Detach from the mind.

Whenever we are in a meditative state, all is clear. Then vāsanās which have previously been hidden within the mind arise and cover this clarity. There is no easy solution to this problem. You have to keep up the enquiry, 'To whom is this happening?' all the time. If you are having trouble, remind yourself, 'This is just happening on the surface of my mind. I am not this mind or the wandering thoughts.' Then go back to the enquiry 'Who am I?' By doing this you penetrate deeper and deeper and become detached from the mind. This will only come about after you have made an intense effort. 

If you already have a little clarity and peace, when you make the enquire 'Who am I?' the mind sinks into the Self and dissolves, leaving only the subjective awareness 'I-I'. Bhagavan explained all this to me in great detail when I was going for his darshan between 1938 - 1942. 

Reality of mind, ego.

Q: It is fairly easy to stop a thief from breaking into a house. You just lock the door. But in this particular case the thief is already inside. First we have to catch him and throw him out. Only then can we safely close the door.

To believe that that this thief is something real, something that has to be fought and caught, is just like believing that your shadow is some kind of alien intruder who needs to be fought and expelled. If you try to raise your hand to hit your shadow, your shadow will also raise its hand to hit you. You cannot win a fight with your mind because all your fights will be like shadow-boxing. You cannot knock out your shadow by hitting it because there is nothing there to receive the blow. The shadow will keep dancing around for as long as you keep dancing around trying to hit it. There are no winners in a fight like this, only a lot of frustrated losers. If you start from the assumption that the mind is real and that you have to fight it and control it by manipulating your thoughts in some way, the mind will get stronger, not weaker. If a particular sādhanā assumes that the mind is real, the practising of that sādhanā  perpetuate the mind rather than eliminate it.

The ego is just like a ghost. It has no real form of its own. If you see what the ego really is by enquiring 'Who am I?' it will simply run away. The mind has no substance and no form. It exists only in the imagination. If you want to get rid of something that is imaginary, all you have to do is cease to imagine it. Alternatively if you can be continuously aware that the mind and all its creations only exist in your imagination, they will cease to delude you and you will cease to be troubled by them. For example, if a magician creates a tiger, you need not be afraid of it because you know that he is only trying to trick you into believing that it is a real and dangerous tiger. If you don't believe that the tiger is real or dangerous, you don't get afraid.

When the cinema was first introduced here some village people became afraid when they saw things like fire on the screen. They ran way because they believed that the fire would spread and burn the theatre down. When you know that everything that is happening is only appearing on the screen of consciousness and that you yourself are the screen on which it all appears, nothing can touch you, harm or make you afraid. 

People who believe in the reality of the world are really no better than people who build dams to catch the water that they see in a mirage.

Continuous attentiveness

Continous attentiveness will only come with long practice. If you are truly watchful, each thought will dissolve at the moment that it appears. But to reach this level of disassociation you must have no attachments at all. If you have the slightest interest in any particular thought, it will evade you attentiveness, connect with other thoughts, and take over your mind for a few seconds. This will happen more easily if you are accustomed to reacting emotionally to a particular thought. If a particular thought causes emotions like worry, anger, love, hate or jealousy to appear in you, these reactions will attach themselves to the rising thoughts and make them stronger. These reactions often cause you to lose your attention for a second or two. That kind of lapse gives the thought more than enough time to grow and flourish.

You must be completely impassive and detached when thoughts of this kind appear. Your desires and your attachments are simply reactions to thoughts that appear in consciousness. You can conquer them both by not reacting to new thoughts that arise. 

You can transcend the mind completely by not paying any attention to its contents. And once you have gone beyond the mind you never need be troubled by it again.

After his realisation King Janaka said, 'Now I have found the thief who has been stealing my happiness. I will not allow him to do this any more.' The thief who had been stealing his happiness was his mind. 

