The Impact Of Violence On Brain

2 years ago By Yogi Anoop

The Impact Of Violence On Brain

Ashtanga Yoga begins with Yama which means self-restraint. Yama is also taken in the sense of death, like Yamraj, the king of death. It can also be called "control over death" which is dying and which has constant variability. The mind and the senses are constantly changing. That is why the Indian sages called the restraint of the senses 'Yama'.

In Ashtanga Yoga, Maharshi Patanjali used five sutras for self-restraint so that he would not become a patient. The sage was fully aware of the fact that the more the mind weaves a web, the more it will get entangled. The more the mind opens that web, the more it will make itself void. That is, the mind, with the help of those 5 sutras called Yama, eliminates the snare around itself and stabilises itself. Here, stability means stopping, this state is attained only when there is self-restraint.

The five sutras classified as Yama are Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya, and Aparigraha. They help in eliminating psychopathy. In this blog, we shall discuss only non-violence (Ahimsa).

The mind is constantly over-reactive; instead of calming itself, it fights with itself. After a few years, the process of this war becomes so intense that the innermost becomes violent. A person finds someone to fight in the external world to escape the war of the inner mind. This keeps his mind busy somewhere outside the process. 

For engagement, a person relentlessly needs someone to fight because he has become accustomed to war in the innermost. People with the habitual nature of such violent thoughts become a danger to their own body and mind as well as to others.

Let us understand this better with the help of an example

Many members of Sri Krishna's family were engaged in wars for most of their lives, after the last battle like Mahabharata, all the members of the family had no reason to fight or begin any war. They were told to stay in Dwarka. After a few years of peace, they started fighting among themselves. Eventually, they ended up fighting each other.

A person who has been accustomed to war all his life, how can he sit quietly? His body-mind, every single cell of the brain has only been accustomed to war, what will he do when he has no war to fight? A violent mind is most deadly to society. The practice of violence engulfs oneself as well as society.

It is an inescapable truth that violence cannot be reciprocated by violence. The answer to violence is not violence, it can never be. The best response to violence is non-violence. Evidence of this can be seen in many sections of society, such as in Mahatma Gandhi's principle of non-violence. Whatever Mahatma Gandhi experimented with non-violence, was not only helpful in his self-development but also for society. His practice was that a violent reaction cannot change one's innermost being. Therefore, non-violence is the only solution that teaches control over one's brain and senses.

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