Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Relationship between mind and Self.

Q: What is the relationship between the mind which has to be purified and that consciousness into which it finally disappears?

You can say that the mind is just like an atom of the infinite. When we identify ourselves with the body and the mind, we think we are limited. This identification with the mind hides the Self. If we give up this identification and remain as pure consciousness, the mind merges into consciousness. You then know that the mind is not a separate entity. It arises in consciousness, which is Self, and again disappears into consciousness without ever becoming separate or apart from it.

Tayumanuvar said:
    The mind is like an atom. There is nobody to equal the one who has attained the state wherein the mind has dissolved in its source, because in that state there is no other.

There is nothing mysterious about the Self because no one can deny his own existence. Pure consciousness is always present and always experienced. Nobody can deny the existence of this 'I am' or its continuity in all states. Waking may happen; the dream state may appear and disappear; death may come to the body. All these things may come and go but the 'I am' will remain constant throughout. All these changing states -- birth, death, waking, sleeping, dreaming -- are just taking place within consciousness. But while these changes are taking place, the pure consciousness always remains, unchanging and unchangeable. So hold onto that and that alone.

'I am that I am: Bhagavan often quoted this teaching from the Bible and said that it summarised the whole of Vedanta. If you ask 'What is God?' it can be said quite truthfully in reply, 'The experience of this "I am" is God'. All of have this 'I am', this basic sense of existing. This consciousness is the ultimate and only reality.

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