How To Purify Our Minds

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Our trouble is that our soul longs for infinite joy, infinite love,

infinite bliss. But we want, we try to find that in the finite and if

we don't succeed we feel frustrated. The Guru said, `If you want real

joy, unbounded joy, you have to reach the Infinite'. So the question

was: What is meant by the Infinite? It is that which is everywhere -

above, below, to the right and to the left. But how to reach it? Here

the great ancient teacher Sanat-Kumara gives us in a nutshell the

whole course of spiritual discipline. " Food should be pure. When food

is pure, our nature becomes pure, and when nature becomes pure, mind

becomes pure, and when the mind becomes pure, we remember our

spiritual nature. Gradually we are established in spiritual

consciousness and that is emancipation. That is freedom when the Self-

Consciousness (Divine) has dawned, when we have realised the Infinite

Spirit. Once that is done, one feels oneself one with the Infinite

Spirit, and all bonds drop off. " Let us now try to understand the

meaning of ahara (food): ahara is what we take. Does it mean pure

food? Pure Sattvic food? Pure vegetarian food? How far does it help?

It helps a little; but unless you know how to purify the mind,

nothing happens. There are plenty of wicked people who are

vegetarians. What type of vegetarians are they? Lord bless them! You

feed a poisonous snake with the purest of milk. It will manufacture

poison, won't it? So something of our poisonous nature is to be

discarded. Therefore, Shankara observes: `All right! you take pure

food, but that is for the nourishment of the body. But the food that

you take through the eye, through the ear, through the senses and the

mind, all that food also should be pure. Then, your nature becomes

pure, the subtle body becomes pure, and then comes illumination.'

 

Some of you might have seen the three Japanese monkeys; you know, one

monkey is closing both the ears, another both the eyes and another

the mouth. During my stay in Europe, in Switzerland, I came across a

stone carving on the beach of the lake on which Geneva is situated.

It was in a small town. There also there were the three monkeys, but

with this difference, one had only one eye closed, another had only

one ear closed and the third had half of the mouth closed. I was

taken aback for a moment. I thought: `What is this?' Then came in a

flash. I understood the meaning, `Don't see what is bad; see what is

good. Don't hear what is bad; hear what is good. Don't say what is

bad; say what is good.' First I thought it was an original idea. Then

my mind turned to the Upanisads. There is a text, a peace chant: `Let

us see what is " Bhadra " - good. Let us hear what is " Bhadra " . Let us

sing the glory of the Divine Spirit.' That is to be done. And, when

you have done that, to some extent, the mind becomes pure. Make the

best use of your vocal organ. You may make bad use of it saying some

awful things. Don't do it. Take the name of the Lord - any Name that

appeals to you. Meditate on any aspect that appeals to you with an

amount of devotion. After some time you will find, your mind is

becoming pure. The Divine Name, the Divine Form, uplifts you. Later

on, you may even have a glimpse of your Ista Devata, a glimpse even

of the universal Spirit.

 

- Swami Yatiswarananda