs. forbearance, cordiality vs. firmness, complaisance vs. fearlessness, service vs. nonattachment, and freedom vs. responsibility. For any of these combinations, if one is more developed than the other, the mind will be imbalanced. If we love freedom without a fully developed sense of responsibility, we run the risk of doing harm by shirking from our duties. Freedom without responsibility, therefore, does not reach its full potential.  As another example, persistence, when unaccompanied by a sense of cordiality, can turn into useless stubbornness. The opposing attributes contain as well as complete each other.

A man who has the power to punish, but is also capable of suffering indignation, can punish effectively and in a non-violent way. A man who loves to serve, but is also aware of the dangers of serving lazy and inactive people, serves well. A man who is devoted without being subservient is a man with a balanced and therefore powerful mind.

When two streams of thought take us in two different directions, the combination of the two leads to a balanced thought process.   Personal happiness inspires us to do what is good for us; public happiness inspires us to do what is good for the world. When these two points of view merge together, we get a balanced course of action. Eastern vs. western thought, materialism vs. spiritualism, and idealism vs. realism are all opposing points of view that, when combined, lead to the perfectly balanced point of view.

Imbalance results from neglecting one thing while overdoing another.  It is asymmetric to going blindly after one thing, like money or learning. To experience immeasurable mental peace and hence success, we should pay attention to and develop all aspects of our lives, refraining from getting sidetracked into developing only one aspect.

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