Mind : ( 24/10/2012. )

Own worldly inhibitions:- Again even after full preparedness, some may find themselves for long too stagnated, without moving ahead  and reaching out into the soaring climbs, to experience the promised fullness in spirituality. This is essentially a sign of the seeker getting  entangled  with his own subtle attachments with the outer world-of-objects and with his own inner world-of-emotions and thoughts. Once the mind is thus loaded with its own inhibitions, it cannot enter into and come to experience, through meditation, the subtle layers of the Higher Consciousness. Mind must first become fully detached from its delusive preoccupations with its own worldly inhibitions, else it will not be able to move from the sheltering base to the serene peaks.[to be cont--d]

"Stop not till the goal is reached":- It is a fact that very many are disappointed  in their spiritual attempts, and they find themselves often worse off than they were before, even after years of daily meditations. Such sad failures in the many are primarily due to their unpreparedness to merit an entry into the higher realms of Consciousness.[to be cont...d]

  Wrong willing:- All tragedies and sorrows (An-artha) in life come by false and wrong willing. By right willing the mind helps the seekers to gain the higher states in heaven. Holding the mind in joy, and so quietude, stop all willing (Ni-sankalpa ) and thus win the final victory over the mind. The some total of the willing-power (Sankalpa-sakthl) is that which maintains the individual concept of a separate entity, the ego. It is this ego in us which is suffering all limitations of life. Such a miserable life of endless sorrows alone is possible in an ego-oriented arrangement of things. This attempt of an intelligent seeker is to revolutionise the world , now running under ego-oriented order of power and pleasures, through an evolutionary unfoldment within, into a God-oriented system of peace and perfection. Today all our energies are spent, every moment, in catering to the whims and fancies of this "ego-I" in us. To re-establish the Selfhood within, by ending ...

Mind: without input cannot exists:- We found that the mind threatens our inner peace with the very strength we unwittingly lend to it. In itself mind is inert. It has no life of its own. It is dead matter, ever inert and insentient. Without the fuel an automobile cannot dash forth. It is, by itself, only a mass of heavy iron, shaped as the engine! Iron by itself has no locomotion. When the driver steps on the gas the heavy engine will bring forth all its horse-power and shall dash forth  pantingly  eating up the distances. It can stop only when the driver takes his foot off the gas then, by itself, the vehicle  will slow down to even a complete halt, if the driver will only remain as a 'witness'  of the switched-off  car exhausting its gathered momentum!  In the same way mind shall come to a halt, if only the seeker could withdraw his enthusiastic participation in the mind's lusty excesses. And in fact, the Rishies who mastered their minds and c...

Self:- Swami sankaracharya : "Just as clouds born of the sun's rays cover the sun, so the mind and ego, born of the Self, veil the Self and play as though there is no Self behind them." Mind is also nothing but Self, and the Consciousness of the Self is the power from which the mind draws its strength to act and function. A seeker must assume intelligently a get-tough stance with the mind. It is the 'negative'approach to deny the mind its full and uncurbed freedom to do and act as it wills. This denial is to be steadily supplemented  with the 'positive' programme  of refusing to co-operate with the mind, and standing in yourself as a quiet 'witness'of the mind's demands and its devil-dances, its maddening rush into objects of pleasure, its clinging attachments to beings, its joys and sorrows, fears and pains, love and lusts, pride and passions, etc; just as an alert 'witness'stands on the balcony of the intellect and 'wa...

"Bondage and Freedom":- Acharya Sankara, in a final thunderous assertion says, " For all creatures, mind alone is the cause for the bondage and freedom. Mind muddled with agitations (Rajasic) binds man to his passions with attachments, while the same mind free from passions (Sattvic) is the instrument to free man from all inhibitions and perversions, and takes him to the Eternal Abode of his essential Self-hood."     No-Mind Situation:- When a mind is thus trained to withdraw from the present fields of ruinous dissipations and gets recharged with its freshly opened springs of dynamism through regular and steady contemplation, the lower mind ascends to be the higher and nobler mind. As the purification increases the mind scales higher and higher until at last the purest mind is the "No-Mind"-----which reveals the Self, the Realty. The mind ends in a blaze of illumination.   Be cheerful  and confident :- The more a seeker unnec...

