Blog

April 2015

Silence the mind and listen; this is the final state of meditation. –  Chinmaya

Why is the mind always noisy?

It is the symptom of a disease. It is the cry of the Infinite locked within the prison of the finite. It is the suffocation of the Eternal caged within the envelopments of the ephemeral. It is the helplessness of the Sentient bound by the inert. It is the fear of the Existence threatened by the non-existent. It is the un-comfort of the Auspicious when surrounded by the inauspicious. It is the impatience of the Self to overcome the imperfections of the non-Self.

It is the urgent call of the Divine saying, “O Man! Wake up to thy nature Divine!”

We, by very nature, are Sat-Chit-Anand. In short, we are born perfect. Nothing is lacking in us. We are Eternal Bliss. We are made in the image of God. But somewhere we made a terrible mistake. Instead of identifying with the ever-perfect Self – the Pure Consciousness in us – we got identified with the matter envelopments, namely the body, mind and the intellect (BMI).

The identification theory says that – When entity A gets identified with entity B, the properties of entity B appears to be the properties of entity A. Hence after identification, instead of experiencing our infinite nature, we start experiencing the finitude of our matter envelopments.

Body goes through six stages: अस्ति, जायते, वर्धते, विपरिणमते, अपक्षीयते, विनश्यति |

It exists; it is born; it grows, matures, decays and finally dies. But due to the identification with the body, we experience as though all these changes of birth, growth, disease, old age and death happen to us. For the Unborn, birth is misery. For the Undying, death is unthinkable. For the Infinite, finitude is torture. For the Blissful, misery is intolerable. Thus the mind is ever noisy trying to come out of its misery in various ways.

This noisy mind sings its tragic tale in six ragas – desire, anger, greed, delusion, arrogance and jealousy.

How to silence this mind and put an end to this abhorrent weep and wail?

The cause is ignorance, and therefore the solution is knowledge. Educate the mind of our own true nature. Let it seek happiness, not from outside, but from within. The Supreme Self is the very abode of everything that it seeks in life. Once it tastes the Self, it becomes permanently silent.

Self is Sat-Chit-Anand. In the absolute existence of the Self, the mind feels secure. In the absolute bliss of the Self, the mind becomes peaceful. In the direct experience of the Self, the mind desires nothing more to know, as all the doubts are dispelled.

Kabir, the great saint and poet, lived his whole life in Kashi. For centuries Hindus have believed that to die in Kashi is the greatest thing you can do in life, because for one who dies in Kashi, his paradise is guaranteed. It does not matter what kind of man he is, whether he is a murderer, a thief, a saint or a sinner – these things are all irrelevant. His dying in Kashi erases everything and he becomes qualified for paradise.

So in Kashi, you will find old people, old women who have come there just to die. They have not done anything in their life, but they don’t want to miss paradise.

And Kabir lived his whole life in Kashi, and when he was going to die he said, “Take me out of Kashi to the other side, to the small village.” Just on the other side of the Ganges was a small village.

His disciples said, “Are you mad or something? People come to Kashi; the whole of Kashi is full of people who have come here to die. You have lived your whole life in Kashi; what kind of nonsense is this? And the village you are pointing to is condemned; people say whoever dies there is born again as a donkey.”

But Kabir said, “I will go to that village, and I will die in that village. I want to enter paradise on my own worth, not because of Kashi. And I know my worth.”

Against their will, they had to take him to the other side, and he died there.

When you know your Self, then alone you know your worth.

An Army-retired old man once organized a party in his house. All his friends and relatives were called and there was a big bash. He narrated with great zeal the heroic war deeds of his past to all those who had assembled there, forgetting that he had narrated the same tale to the very same people umpteen number of times on different occasions. The old man was immersed in the narration of his encounter with terrorists in the Kashmir border. The crowd gave a patient hearing to the old man, more out of pity for his present condition than out of any serious interest.

Hours passed by. The drink kept going in, the ego kept bloating up, and the boastful words kept pouring out. Ultimately he got overly drunk. In that drunken state, the military man of the yesteryears plunged into a state of hallucination. He felt that he was surrounded by the terrorists in their camp and he had been caught alive. He frantically searched for his gun, but in vain. Loudly he started panicking, “Please don’t kill me! Spare me! Let me go!!”

Feeling pity for the lamenting old man, others soon joined to console him, “Come back to your senses dear sir. You are already at your own sweet home!” The old man was trembling with fear and was in no mood to listen.

Some fun-loving youngsters came together. They took the old man aside and whispered in his ears, “Sir, we are from the Indian Army. We have come in disguise. We have been sent on a mission to save you. Just follow us and you will be safe.” They took him out to the garage and made him sit in his own car. The engine was started. In the dark, they shook the car from behind to give him a feel of travel. Voices of various animals were mimicked to give a feel of a thick forest. After some time, they stopped the engine and requested, “Sir, you have come to your home. Please get down.”

There was a great sigh of relief upon the face of the old man. With tears in his eyes, he profusely thanked the youngsters, appreciated their courage, and congratulated them for their success in the dangerous and risky mission undertaken!!

Let’s not laugh at this old man! We too are doing the same. We are searching for something which we already are.

The mind which has found oneself becomes silent – no desires, no cravings. It drops all its wanderings and abides in the Self permanently. The knower of the Self becomes the Self. This is the final acme of meditation.

O    M        T    A    T        S    A    T