If you are always watching with open eyes, thieves cannot enter. They can only break in while you are asleep and snoring. Similarly, if you are continuously alert, the mind cannot delude you. It will only take over if you fail to keep your attention on rising thoughts.

How to disentangle from mind.

Let the mind go wherever it wants to go. You don't have to pay any attention to all its wanderings. Just be the Self and don't concern yourself with the activities of the mind. If you take this attitude, the activities and wanderings of the mind will become less and less.

The mind only wanders around all day because you identify with it and pay attention to all its activities. If you could establish yourself as consciousness alone, thoughts would no longer have any power to distract you. When you have no interest in thoughts they fade away as soon as they appear. Instead of attaching themselves to other thoughts, which then spin off countless other thoughts and ideas, they just appear for a second or two and then vanish. One's vāsānas make thoughts arise. Once they have arisen, they will repeat themselves in regular chains and patterns again and again. If you have any desires or attachments, thoughts about them will be constantly appearing in the mind. You cannot fight them because they thrive on the attention you give them. If you try to repress them, you can only do it by giving them attention. And that means identifying with the mind. This method never works. You can only stop the flow of thoughts by refusing to have any interest in it.

If you remain in the source, the Self, you can easily catch each thought as it rises. If you don't catch the thoughts as they rise, they sprout, become plants and, if you still neglect them, they grow into great trees. Usually, the inattentive sādhaka only catches his thoughts at the tree stage. 

If you can be continuously aware of each thought as it rises, and if you can be so indifferent to it that it doesn't sprout or flourish, you are well on the way to escaping from the entanglements of the mind.

Journey inwards towards the Self

Q: I know that peace will eventually come but at the moment I need to make a great effort to get even a little taste of it.

When we desire to get away from all the troubles that identifying with the body causes us, we can go inwards, towards the Self. Instead of toiling and suffering in the mind, which is the outer edge of consciousness, we should move towards the Self, the centre of our being. 

As we start to move inwards we experience the peace and bliss of the Self in a very diluted form. The deeper we go, the stronger the experience becomes. Eventually a time will come when we don't want leave this experience at all. Instead, there is a continuous urge to go deeper and deeper into the Self. When you lose all desires and attachments, the pure gold of the Self will reveal itself to you. In that final state you don't experience peace and bliss. You are that peace and bliss. In that state you are the equal of Siva.

You are saying that you have to make a great effort to experience even a little peace. Don't worry about this. Your effort will pay off sooner or later. If you persevere the peace and bliss will come unasked. If you give up your attachment to all thoughts except for the thought of the Self, you will find yourself being pulled automatically into the peace of the Self. If you practise intensively and correctly you will find that the experience of this peace is addictive. When this happens you will lose interest in everything except the Self.

Focus your mind on 'I am'

Q: I am trying with my mind to feel some love and devotion towards this 'I am' which I feel is the real form of Bhagavan. But this is a very difficult thing to do. There is no pleasure in it. It is a perpetual struggle. Am I doing something wrong?

If you focus your mind on this 'I am' you need not do anything else. You do not have to cultivate a particular attitude towards it. If you keep your attention on it, it will eventually reveal all its secrets to you.

If you focus your mind on this 'I am', this immanent consciousness, and if you can establish yourself there for some time, you will begin to experience some peace. When the thought processes are not present, even for a moment, one gets a lot of spiritual energy. When that energy and that feeling of peace come, one gets more encouragement, more enthusiasm. When you have had a little experience of the peace and bliss of the Self you always feel a determination to go back for more. Once you get this enthusiasm and this determination, the feeling of struggling unsuccessfully gradually diminishes.

Surrender

Q: Surrender is a mental attitude. When we are sitting in front of the Guru it is relatively easy because there is constant awareness of his form. But how can one surrender if one is a long way away from him?

Bhagavan himself taught that if we practise his teachings and remember his form we can be in touch with him wherever we are. If one has received the opportunity to surrender to the Guru, physical distance does not matter. In fact, if your faith is strong and if your practice is continuous, it is sometimes easier to have better contact at a distance. 