Healthy physical surroundings & (daily transaction in life) :- To a student of meditation, therefore, the teacher lovingly points out and tenderly insists upon the need for frequent retreats, daily contacts with inspiring people---Satsang---daily study of the Scriptures to gather therein a refreshingly rejuvenating feed of ideas with which to nourish the mind. These are essential items of practice in the day-to-day life of a sincere aspirant of meditation. Mind is the man:- When thus the conscious outer surface of the mind is made to play in the company of such ideas, in a holy surrounding, their transforming influence slowly drips down to water the lower layers of the sub-conscious and finally gets percolated even to enthrall the unconscious levels of the mind. This is seen in our daily life. Says a Rishi, "As a wise man intensively lives a life of study and good companionship of other wise men in his waking hours, so too will be his dream world full of discussi...

Evaluate a person by his feelings:- From our last discussion it should now become obvious that the nature of mind in us alone determines the type of person we are. In fact, as our vasanas---our urges and motives, the sub-surface motivating factors within the emotional profile in us----so  are our thoughts, and as our thoughts, so are our actions(Karma). In the world a man is immediately estimated by his actions only. It is the intelligent critics who will evaluate a person by his feelings. And the rare few intelligent ones alone can truly judge a person and his character with a correct insight into his thoughts and motives.     'As we think so we become' :-      It is a very relevant and valid statement declared about a man and his behaviour. The attempts of a person practicing meditation  are to revolutionise the structure and function of his mind. This is the inner content of all effective schemes for taming the mind.   ...

ATTAIN SATTVIC BY SHEDDING TAMASIC AND RAJASIC QUALITIES:- When the mind is in the tamasic condition, it has to be whipped up with a dash of desire in to the rajasic type. The rajasic mind must learn to continue and even step up the dynamism of action, but give up more more of its selfish attitudes. This lifts the mind up into the peace and inner joy of the sattvic type, and with the change of the mind the personality of the individual also changes. Such Sattvic men are marked for great success, in a short time, in meditation. Seekers, therefore, should strive to cultivate this graceful attitude of Sattvic by training themselves to live a life of discrimination (viveka) and dispassion (vairagya), of study and reflection, of prayers and discussion, of contemplation and meditation. All simple, Sattvic students are sure to succeed spectacularly when they subject themselves to Sadhana, seriouly and sincerely. Sarvam Subham Astu: May success attend all. Practice slowly, do ...

Type of values and motives we entertain:- The force with which the sense-organs run, and the depth to which they can drag in our worldly life, will depend upon the 'frequency 'of agitations in our mind; and these agitations depend upon the type of values or motive we entertain. The qualities of values we respect:  Gets reflected in the quality of thoughts we will be entertaining in us, and the nature of our thoughts will determine the texture and nobility of our actions. Tamasic:- When the values are low, utterly selfish and extremely ego-centered the thoughts are dull, gross, and even animalistic, and naturally actions arising out of them can only be unintelligent, undignified, and meant only for gratification  of baser passions, ( today these values are on top in our land where women are not safe and secure).These people who carry such values and motives are Tamasic. Rajasic:- When the motives are slightly nobler, but are centered around a person's o...

TWO MAIN SCHEMES:- Thus, the very authoritative definition of the 'spiritual practice' itself gives us a clear hint that it embraces in itself two main  schemes:- 1.) A scheme to withdraw our anxious awareness of the sense-objects, perceived through our sense-organs. 2.) Another scheme to control the very attitude of our mind during these sense-contacts. A mind full of likes and dislikes must irresistibly get always flooded with the sense-perceptions. The direction of its devastating march and the extent of destruction it would  thereafter perpetrate, are determined by the springs of its birth--whether it got flooded up and cascaded out due to its 'likes' (Raga) or due to its 'dislikes'(Dwesha). Thus, it is clear that a seeker who is  after his own spiritual rehabilitation must, first of all, strive to tame his sense-organs and calm his mind, cultivating the more enduring values of life through study, japa, meditation, the company of good ( satsa...

HOW TO PRACTICE BRAHMAVIDYA:- We have been discussing so far, apparently a science of psychology, perhaps we may even call it a personality reconstruction technique. We were told how we can cleanse the mind of its vagaries, and empty it of its inhibitions and false values. We were advised on how we can come to re-evaluate life itself and regain a balance and an inward sense of equipoise and peace. Altogether it would read like some elementary exercises prescribed by some cheap psychiatrist. But what we are here discussing is how to practice (Abhyas) the Science of Reality--Brahmavidya. This great Vidya Abhyas, which is the secret strength inherent in the Hindu Culture, and the richest treasure we have in our scriptures, has been indicated by the Acharyas in different ways: "Through the elimination of all perceptions, when our mind gets uplifted from its natural oscillations, between likes and dislikes, we come to experience a subjective thrill of joy. To strive to reach ...

