What exactly is the mind & how do you expand it?

The essence of the mind is to accept and reject. The main cravings of the mind are the desires for name, fame, and recognition.

We expand the mind by focusing the mind om the sound of the Hare Krishna mantra.

Our mind consists of 3 subtle, or psychic elements - mind, intelligence, and false ego. So the soul is encased in two bodies - a gross, physical body and a subtle, psychic body.

The functions of the mind are to think, feel and will. The functions of the intelligence is to discriminate, remember and doubt. And the function of the false ego is to make us identify with our body and mind.

Bhagavad Gita constitutes God’s manual to humanity, not only on how to operate the mind and the body, but also, in the final issue - how to transcend the body and mind.

Krishna explains that material nature, including the body and mind, work according to the three modes of material nature - goodness, passion, and ignorance.

So the mind of a person is a combination of these three modes, and the specific combination will determine the mentality of that person.

Krishna says:

Material nature consists of three modes – goodness, passion and ignorance. When the eternal living entity comes in contact with nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, he becomes conditioned by these modes.

O sinless one, the mode of goodness, being purer than the others, is illuminating, and it frees one from all sinful reactions. Those situated in that mode become conditioned by a sense of happiness and knowledge.

The mode of passion is born of unlimited desires and longings, O son of Kunti, and because of this the embodied living entity is bound to material fruitive actions.

O son of Bharata, know that the mode of darkness, born of ignorance, is the delusion of all embodied living entities. The results of this mode are madness, indolence and sleep, which bind the conditioned soul.

O son of Bharata, the mode of goodness conditions one to happiness; passion conditions one to fruitive action; and ignorance, covering one’s knowledge, binds one to madness.

Sometimes the mode of goodness becomes prominent, defeating the modes of passion and ignorance, O son of Bharata. Sometimes the mode of passion defeats goodness and ignorance, and at other times ignorance defeats goodness and passion. In this way there is always competition for supremacy.

The manifestation of the mode of goodness can be experienced when all the gates of the body are illuminated by knowledge.

O chief of the Bharatas, when there is an increase in the mode of passion the symptoms of great attachment, fruitive activity, intense endeavor, and uncontrollable desire and hankering develop.

When there is an increase in the mode of ignorance, O son of Kuru, darkness, inertia, madness and illusion are manifested.

When one dies in the mode of goodness, he attains to the pure higher planets of the great sages.

When one dies in the mode of passion, he takes birth among those engaged in fruitive activities; and when one dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom.

The result of pious action is pure and is said to be in the mode of goodness. But action done in the mode of passion results in misery, and action performed in the mode of ignorance results in foolishness.

From the mode of goodness, real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion, greed develops; and from the mode of ignorance develop foolishness, madness and illusion.

Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the abominable mode of ignorance go down to the hellish worlds.

— Bhagavad-gita 14.5-18