Question 127: How does one stop the mind from its outward-going nature?

Glossary:

chitta: individual consciousness

jiva: individual soul embodied as a person. Soul with a body.

sattva Hin. m. sattva San. n. sattvoguna (sattva+guna) San. m. one of the three constituents (guna) of nature (prakriti) – the quality of light, the illuminating aspect that reveals all manifestation. It is expressed as harmony, equilibrium, purity, goodness, virtue, honesty, nobility, forgiveness, compassion, charity, wisdom, happiness.

sattvic Hin. sattvika San. adj. endowed with the quality of sattva – pure, good, virtuous, serene and contented.

rajas, rajoguna San. m. the activating quality (guna) of nature that allows the other two constituents to manifest themselves, and therefore this quality is associated with the creator, Brahma. It covers desire and ambition, attachment, passion, righteous indignation, pride, anger and envy.

tamas, tamoguna Hin., San. m. the quality of darkness, gloom and inertia – sleep, passivity, idleness, dullness, stubbornness, confusion, delusion, lack of discrimination, the inability to distinguish between right and wrong or falsehood and truth, having little interest or ambition; lust, fear, greed. Tamas is born of ignorance, yet darkness is not necessarily ignorance – it may yet be the darkness that exposes the light.

Question 127: Sir, you said that all joys and sorrows exist in the mind, and one becomes free from all these when the mind is annihilated. Kindly explain how the ideation in the mind is stopped?

Answer: Ramji, now listen intently about the methodology for the annihilation of the mind. With its practice, you will be able to control your mind. All jivas are the creations of the mind and these creations are of three kinds : (i) sattvic (ii) rajsic and (iii) tamsic.

When the primeval ideation arising in the pure consciousness is extrovert, it is called mind – also called Brahman. As is the ideation of Brahman (the primeval ideation), so are the objects manifested. When the ideation of Brahman is directed inwards, the universe created by the extrovert ideation is dissolved. Thus Brahman creates and dissolves many creations. Ramji, direct your ideation inwards or towards pure Atma, and you will attain to the pure state. This way the seven states (bhoomikas) of knowledge, like those of the moon, will be gradually illumined in your consciousness.

2:41. “When one’s actions are not based on desire for personal reward, one can more easily steady the mind and direct it toward the Atma, the True Self Within. For the person of steady mind, Arjuna, there is always just one decision, but for the quivering mind pulled in a thousand directions, the decisions that plague it are endless, and they exhaust one’s mental strength. People with an unsteady mind inevitably end up failing; those with an unwavering mind achieve great success.

2:42-43. “There are people, ignorant of this principle, who take delight in their own particular dogma, proclaiming there is nothing else. Their idea of ‘heaven’ is their own enjoyment. The main reason they do their activities is to achieve the pleasures and power that ‘heaven’ promises. Thus, even though their motive is common and positive, they are in truth filled with rather selfish desires.

2:44. “With their minds thus taken up by their own selfish desires for everlasting pleasure and power, they are not able to develop the utter concentration needed to reach union with God, which is mankind’s only real objective. (Bhagavad Gita, Ch 2)

Question 128: Sir, how do the seven phases or states (bhoomikas) of knowledge exist in the mind ?

Answer: Ramji, Atma is like a tree and one’s purushartha is like the spring season. Two types of plants — good and evil — grow with the water of purushartha. Now listen to what knowledge and ignorance are. To stay in pure consciousness after abandoning the ideation of the world, is knowledge. When a jiva is distracted from the Self, on his association with ego which arises in the pure and non-dual consciousness, then that state is one of ignorance.

5:15. “Further, God is neither responsible for nor takes note of anyone’s bad or even good deeds. Both bad and good karma are the result of actions performed by people who mistakenly think that their True Self (Atma) is connected to the worldly – which it is not. This is an elusive but important point. The Divine is absolute perfection, poise, and bliss. Worldly acts have no place in this blessed purity. Thinking otherwise is what I mean by ignorance and delusion. I repeat : God, the True Self in each living being, is no way a part of the goings on in worldly nature.

5:16. “As the darkness of night vanishes when the sun rises, so too the darkness of ignorance and delusion is dispelled when you gain knowledge of your True Self.

5:17. “Jnana-yogis, persons of wisdom (whom I previously referred to as Sthithaprajnas, Illumined Ones), cast out this ignorance of mind and thus erase past impurities. They ever fix their purified minds on Divinity and stay completely absorbed in the Divine, their one and only goal. In this way they merge into God and are freed from the birth-death cycle, never to be born again. (Bhagavad Gita Ch 5)