UPARAM ( RETIREMENT ) :- The more a seeker's mind retires from its direct involvement in the world of sense-objects, and from attachment to things, and beings,the more he develops what is technically called in Vedanta "retirement"( Uparam ). As the mind retires from the world outside, it enters more and more into subtler realms of the Essence. Those subtler realms are the mystic regions of strange beauty, of unearthly brilliance, of heavenly melody, of super-sensuous joys. "Retirement"of the mind leads it to "extreme peace"( Upa-sama ). SAMADHI:- "The total Quietude of  mind", The Still Intellect", "The Transcendence Experienced"-----called Samadhi.  this is the culminating goal of meditation, which is attained by a seeker, to the extent he  clutches himself off from the worldly lust-prompted activities, to that extent his becomes the march towards  the goal. LEAVING THE PRESENT STATE:- "No progress in any wa...

COMBINING THREE MAIN PATHS:- The Rishies encourage us to combine these three main paths(study, japa and meditation judiciously and thus deny the mind the least chance to wander freely into the spirituality unhygienic fields of sense--gratifications. "After listening, study, and japa, practice meditation. After emerging from meditation, engage in listening, study and japa. After japa, meditate again. At the end of meditation, pursue japa. One who is thus well trained with japa and meditation, on such a steady seeker the Supreme Auspiciousness ( Para-Siva-Parameswara ) showers His Grace. "  PARTICIPATION, INVOLVEMENT,AND COMMITTED:- While listening ( sravanam ) we only 'participate'in spiritual life. When we study (swadhyaya ) we get 'involved'in the ideas to which we listened. In japa our involvement deepens and in meditation we come to get ourselves totally 'committed to the ideal, which is the goal of all spiritual seekers.[to be cont--d]

SCRIPTURES:- Study of the Scriptures, in a spirit of total participation, directly through books-augmented with at least frequent listening to the learned exponents and a few direct contacts with the authoritative masters--is found to be very helpful in the beginning. This regular study of the Upanishads, Bhagavadgeeta, and other such spiritual literature is called Swadhyaya. MANTRA THE MYSTIC WORD:- To repeat, with or without the help of a mala , a mantra, continuously fixing our mind on the divine imports and spiritual suggestions of the 'mystic word' thus repeated, is called Japa.  This technique keeps the mind always uplifted, from the dark world-of-objects and their distracting fascinations, on to the reviving climbs of the final spiritual illumination. The chittam becomes less violent , and the mind gets more and more introvert. CONTEMPLATION :- When the thoughts have thus been nourished by study (Swadhyaya) and rendered  quiet and peaceful by Japa, to ...

IMPLEMENTATION:- ----------------------------------------/ Theoretically, everything said so far seems to be  quite acceptable. But how are the seekers to implement the technique of meditation in their life of day-to-day worldly problems and agitations, imaginations and fantasies, passions and pangs, hopes and despairs?  The path of Sadhana  must be intelligent, and it must be within the abilities of an average man to practice--if not always with ready ease and quick results; at least, when continued sincerely, with certain amount of heroic efforts, there must be some rewarding results. Else in disappointment an average seeker will leave the path and its pursuit. Our Upanishad seers have discovered a very attractive and pleasant-looking path to help us get established on the road to Reality. They seem to point out a steadily rising bridle path up to the higher summits of the mystic peaks. Thereafter, each may find his way clearly to the crown.[to be cont...

"Annihilate the mind and remain great" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------/ To realize that in the Infinite Consciousness, the Self, the mind can never be because the Self is ever Pure, is the end of the mind. An illusory power superimposed on the Self, by our delusion, is the mind.  Pause! Think! Quieten!  Experience that which comes to vision on the mind's disappearance. The immediate experience : "That Self am I"---is the realisation. In this subjective experience of your own Self you must be able to rise above all your low identifications with the baser aspects of your own personality. Identifying with your body, we prop up our "physical" personality,  and come to demand a life of physical gratifications. Becoming one with the mind, we gather a "psychological"identity, and suffer all the mental disturbances in us. Attuning with our thoughts we play the part of the "intellectual...

EGO:- This ego thoughtlessly assumes an independent  and separate existence for itself and, naturally, sees the whole world as a mighty endless array of things and beings, of circumstances and situations-all of them are ever experienced by this ego as inimical to itself. It feels lonely; in its loneliness it is overwhelmed by fear. To assure its own security the ego thereafter builds mighty phantom-fortress around itself with frail wealth, impermanent name, flimsy fame, disloyal relations, undependable friends, and maintains a thousand treacherous relationships with a million things and beings and yet, the ego feels insecure, frightened, lonely, unhappy, and altogether entirely cheated![to be cont----d]