Mind is just a shadow.
Attempts to catch it and control it are futile.
They are just shadows chasing shadows.
You can’t control or eliminate a shadow by chasing it or by putting a shadow hand on it.
These are just children’s games.
Ram Tirtha once told a story about a small boy who ran down the street, trying to catch up with the head of his shadow.
He never managed because no matter how fast he ran, the shadow of his head was always a few feet ahead of him.
His mother, who was watching him and laughing, called out, ‘Put your hand on your head!’
When the boy followed this instruction, the shadow hand caught up with the shadow head.
This was enough to satisfy the boy.
This kind of advice may be enough to keep children happy, but it won’t produce satisfactory results in the realm of sadhana and meditation.
Don’t chase your shadow thoughts and your shadow mind with mind-control techniques because these techniques are also shadows.
Instead, go back to the source of the shadow-mind and stay there.
When you abide in that place, you will be happy, and the desire to go chasing after shadow thoughts will no longer be there.
Bhagavan (Ramana Maharshi) often told the story of a man who tried to get rid of his shadow by burying it in a pit.
This man dug a hole and then stood on the edge of it in such a way that his shadow was cast on the bottom of the hole he had just made.
After lining it up in this way, he started throwing soil on the shadow in an attempt to bury it.
Of course, no matter how much soil he put in the hole, the shadow still remained on top of it.
Your mind is an insubstantial shadow that will follow you around wherever you go.
Attempts to eliminate or control it cannot succeed while there is still a belief that the mind is real, and that it is something that can be controlled by physical or mental activity.
~ Annamalai Swami
Final talks
Rays 
Thank you so much, Amidha, for posting this piece on the shadow. Working with my shadow is lifelong, and I always appreciate words of wisdom on the subject. I once wrote a song about my shadow, “Irimi.” The lyrics are posted somewhere deep within my FB page. Again, thank you.
Dear Swami! Thank you for posting this story about the mind. It was really great! You say that mind is not real and that it is something that can not be controlled by physical or mental activity. Then, how could we have control over it since we are now “shadows” too. How can we find the “real thing” inside us who can control the mind?
One wouldn’t want to think of the mind as something that needs controlling. Mind is no more than a useful function of being.
Very educative article up to a point. How can on go back to the source of the shadow-mind and stay there? What means should one employ to “got back to the source of the shadow mind”? The only answer would be to know the one who projects the shadow. What way one should adopt to accomplish that?
People have all kinds of ways of peeling the onion, don’t you think? Some think psychotherapy will do it, some use psychedelics, I meditate and have been for 50 years, and I think that works, but it’s very labor-intensive, so you really have to love it…but my own teacher would say that we’re all on the path to the source of our beings, and all will reach the goal, when the time is right. Me, I’m in love with the divine ideal,, and so I’m in a hurry. But it isn’t necessary to do more than try to be a good person and don’t take more than your share. That starts the unveiling. The shadow is the vehicle, if we see it for what it is.