Swami Explains the Mind⎯1

Hislop: This car in which we are driving has certain natural factors that are neither good nor bad. If moving, it has speed and momentum. In like fashion, what are the natural powers of the mind?

Sai: The mind does not have any powers. The only power is atma shakti, the power of the atma. Actually, the mind does not exist. There is no mind. The moon is lighted by the sun. What we see is the reflected light of the sun. What we take to be the mind is the reflected light of the atma shining on the heart. Really, there is only the heart. The reflected light is taken to be the mind, but that is just a way of looking at it, a concept. There is just the sun and the moon. (The reflected light is not a third object.) In another way, the mind cannot be compared to a car. A car has form. The mind has no form, for the mind has no existence of its own. The mind can be said to be woven of desires. The atma shines on the heart, whether the heart be pure or impure. If the heart is purified and if the strongest desire is for God, that is best.

Hislop: My mind and intelligence are in operation at this very moment, regardless of the subtlety or coarseness of quality. Baba says that the only power is the atma power. So why do I not see as atma that which is in operation through the mind-intelligence complex at this very moment?

Sai: The atma in its purity will be seen when the hindrances to clear vision are removed by spiritual practice, by sadhana. Real sadhana is not just sitting in meditation. Meditation is constant inner enquiry as to who am ‘I,’ what is loving, and what is harsh. Meditation is thinking about spiritual principles, searching out the application to oneself of what Baba says, and so on.

Hislop: I have a conviction so strong that it is into the marrow of my bones that life is One, and that other beings and myself are One. The atma is that One, and it is fully here at this moment, and I am constantly engaged in sadhana. So the question remains, ‘Why do I not actually experience that unity as no other than myself?’

Sai: Your conviction of unity is an idea, a thought. It is not experienced. For instance, your wife has a chest pain. Do you have the chest pain? If not, where is the unity? The unity of life must be experienced⎯not an idea or thought without experience.

Hislop: Now, Swami has to say something about experience! If sadhana and conviction do not bring that unity as real experience, then how is one to get it?

Sai: With steady sadhana; no special effort is needed to try and get the experience of One. Just as with ourselves in this car. We need only concern ourselves with the careful driving of the car, and in due course we will arrive at Anantapur. With correct and steady sadhana, in due course the actual experience of One will naturally come about.

Hislop: Swami, it is not possible to tell death to wait for a convenient time. In respect to death, in what state should the mind be?

Sai: That we feel that only oneself will not die is the greatest wonder. Flowers bloom and give perfume before dropping. Whereas man, when his end is approaching, has only a long face. He should be like the flower and do something good and bright when dying. There are two things to remember: Death and God. And there are two things to forget: any harm done to us by others and any good we may have done to others. For to hold these two would be to reach for future results, and there will be future consequences if these are held in the mind. Whatever we think, or put in mind, we experience the reaction. Of course, death should be held in the mind always, for then much good action will result and much harmful action will be avoided.

Hislop: The mind is said to be dangerous. What does that mean? 

Sai: It is the same mind that can liberate or enslave. The mind is like a snake with long poison fangs. When the poison is removed from those fangs, then the danger is removed. In like fashion, when desire disappears the danger of the mind disappears.

Hislop: But it is always said that all troubles arise from the mind?

Sai: From desires!

Hislop: Then one should control one’s thoughts?

Sai: Thoughts and desires are not the same. There are many thoughts that are not desires. If thoughts go too deeply into objects, desires arise. If there is a desire, there was a thought. But not all thoughts are desires. Dark clouds bring rain, but there can be clouds without rain. God’s grace is in drops like rain. They accumulate and then there is a torrent. If there is a very strong desire for God, even bad thoughts just pass through the mind and are not held. Desire directed to God brings discrimination. Intelligence, which is discrimination, is not the mind, nor is it thoughts. Intelligence is a direct atma shakti, a direct force of the atma.

A Visitor: How is one to handle bad thoughts arising from envy, hatred, laziness?

Sai: There is no use resisting or fighting thoughts. If suppressed, they are always ready to spring forth at weak moments⎯like snakes in a basket. If the cover gets loose or is removed, the snakes spring forth. The way to overcome bad thoughts and impulses is by having thoughts of serving the Lord, good conversation with wise people, good actions, and words. The weight of good acts and thoughts will bury the seeds of bad actions and thoughts. Both good and bad thoughts and impulses are like seeds in the mind. If buried too deeply in the earth, seeds rot and waste away. Good thoughts and deeds bury bad seeds so deeply that they rot and pass away and are no longer ready to spring forth.

Hislop: Swami, when thoughts are troublesome, I say, ‘Thy mind, Swami; it is not mine,’ and that particular thought stream stops.

Sai: That is right. At that moment there is no ego. That is the easy path.

[To be continued]

Source: Conversations with Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba