| Listen to Prabhaata-rashmih Audio |
I have come from my computer. I was writing for the article to be published in the next Vicharasethu, ‘The Science of Inner Redemption’. Naturally the thoughts are very current in my mind.
The discussion is between Sikhidhvaja and Chūḍāla, his wife. That context should be remembered well. It is a conversation that takes place between a couple where the husband is not able to appreciate what the wife says about true spirituality, its nature, pursuit and goal. The husband became so earnest on the one hand but so deluded that he would not pay any heed to what the wife says though the wife was already an illumined person, symptoms of which the husband recognizes. In the fervor of his seeking, “What all you say is not right. Spirituality is something very hard and austere. It cannot be had in the manner in which you say, by vicāra, introspection.”
So, at the dead of night leaving her and the palace, he went to the forest, made a small hermitage there and started pursuing hardcore austerities. But the wife did not leave her belovedness. She followed him without his knowledge and at the right time after he had already become weak by his physical austerity, she appeared before him in a masked manner and Sikhidhvaja was very happy that in his lonely life he could find somebody to talk to him something about truth.
Through the conversation, Chūḍāla kept on engaging him and instilling into him more and more consciousness about the mind, the intelligence, the ego, about the truth of experiences, all experiences are inner, inner, mental, mental. With a lot of difficulty and persuasion, she was able to bring home to him that external renunciation has nothing at all in terms of substance and purpose. Renunciation has to be inner and ultimately it has to be of your very mind, he (Kumbha as Chūḍāla) says. It was not an easy lesson to drive home.
He understood. It is a very, very, thought provoking, enlightening dialogue. I am struggling in a way to condense it, condense it, eliminating dozens and scores of verses, picking up a very few and then stringing them together. I find it is very laborious for me to go through the whole lot and make selections. But because of the precious nature of the subject, I would like to do it. Now he has come to a point where he says, mind itself is not there. That is what I am writing now. I was wondering whether you would like to hear something from me on this. Would you like to hear? Please listen to me carefully without any prejudice because this is my life and mission; this point.
So he says, there is nothing like the mind at all. Mind is not existing. Now I have to make this message known to our readers, known to the world. So I was writing on it.
See, we call something to be existing only when it is sensed by our senses. For the senses to sense something, the thing apparently should become gross, external and different from the senses. So, grossness, externality, solidity etc. are characteristics of existence in our normal language and interaction. If by existence you mean something sensorily perceptible and identifiable, tell me now, is the mind sensible with the senses? No. Is it something solid? No. Gross? No. Is it something external? No. If it is not something solid, gross, external, and to be existent you want things to be gross, external and solid, then can you call the mind as existence? No. Because it does not fall in these categories. So, you cannot give the attribute ‘existence’ to the mind. There maybe an expression beyond the normal existence and that expression maybe very powerful, very effective, but you cannot call it as existence. Because to be existent means to be sensorily perceptible and it has to be gross and external. Mind is not like that. Do you agree?
If this is so, the next question is, whatever the mind thinks, feels and produces, can they be existential? When the non-existential mind, nevertheless it is experiential; that we don’t doubt. So, the feeling that all our interactions are on the basis of three pronouns, ‘I’ – first personal pronoun, ‘You’ – the second personal, and ‘He’, ‘She’, ‘It’ and ‘They’, the third personal pronouns. It is by these pronouns that we refer to all our interactions and interactional factors. Come along with me. Are not these pronouns concepts produced by the mind? Where is this 'I' except as a point of reference for you? Similarly you say ‘you’, so the 'I' is an idea of the mind, 'you' is another idea of the mind and, 'he', 'she', 'it' and 'they' are other ideas of the mind. Where are they inhering in the mind? Is the mind existing? No. So, are these existing then?
Can a barren woman give birth to a son? If the mind is a non-existent expression, can the ideas it produces be existent? No. Then where is the validity and reality for all that you are doing? Mind you, our body itself is an experience produced by the mind. When we wake up, we first of all sense our body. We see our body. We take our legs and start walking. We employ the eyes and then start seeing. The employing factor is not the body. It is the mind. And the mind itself is not gross. It is not external. Gross and external things alone you call existing. Mind not being so, it cannot be called existing. So, the non-existent but nevertheless expressive mind gives you these notions, ‘I’, 'you’, and ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’ and ‘they’. And all your vyavahārās or interactions are based upon these.
If all the interactions are based upon these concepts produced by the mind, how do you call them existential, external and gross? You cannot call. This is the last level of introspection, tattva-vicāra that Chūḍāla leads Sikhidhvaja to.
At one point of time, Sikhidhvaja sat absorbed in his meditative stillness called samādhi. He woke up after 40 minutes and then Chūḍāla says, the stillness and absorption are not the be-all and end-all of spirituality. Absorption cannot be a remedy for our life. It is something like sleep. You cannot always be sleepy. Sleeping has to be a sequel to wakefulness and also an impetus for wakefulness. Therefore samādhi is not the end.
In samādhi, because the mind is still and absorbed, no improvement in the mind can be administered. Dross and effects occur to the mind when the mind is active and interactive. So in the interactive level itself, the mind should be put to introspection, truthful, spiritual and philosophical and this introspection should have an infusional effect. And by that infusional introspection alone, the mind can be purified and whatever you realize in the still absorption will remain co-existential with you throughout. That is how you reach the stage called Sahaja Samādhi or the state of spiritual wisdom, the 'jeevan-mukta' state. This is a point I am writing. There is a lot of material in what I said.
I would like you to think about it and discuss, I don’t know whether I will be able to talk to you today except in the evening. I have to meet one or two people also. A good family has come from Kanjangad or so. They are very much given to satsang and devotion to mahātmās. I am very happy to see them. This is a place where we always discuss spiritual wisdom and particularly the jñāna sādhana. So I thought, I would speak something like this today. Mind you, mind is not a gross product. By existence we refer to gross products. Mind not being gross, being internal within the body, it is not a part of the body. It is not a physical part of the body. But body is associated with the mind. It is this mind that makes all the jugglery in this world. Unless you are able to access it, make it more and more good, pure, sublime, virtuous, pious, devotional, very much expansive, your personality will not be able to make meaning and purpose.
Money will not improve the mind. Mere academic education will not touch the mind. What touches the mind is mind’s own process called introspection. Your devotion will have to be taken to the mind level, the intelligence level, and the devotional practice should be mental and intellectual. All the flowers that you create or you use should be flowers of introspection produced by the mind and the intelligence. And you should offer them in the inmost Lord, the very soul. We have to worship the inmost presence in us. That presence cannot be penetrated or touched by an external flower. The external flower is material. It can pass through the air and fall at the feet of an idol or a picture. But what we want is a flower which will reach the inmost Lord, the soul. Imagine for a while. What is that flower? What is that offering which can reach within you in the inmost depth? This is how tattva-vicāra or truthful introspection becomes the only exercise by virtue of which you can improve your devotional, religious, spiritual, yogic and philosophical life.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.