The Mechanical Mind

There is another aspect of mind that holds the habits, instincts and trained responses in place. This is what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother call the ‘mechanical mind’. There are uses and benefits to this mind, but it is one of the most rudimentary actions of mind, which arose to provide a mechanism for survival as mind began to emerge out of material life. This aspect of mind depends on repetition and protects the individual from mistakes that arise from unanticipated circumstances. It also builds in automatic reactions that respond more quickly and precisely to certain types of emergency situations than the thinking mind could do.

The mechanical mind is an important part of any training regimen whereby the individual seeks to ensure that the body and life-force respond without the intervention of the thought-mind.

There are of course serious disadvantages that accompany the mechanical mind. In particular, it can hinder the development of new responses and any growth of consciousness.

The military utilizes the mechanical mind to ensure that soldiers do not “overthink” situations they may face in battle. Much of the endless drilling, marching and automatic following of commands that occurs during basic training is focused on harnessing the power of this mechanical mind. Young children are trained with simply rhyming songs to embed certain ideas in their minds at a young age, before their higher logical faculties awaken and begin to inform their actions. Many popular songs use rhythm and repetition to fix the patterns in the mind, with the phenomenon known as “ear worms” acknowledging that these song-patterns can arise and take over the awareness at any time. They become extremely hard to dislodge.

As with every aspect of mental functioning, the spiritual aspirant has to recognise this element and find ways to overcome its influence as they work to bring forward new responses and ways of seeing and acting.

A disciple inquires: “Sweet Mother, is the physical mind the same as the mechanical mind?”

The Mother responds: “Almost. You see, there is just a little difference, but not much. The mechanical mind is still more stupid than the physical mind. The physical mind is what we spoke about one day, that which is never sure of anything.”

“I told you the story of the closed door, you remember. Well, that is the nature of the physical mind. The mechanical mind is at a lower level still, because it doesn’t even listen to the possibility of a convincing reason, and this happens to everyone. Usually we don’t let it function, but it comes along repeating the same things, absolutely mechanically, without rhyme or reason, just like that. When some craze or other takes hold of it, it goes… For example, you see, if it fancies counting: “One, two, three four”, then it will go on: “One, two three, four; one, two, three, four.” And you may think of all kinds of things, but it goes on: “One, two, three, four”, like that… (Mother laughs.) Or it catches hold of three words, four words and repeats them and goes on repeating them; and unless one turns away with a certain violence and punches it soundly, telling it, “Keep quiet!”, it continues in this way, indefinitely.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 2, Planes and Parts of the Being, pg. 49