Lakshmana Swamy - The mind and its control

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-- before posting dialogues with Mathru Sri Sarada, this section is

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Typed from No Mind -- I am the Self, chapter 8: Sadhana, section The

mind and its control, pages 100 - 103

 

 

The mind and its control

 

 

Sri Lakshmana maintains that the mind is only an illusion which is

generated when the rising 'I'-thought identifies itself with the body

and imagines that it is an individual person. This illusion is then

sustained by the constant stream of thoughts which the mind

generates; the 'I'-thought identifies with all of them and thereby

sustains the assumption that the self or the mind is a continuous and

real entity. Sri Lakshmana says that if the mind is completely

deprived of thoughts, the 'I'-thought will sink back into the Heart,

and the illusory mind will disappear. Because the mind is the source

of all the individual's problems, and because it cannot survive

without thoughts, Sri Lakshmana frequently tells his devotees that

all their problems would be solved if they could only keep themselves

in a thought-free state.

Swamy sometimes talks about the mind in terms of the three gunas:

sattva (purity or harmony), rajas (activity), tamas (inertia). He

says that a mind that is full of tamas is difficult to control,

whereas a sattvic mind can easily be made to dive into the Self. He

seems to regard the rajasic mind as a desirable stepping stone on the

way from tamas to sattva. He maintains that spiritual exercises such

as japa and pranayama purify the mind, increase its sattva content at

the expense of the rajas and tamas, and make it easier for the

'I'-thought to sink back into its source.

 

Swamy: The Self is ever-present; there is no question of realising it.

You can neither reach it nor attain it because you are the Self even

now. It is said that the mind prevents one from being aware of the

Self, but the mind is non-existent. The Self alone exists, and one

who knows this knows that there is no birth, no death, no mind, no

time and no question of enlightenment. This is the final truth.

If you think, 'This is not my experience' or 'How shall I realise the

Self?', then the mind will appear to exist. All such thoughts and

doubts arise in the mind. Deprive the mind of such thoughts and mind

itself will disappears. Be quiet end still and all thoughts will

disappear. Self-enquiry and surrender are only techniques which bring

one to the state of inner stillness and quietness. The ultimate

instruction is therefore , 'Be still and quiet; stabilise in this

state and the Self will be revealed'. This instruction, 'Be quiet and

still' is likely to be misunderstood by ordinary people, and so it is

only given to ripe devotees.

 

Question: You say that the mind does not exist. How can something that

does not exist cause so much trouble and prevent us from being aware

of the Self?

Swamy: If you are obsessed which such thoughts as 'Does the mind

exist?' or 'How can something that does not exist be bothering me?',

then these thoughts will keep your attention away from the Self. The

jnani knows that the mind does not exist, but you will never discover

this state if you spend your time indulging in thoughts such as these.

Question: If I am the Self now, what is preventing me from being aware of this?

Swamy: Your thoughts and desires, get rid of them.

Question: You say get rid of desires, but one can get only rid of

desires if one has fully satisfied them and grown tired of them.

Otherwise it is just repression.

Swamy: The mind is like a fire which is fuelled by thoughts and

desires. If there are no thoughts or desires, then the fire of the

mind will die out. Indulging in one's desires in the hope of

transcending them is like attempting to extinguish a fire by pouring

kerosene on it.

Question: But there is a problem. Wanting to be without thoughts is

also a desire. There is no escape. One is either immersed in thoughts

and desires or the mind is occupied with the desire to get rid of

them. What am I to do?

Swamy: Your doubts are in the mind, and it is the mind that is

preventing you from realising the Self. Even if you get answers to

these doubts, the answers are still only in the mind. Answers produce

more questions, and these questions and answers will continue until

you die unless you ignore the mind by keeping your attention turned

towards the Self. Don't think about desires and how to get rid of

them. Just be still and quiet and all your doubts and desires will

vanish.

These questions and answers are benefiting you. They are just filling

your mind with thoughts. My last piece of advice to you is to be

humble. Be humble at all times and your humility will take you to the

goal.

 

Question: What are the different stages or levels of the mind that one

passes through before realising the self?

Swamy: Mind is only thoughts. The more easily you can be without

thoughts, the nearer you are to a direct experience of the Self. To

make the mind die you must deprive it of thoughts. The effortless

thought-free state is the highest level of practice.

There are no stages or degrees of realisation, there are only stages

of spiritual practice. The final stage of sadhana is the effortless

thought-free state. If that state can be maintained, then the 'I'

will sink into the Self and it will experience the bliss of the Self.

This is not realisation for there is still an 'I' which is

experiencing the bliss of the Self. These experiences are only

temporary; the 'I' will continue to reassert itself until the moment

of realisation. Realisation can only happen in this effortless

thought-free state, for it is only in this state that the Self can

destroy the 'I'-thought. The 'I'-thought, which is the mind, must die

completely before Self-realisation occurs.

Question: How is one to make the mind die?

Swamy: The mind can never eliminate itself without the grace of the

Self. The mind is afraid of its own death; it will not do anything to

endanger its own existence. It is like a thief who poses as a

policeman in order to catch himself; the thief will only pretend to

catch himself; the thief will only pretend to catch himself because

ultimately he wants to escape. Similarly with the mind. The mind will

engage in sadhana, thinking that it wants to destroy itself, but as

soon as the mind will start to sink into the Heart, a great fear

arises which prevents the mind from completely subsiding. This fear

is part of the mind's self-defence mechanism, and you will never

overcome it by effort alone. It is because of this that you need the

grace of the Guru. When you concentrate on the name and form of the

Guru, or try to be without thoughts, the grace of the Guru calms the

mind and helps it to overcome the fear which would otherwise prevent

it from completely subsiding.

Question: Why is it necessary for the mind to die?

Swamy: The mind must die, there is no other way to realise the Self.

Some people say that the complete equanimity of mind is

Self-realisation, but this is not true. This is only a stage one

passes through on the way to Self-realisation. Other people say that

seeing the Self or God everywhere is Self-realisation, but this is

not true either. To see the Self everywhere there must be an 'I' who

sees, and while that 'I' exists the mind will also exist. The jnani

does not see anything because the seeing entity in him has died. In

the Self there is no seeing, only being. When the mind still exists

one can reach a stage where one can see the whole world as a

manifestation of the Self, but when the mind dies, there is no one

who sees and no world to be seen.

If you have a mind then the earth, sky and stars will exist and you

will be able to see them. When the mind dies there will be no earth,

no sky, no stars and no world. The world of objects, names and forms

is only the mind, and when the mind dies, the world dies with it.

Only the Self then remains.

Seeing everything as the Self gives the impression that the Self is

equally distributed everywhere. This is also an idea in the mind.

When the mind finally dies you realise that there is no distribution

and no everywhere.

 

Swamy: Self-realisation can be compared to the rising of the sun.

First there is the blackness of total darkness. This is the mental

state of tamas. Most people in the world are fully immersed in this

tamas state. Just before dawn a red band appears on the horizon. This

red symbolises the rajas state, and when the rajas increases at the

expense of tamas, this is an indication that a little spiritual

progress is being made. Next, daylight comes. The sun has not yet

risen, but the sky is white in colour. This white is the white of

sattva, and when the whiteness of sattva has dispelled the blackness

and redness of night and early dawn, it is an indication that

realisation is near.

Finally the sun appears in a blazing light. This is Self-realisation.

Although there are prior indications of its imminent arrival, when

Self-realisation finally comes it comes completely unexpectedly.