Still the Mind

The mind has to be educated to entertain and send out good thoughts, and to guide our speech and actions so that we may manifest the light within us. For this, a pure and good atmosphere in the mind must be constantly maintained. As Baba says, we must fill the mind with good thoughts, so that evil thoughts cannot find a place there. According to Him, the correct way to remove a bad habit is to start a good habit. If we attach our minds to the lotus feet of the Lord, we can never slide into evil.

The mind is a restless entity; it is perpetually agitated with some thought or feeling, impulse, predilection, or prejudice. To make it calm and full of equanimity, Baba guides us as follows:

1. Dedicate all your deeds to the Lord, as His promptings, His commands. Then you will not be affected by their success or failure, and will not get attached to their consequences. Such karma [action] will not bind, and will not result in samskaras [innate tendencies]. This karma will be like fried seeds that do not sprout.

2. The forces of external nature that attract or distract us will no longer affect our minds if we see them as the leela [sport] of the Lord Himself. How delighted a person would be if he realized that all happenings in nature are just the drama planned by the Lord on the vast stage of the universe!

3. One’s inner nature has to be trained properly so that the mind can have peace. Baba says that the mind swings between the two forces of attraction and repulsion, attachment and aversion. According to Him, we have to use the forces of aversion to discard evil and the forces of attraction to foster good.

The moment man stills the mind, the ego disappears too, for the ego is a role played by the mind. He then loses body-consciousness and starts comprehending the ultimate reality in every animate and inanimate object. He starts appreciating the unity in the universe that until then seemed riddled with diversity. The jagat [world] is then Saimayam [God’s illusion] or Brahmamayam [illusion of the Supreme]. The mahavakya [profound teaching] says, “That thou art.” “I am Brahmam [the Supreme]—aham Brahmasmi”—the realization that `I’ was never different from Him; that `I’ and ‘He’ are one. Baba says that this is the attainment of eternal uncontaminated bliss—the ultimate goal of man.

~M. L. Kapur
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Feb. 1969