The experience of the Self #8

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The experience of the Self #8

 

 

 

Saradamma frequently states that she has no mind and that the

realized person is one whose mind is dead. Saradamma and Swami both

behave quite normally; looking at them it is sometimes hard to

imagine how they perform all their daily tasks without a mind. I once

asked Saradamma about this. I pointed out that she and Swamy seemed

to have good memories and that neither of them seemed to have any

difficulty in solving problems that for most people would require a

little thought. I further pointed out that both she and Swamy appear

to think and make decisions in the same way that everyone else does.

I asked her, "How are these observations reconciled by the statement

that you have no mind?"

 

Saradamma replied, "Before realization all these mental functions

were performed with the inert mind by the power of the Self. Now

everything is done by the Self. The mind had ceased to exist and now

everything that needs to be done is done automatically by the Self."

One a more recent occasion she was even more emphatic about not

having a mind:

 

 

 

Saradamma: I have no mind. Jnani's have no mind. Whatever people

write in books about jnanis keeping a little mind is not true. Ramana

Maharshi sometimes used to say that the jnani's mind is like the moon

in daylight, barely visible and not doing anything useful because the

sun (the Self) is providing all the light. This is not true and he

only said this to people who found it hard to accept the fact that

the jnani has no mind at all. Similarly, some books say that the

jnani still has some prarabdha karma {destiny to be completed in the

present life} and that the body will continue its allotted and

destined function till it dies. The jnani has no prarabdha karma

because he is not the body. I am not afraid to say these things even

though it is difficult for many devotees to understand.

 

 

 

The mind is just an inert machine, which only appears to work because

the current of the Self animates it. When the mind dives into the

Heart and is destroyed by the Self you realize that is was the Self

which was animating the mind, and that without the Self the mind

would have been inert and totally useless.

 

Everything is done by the Self: looking, turning the head,

talking, walking etc.. Before realization you imagine that it is the

mind or the body that is doing all this, but after realization you

know that it is the Self that does everything.

 

 

 

>From No Mind I Am The Self. David Godman

 

 

 

More to follow in the concept of time.