Q: Can't some use be made of this energy (of the Self)? What can one do with it?

Sakti is the Self and the Self is sakti. When you know that you are not the body or the mind, how can you do anything? In that state there will be no 'I' to instigate any activity. In that state everything will happen automatically.

Sakti is the santi of the Self. If you do tapas and if you don't dissipate your energy through sensory indulgence you will feel the power of the Self accumulating inside you. You can also feel it radiating outwards to the people around you. You don't lose your power when you radiate it naturally like this because the power of the Self is infinite. You only lose it if you move your attention away from the Self and get involved in pointless mental and sensory excesses. 

Energy of the Self.

Q: Is the energy one receives from the Self constant or does it fluctuate? Does the body or the mind store it any way?

In deep sleep the mind and the body are renewed. On awakening there is a feeling of energy and bliss, but almost immediately the sense organs become active and desires arise. When this happens, the energy you have stored up during sleep gets dissipated. If you can control the mind and the senses so that neither of them succumbs to external stimuli, you can build up energy and power in the body.

Energy is increased in solitude. When you are alone it is less likely to go out through the indriyas [the five senses] and the mind. 

Arunagirinathar, the famous saint of Thiruvannamalai, once sang a song which says, 'The senses are thieves who steal the energy of the Self'

Vasanas and Nirvikalpa samadhi

Q: It is clear that vasanas are not destroyed during sleep. Are they destroyed by nirvikalpa samadhi, or does this state have no effect on them?

Bhagavan taught that we should aim for sahaja samadhi, not nirvikalpa samadhi. He said that it was not necessary to experience nirvikalpa samadhi prior to enjoying sahaja samadhi.

One form of nirvikalpa samadhi is like laya, like deep sleep. There is peace while the samadhi persists, but when the experience is over the mind rises and the vasanas become just as active as before.

Laya [temporary suspension of all mental faculties in a trance like state] is virtually the same as sleep. Experiencing this state is not helpful to your sadhana. Laya is not meditation, it is un consciousness; it is tamoguna in a very strong form. Meditation needs an awake mind, not an unconscious one. Sleep and laya increase the identification with the mind. You may feel a little peace during laya, but when you wake up from this state the  mind becomes very active again and the peace is all lost.

In the peace of the Self there are no vasanas. If you can establish yourself in the Self, all vasanas will be destroyed. Witness the vasanas as they arise but don't identify with them or act on them. If you want to get rid of your vasanas you must learn to practise non-involvement.

If you feel yourself identifying with a vasana when it starts to rise, remind yourself, 'This vasana is not me' and withdraw into the Self. If you learn to ignore your vasanas in this way they will eventually stop rising. 

Q: When I first started meditating I had an intense desire for liberation. This period lasted for 3 - 4 years. In the last twelve months my enthusiasm has been slipping. I now seem to be more and more content with my worldly life.

The satisfaction which comes from the outside world is transient. At death it will all be lost. Human life is given to you for the sole purpose of realising the Self. If you die without realising the Self your life has been wasted. Death can come at any time. I am telling you this so that you will become aware of your own death. If you are constantly aware of the possibility that you may die at any moment, your enthusiasm will increase. Try to cultivate this awareness and see if it makes any difference to your sadhana.

Q: I meditate a lot but most of the time I don't seem to get any results. When I cannot quieten my mind, is all my effort wasted, or will it bear fruit at some future time?

Most minds are like wet wood: they need a long period of drying out before they catch fire. While you mind is on the Self it is drying out. When it is on the world it is getting wet again. The effort you expend in keeping the mind turned towards the Self is never wasted. It is only wasted when you lose interest and never to your old mental habits. 

Don't worry if your efforts do not produce immediate results. Sooner or later you will get your reward. 

Suffering and helping the world.

