Sai Baba Gita - The two States of the Mind, Pure and Impure

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The two States of the Mind, Pure and Impure

If there were no mind, neither the motor organs nor the sensory organs would be

able to function at all. For all these various senses, the mind is in the

position of the controller. It acts as the bridge to the inner life of the

person. You may be in a lecture hall and your eyes and ears may be taking in

all that is happening, but, if your mind is not there, if it were to wander off

to your home town to think over some events going on there, you would not

register anything which was taking place in the hall. Afterwards, you might

question your neighbor, "What did the lecturer say? My mind was not here." What

is the reason for your not hearing, although your ears are there? What is the

reason for your not seeing although your eyes are there? The reason is the

mind.

If your mind is absent, even if your eyes are here, you will not be aware of who

your neighbor is; even if your ears are here you will not be aware of what is

being said. The inner significance of this is that the mind is the master of

the senses. All the senses should properly be subservient to the mind. When the

mind is in a position of stillness, the senses will not be able to function at

all.

The mind has two states. One is the impure mind, which is the thinking faculty,

and the second is the pure mind, which is the seat of deepest feelings,

experienced as the spiritual heart. When the mind allows itself to be

subservient to the senses, it is impure. But, when the mind exercises control

over the senses and follows the dictates of its highest inner knowing, it is

pure. In other words, when the lower mind follows the buddhi, the higher mind,

which knows the dictates of the heart, it is pure. Impure and pure are just

aspects of the same mind. In its natural state, the mind is pure. Through the

thinking process and its association with the senses, the mind becomes impure.

Consider a small example.

The nature of a handkerchief is pure whiteness. The white color is natural to

it. When you use the handkerchief it acquires dirt, and then you describe it as

being dirty. After the washerman cleans it, you again think of it as a clean

cloth. The dirty cloth and the clean cloth are one and the same. The same

cloth, having acquired some dirt, has become a dirty cloth. Once the cloth has

been washed and the dirt has been removed, it has become pure and you call it a

clean cloth. You say that the washerman has made the cloth white. But really, he

has not made it white; whiteness is its natural state. He has only removed the

dirt. Similarly, when the mind absorbs impurities from the senses it can be

described as an impure mind. But when the sense impressions have been removed

and the mind is no longer turned towards the senses, it becomes pure again.

It is in this context that you can understand the meaning of these two states of

the mind, pure and impure. When the mind is intimately associated with the

senses it is impure. Then it is nothing but a bundle of thoughts; it can be

conceived of as the process of thinking itself. In this process of thinking,

revolving around duality and its polarities of attraction and repulsion, the

mind gets dirty. It absorbs the impure impressions of the sense organs and

becomes impure. At this point it does not have any specific form; it is merely

the thing which thinks.

http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/saigita197.html

Sai Baba Gita, Compiled and edited by Al Drucker - Published by Atma Press -

http://www.atmapress.com - ISBN: 0963844903Online Edition:

http://www.atmapress.com/saibabagita/index.html

 

 

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