satva purity is a prerequisit to hearing. Once the mind is pure, then hearing manifests of its own accord.

[Guest guest]

Dear Victoria,

 

Essentially, all other yogas are means for purification f the mind. Once the mind becomes pure, what dawns is a discernnig Force of Intelligence, we call atma vichara. At that stage yoga, or the dissolving of the illusory sense of separation, begins.

 

The main issue is becomeing pure / satvic. Prior to that much of what is called atma vichara is simply intellectualism, another version of the continuous process of Janaka's thief.

 

Atma vichara begins with "hearing" (sunia / sravana), continues with rememberance (mania / manana) and culminates with perfect abiding or absorption in Love.

 

Some call this meditation on "Will" where Will is the subjugation of the mind and body to the substratum of the "I" which is to say the sense of "I" pulses continuously inward and outward, single and all pervasive.

 

Yoga practice (diferent from Yoga) is meant to distill the attatching tendency of the mind to rising images perculating up from the subconscious. Then the mind crystalizes into its true form, which is satvic. Then Yoga arises / awakens by Itself. The Self, infinite, single and pervasive Being, is That which illumines each of us denoting the feeling of "I" in the body. When the mind is polished, it reflects its True Identity. With the dawning of this Truth, the old mind of subject/object simply ceases to exist.

 

When the mind is pure, simple reading of texts, such as the one below, brings about the atma sphurana pulsing of the sense of "I" in the Hrdayam, irradiant through atma nadi, outshining everything in the sahasrara.

 

Before the mind becomes pure, all we have are words such as those of Christ: "Those who have ears to hear, let them hear what the spirit has to say...."

 

Once the mind is pure then the purpose of the spiritual texts is realized with the prayer to Christ: "Speak but the Word and my soul will be healed."

 

Pieter

 

Sat, 6 Dec 2003 11:25:03 +0200 "viorica weissman" <vioricaMaharshi's Gospel - <66>,<67>D. Why should Self-inquiry alone be considered the direct means to jnana? Maharshi: Because every kind of sadhana except that of atma-vichara presupposes the retention of the mind as the instrument for carrying on the sadhana, and without the mind it cannot be practiced. The ego may take different and subtler forms at the different stages of one's practice, but is itself never destroyed. When Janaka exclaimed, " Now I have discovered the thief who has been ruining me all along. He shall be dealt with summarily," the king was really referring to the ego or the mind. D. But the thief may well be apprehended by the other sadhanas as well. Maharshi - The attempt to destroy the ego or the mind through sadhanas other than atma-vichara is just like the thief turning out a policeman to catch the thief, that is, himself. Atma-vichara alone can reveal the truth that neither the ego nor the mind really exists, and enables one to realize the pure, undifferentiated Being of the Self or the Absolute. Having realized the Self, nothing remains to be known, because it is perfect Bliss; it is the All.