Without this peace of mind, Liberation is impossible

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ADVAITA BODHA DEEPIKA[LAMP OF NON-DUAL KNOWLEDGE][Originally

Sri Shankaracharya and other great Sages hadwritten several works like the commentary on the Vedanta Sutrasand thus furnished the methods for those engaged in Self enquiryto accomplish their purpose.From those, Sri Karapatra Swami later condensed thesalient

points

into

Sanskrit

verse

in

a

work

of

twelve

chapters,called Sri Advaita

Bodha Deepika.Still later, some great man seems to have translated thisinto Tamil prose. For some unknown reasons only some eightchapters

of

the

same

are

found

published.]THE MEANS OF ACCOMPLISHMENTDisciple: How can the mind be brought to stillness?Master: By dispassion, abandoning all that is dear to oneself,one can by one's efforts accomplish the task with ease. Withoutthis peace of mind, Liberation is impossible. Only when thewhole objective world is wiped out clean by a mind disillusionedas a consequence of discerning knowledge that all that is notBrahman is objective and unreal, the Supreme Bliss will result.Otherwise in the absence of peace of mind, however much anignorant man may struggle and creep on in the deep abyss ofthe shastras, he cannot gain Liberation.Only that mind which by practice of yoga, having lost allits latencies, has become pure and still like a lamp in a domewell protected from breeze, is said to be dead. This death ofmind is the highest fulfilment. The final conclusion of all theVedas is that Liberation is nothing but mind stilled.For Liberation nothing can avail, not wealth, relatives,friends, karma consisting of movements of the limbs, pilgrimageto sacred places, baths in sacred waters, life in celestial regions,austerities however severe, or anything but a still mind. In similarstrain many sacred books teach that Liberation consists in doingaway with the mind. In several passages in the Yoga Vasishta, thesame idea is repeated, that the Bliss of Liberation can be reachedonly by wiping out the mind, which is the root cause of samsara,and thus of all misery.28. In this way to kill the mind by a knowledge of thesacred teaching, reasoning and one's own experience, is to undothe samsara. How else can the miserable round of births anddeaths be brought to a standstill? And how can freedom resultfrom it? Never. Unless the dreamer awakes, the dream does notcome to an end nor the fright of being face to face with a tigerin the dream. Similarly unless the mind is disillusioned, theagony of samsara will not cease. Only the mind must be madestill. This is the fulfilment of life.