Elimination of the Mind
In Bhagavan Baba’s teachings we often encounter expressions like “elimination of the mind,” “conquest of the mind,” etc. But what does it mean? It is difficult to understand, and to a Westerner it sounds unintelligible, for how are we to fare in this world without a mind? In the Upanishads [sacred scriptures], it is said that our whole mind‑consciousness is shot through and through with the threads of desire and that only by its purification can we know and possess our real and eternal self. If we turn from the written word to the spoken word of God, whom we worship in the Avatar, He tells us, “the mind is a bundle of desires and unless these desires are removed by their roots, there is no hope of eliminating the mind, which is a great obstacle on the path of spiritual progress.” It is thus by eliminating desire that the real soul emerges and takes the place left vacant by the desire‑mind.
To get rid of desire, however, amounts to getting rid of ego, and that is a formidable job, a battle, a war with oneself that is, however, much more easily won by surrender to the Divine. This surrender is even indispensable, for how else can His power work in us? But it must be a surrender of love. An inner fire must be lit into which all is thrown with the Divine’s name upon it. In that fire all impurities are burnt away until a spirit of love arises out of the flame and smoke.
One can have a taste of what this “elimination of the mind” is about by withdrawing the mind’s sanction to desire. There is nothing new in this, it has always been the principal aim of spiritual discipline. It has been clearly and wonderfully expressed in the Gita [song of Krishna] as a complete renouncement of desire for the fruits of action, a complete annulment of desire itself, thereby bringing forth a perfect equanimity.
“Elimination of the mind” also means “to detach oneself from thought and opinion,” (again, this may be difficult to comprehend, “Are we then not supposed to think?). Of course one has to think, otherwise one would be reduced to an imbecile, but according to the teachings of Indian seers and sages down through the ages, the mind has to convert its normal functioning into something of an infinitely higher order, without ego, bondage, or reaction, manifesting love pure and divine. Such a mind is no longer a mind in the ordinary sense but an illumined, silent, divine mastermind.
Such a silent, intuitive, Divine mind is today at work here on this planet earth, ever watching, guiding, inspiring, encouraging, and guarding us. “I don’t think,” says the Sai Avatar. A strange statement perhaps, but His is the direct subtle vision, the supreme reason (“far, far beyond the reach of mind.”) Thus He works ceaselessly for our uplift, always and wherever He appears, reminding us, by the characteristic and symbolic upward turned movement of His hand, of our main concern in life: to lift our consciousness to a higher level. He pours out over us that Divine love, which is at the core of all creation and which in its purity, fragile human nature cannot always bear nor even understand.
The goal is self‑fulfillment. It may be somewhat far off for most of us, but there are milestones indicating that one is on the right path. By sadhana [spiritual effort], a stillness can be created in the mind in which there is not the shadow of a wish or a want; this doesn’t mean inactivity, as the greatest works are done in the silence of the mind. In this stillness the Divine’s grace can and does descend; a look is often enough and the contact is established. The soul feels the touch; in the depth of one’s being something starts vibrating with an unspeakable sweetness, everything inside and outside oneself is breathing a harmony without words but full of peace and strength, and one is ready to break the old ties and replace them by a greater truth of Oneness.
After this “foretaste” or “opening” as it were, ordinary life governed by the senses, and centered around a superficial ego, seems immensely stupid, barren, a lie, a negation of the truth, an imprisonment, a very painful affair. The soul henceforth only accepts the ties that are God‑ward bound; it listens only to the call of the Divine flute‑player.
~B. R., Prashanti Nilayam
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Sept. 1986