There is no society, there is no suffering and there is no world. The world, the society and the suffering that you perceive are all part of your dream. They have no reality except in your own mind. 

If you see a hungry man in your dream you can cook him a dream meal and give him some dream food. That will give him some temporary relief. If instead, you wake up, you solve the problem permanently because you discover that the hungry man only existed in your imaginary dream world. 

The world is like a reflection in a mirror. The world which we see is merely a reflection of our guns, our own state of mind. We see the reflection, forget the mirror, and imagine that we are looking at a real world which is separate from us.

You are continuously radiating a mental energy which affects everything and everyone around you. If you are in a rajas or a tamasic state you are automatically infecting the world with your unwholesome state of mind. The jnani, who is established in the reality beyond the guns, experiences only continuous peace and bliss. He alone can help other people by radiating this peace and bliss to them. If you try to help this world with some physical activity, the good that you do may be more than wiped out by the negative mental vibrations which you inflict on the world. If you make your mind pure, you automatically help everyone in the world because each person will receive a cleansing and healing measure of your own purity.

An ant is walking on the floor with a grain of sugar on its back. Suddenly a man steps on it and kills it. Finish: instant death. We are in the same situation as the ant, for death may come at any moment. You can take nothing with you when you die, not even your mind. So why not die to the world now?

The world that you are attached to is nothing more than a long dream. You may feel hungry in our dream and then wake up to find that you are suffering from indigestion pains because you ate too much the night before. How much reality do you then give to the hunger pains that you felt in  your dream?

If you see suffering all around you it is just a reflection of your own inner suffering. If you want to alleviate suffering go to the root cause which is the suffering inside yourself. Immerse yourself in the Self. End the maya dream and wake up to the real world of jnana. Your ideas about the world are all wrong because you are misperceiving it. Your mind is processing what you see in such a way that it makes you think that there is a suffering world outside and apart from you. If you want to get rid of that suffering world you must eliminate the mental processes that make you misperceive it. When you reach the state of jnana there will be no misperceptions. Your vision will be completely clear. You will be aware that there is no suffering and now told. You will be aware that the Self alone exists.

Bhagavan's Mauna Diksha

Q: I have read a lot about Bhagavan's method of teaching through silence. You must have experienced it on many occasions. Can you explain how it operated?

If you enter a dark place with a lamp, light falls on everyone who is near you. You don't have to tell people, 'I have a light' because they will all be aware of its presence. In the presence of a jnani like Bhagavan the spiritual darkness of devotees is put to flight by the radiant light of jnana. In Bhagavan's case this light cleaned and calmed the minds of all who were near him. When mature devotees basked in this light they sometimes had an experience of the Self. The radiation of this spiritual powers was Bhagavan's mauna diksha [initiation through silence]. He radiated this power quite effortlessly. It was not done by an act of volition, it was a natural consequence of his realisation. Bhagavan didn't need to speak about the Self. He was the Self and he radiated its power all the time. Those who were receptive to this power needed no verbal explanations from Bhagavan. The spoken teachings were one for those who were not able to tune into his silent radiation.

Brahmacharya

Q: Is brahmacharya necessary if one is seeking Self realisation?

Help each other on the path as friends. If there is any sexual desire you will lose some spiritual power. Even if you just look at someone and feel some desire towards them, you lose a little spiritual energy. In a family situation there are always strong attachments. The husband will give a lot of love to his wife and vice versa. Both will give a lot of love to the children. If you are serious about sadhana, remain unmarried and put all your energy into self enquiry. You cannot hold onto the Self while you still have strong attachments to other people. 

Looking at Bhagavan's picture vs Self Enquiry

Q: I know that Bhagavan is within all forms but sometimes I feel that it is easier to feel his grace by concentrating on an image of him. Self-enquiry is such hard work. One rarely feels blissful or peaceful doing it. Sometimes I feel like treating myself to a little bliss by looking at Bhagavan's picture for a while. 

There is nothing wrong with looking at Bhagavan's picture. It is a very good practice. But you should not get sidetracked from your main objective which is establishing yourself as consciousness. Don't get attached to states of bliss or give them priority over the quest for the Self. If you become attached to peaceful or blissful states you may lose interest in your main quest. It is good to feel blissful and peaceful but don't indulge yourself in these states at the expense of self-enquiry. If you realise the inner Self, if you realise that there is not an atom which apart from the Self, you will experience the real peace and bliss of the Self. You will be the peace and bliss rather than being the experiencer of it. If you enjoy temporary states of peace and bliss in the mind, the experience of that peace and bliss will not want to subside into the Self and disappear. 

Don't get attached to mental peace. Go beyond it to the real peace which comes from being the Self.

Bhagavan's form.

One must keep one's attention on the Self if one wants to make progress on the spiritual path. But since Bhagavan is also the Self, you can also make progress by thinking of him. It is good to feel love and devotion towards Bhagavan. The more we love him, the more his grace flows to us in return. 

When I used to look at Bhagavan's picture he seemed to be saying to me, 'I went beyond this body and established myself as consciousness. Now you try and do the same.'

Bhagavan is the Self. If you concentrate on his image he will call you towards him. He will try to pull you towards the real Self. 

Having love for Bhagavan and having love for one's own Self are the same. If we have devotion and love towards the form of Bhagavan and surrender to him, he will take us towards the reality.

One cannot see the Self, consciousness, because it is not an object that can be perceived. But we can keep our attention on the Self indirectly by having darshan of Bhagavan's form.

Being a Bhakta ...

Q: I feel that the bhakti path is an effortless way. When I enquire 'Who am I?' I feel that I must make a great effort to make the mind subside. The bhakti path seems to be more sweet, more joyful and more effortless. 

It is always good to worship the Guru, but abiding in the Guru's teachings is far better. You can follow the bhakti path if you want to but you should remember that is is almost impossible for the devotee to judge whether he is making progress or not. You should not jump to the conclusion that you are not making progress with your self-enquiry simply because you find it hard to do. And you should not think that you will make more progress as a bhakta simply because you find it easy to generate joyful states of mind.

The same consciousness which is within you and within Bhagavan's form is within all other forms. We must learn to contact this consciousness by being aware of it at all times.

Q: There is a verse in Arunachala Mahatmyam which says that all those who live within a thirty-mile radius of Arunachala attain liberation without any effort or initiation. What does Swami think of this verse?

'I, the Lord, ordain that those who reside within three yojanas [about 30 miles] of this place [Arunachala] shall attain union which removes bondage even in the absence of initiation.'


For liberation there must be continuous remembrance of Arunachala. One must also have faith in Arunachala and surrender to it. Arunachala is pure consciousness; it is not an inert lump of rock. If you have faith that Arunachala is a Guru who will guide you, it will respond with the appropriate guidance. But to get this guidance one must surrender to the mountain and have strong faith in it. 

Arunachala is like a fire; if you come near it you may get warm or even burnt. But if you are wearing insulation, even though you are physically near, you may not feel the fire.

Pradakshina of Arunachlala

Q: How effective is pradakshina of Arunachala? Is it as good as meditating on the Self?

Arunachala radiates the grace of the Self. If you walk around it with reverence, keeping your mind quiet or thinking of the Self, you are having satsang of the Self. There is a great spiritual power emanating from Arunachala. You can feel it if you approach the mountain with humbleness, with reverence, and with a quiet mind. If one does pradakshina of Arunachala with the right attitude, both the mind and the body are purified. If you feel like doing pradakshina, then go. Meditate while you walk. And if, at other times, you feel like sitting in mediation, do that. Both are the same if they are done correctly and attentively. At all times, whatever the body may be doing, one should keep a steady awareness of the Self. The main point of both pradakshina and meditation is to give up the identification with the body, to lose the I-am-the-body idea.