Swami teaches... The Mind, Name, Form and Reality

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Swami teaches... (21 December 2004)

 

The Mind, Name, Form and Reality

The mind-control (Sama) is very hard to achieve. The mind can cause bondage;

it can also confer liberation. It is an amalgam of Rajasic and Thamasic modes,

the passionate and dull attitudes. It is easily polluted. It relishes in hiding

the real nature of things and casting on them the forms and values which it

desires. So, the activities of the mind have to be regulated. The mind has

two characteristics. The first is: it runs behind the senses; whatever sense

the mind follows helplessly, it is inviting disaster. When a pot of water

becomes empty, we need not infer that it has leaked away through ten holes; one

hole is enough to make it empty. So too, among the senses, even if one is not

under control, one will be thrown into bondage. Therefore, every sense has to

be mastered. The second characteristic of the mind is: The potency of the

mind can be promoted by good practices like Dhyana (meditation, equanimity),

Japa (Mantra meditation repeating God's names), Bhajana (devotional singing)

and Puja (ritual worship of God). With the strength and skill thus reinforced,

the mind can help the world or harm it. So, the mental power gained by such

Sadhana has to be turned away from wrong paths and controlled by Sama. The

senses have to be directed by the principle of intelligence, the Buddhi. They

must be released from the hold the mind has on them. Then spiritual progress

can be attained. Manas or Mind is but a bundle of thoughts, a complex of

wants and wishes. As soon as a thought, a desire or a wish raises its head from

the mind, Buddhi must probe into its value and validity - is it good or bad,

will it help or hinder, where will this lead or end. If the mind does not

submit to this probe, it will land itself in the path of ruin. If it does and

obeys the intelligence, it can move along the right path. Man has three

chief instruments for uplifting himself: Intelligence, Mind and the Senses.

When the mind gets enslaved by the senses, man gets entangled and bound. The

same mind, when it is regulated by the intellect, can make man aware of his

Reality, the Atma. This is why the mind is reputed to cause either bondage or

liberation.

 

Forms are constructed by the mind and names for the forms follow. But, the

forms and names undergo modification. They are therefore designated as Maya -

relative realities, temporary superimpositions on the basic Truth. Paramatma

(Brahman), the One Omniself is the basis on which everything with form and name

is imposed. The appearance of name and form on the Real is due to the operation

of the Maya principle.

Name and Form which are structures raised by the mind on the basis of

Brahmam are to be considered as indicative proofs for the Truth on which they

arise and disappear. Brahmam can be known only when the basic characteristics

are known Swarupa Jnanam. Once Brahman is known, the awareness makes the

person, who is aware, Brahman itself. "Brahmavid Brahmaiva Bhavathi". This is

the assurance given by Sruthi, the Vedas.

(Veda means knowledge; it always 'is'. It has no beginning, nor end.

"Saastra Yonithwaath". This aphorism conveys the meaning that the Vedic

scriptures have to be resorted to in order to know Brahmam, that only they can

reveal Brahmam, and that all Vedas lead man to the same knowledge. Only the

Omniscient One can be the source of the Vedas).

 

Sathyam, Jnaanam, Anantham - this is the tripod on which Brahmam rests.

Awareness of Brahmam is awareness of Truth; knowledge of Brahmam is the

knowledge; it is unlimited, endless. From Brahma emanated Akasa (space; the

sky); from Akasa emanated Vayu (Air); from vayu, Agni (Fire); from Agni, Jalam

(Water); from jalam, Prithvi (Earth). From the earth grew life - giving plants

(Oushadha); from Oushadha, Anna (Food) and from Anna, Purusha (human beings).

The process of Projection is happening in this series. Brahma, the first,

Purusha, the last. So, the Purusha and Brahma are closely related.

 

The sacred activities like rituals and sacrifices (Karma) laid down in the

Vedas cannot confer liberation from bondage to birth and death, Moksha. They

help only to cleanse the Consciousness. It is said that they raise man to

Heaven; but Heaven too is but a bond. It does not promise eternal freedom. The

freedom which makes one aware of the Truth, of his own Truth, can be gained

only through Sravana (Listening to the Guru), Manana (Ruminating over what has

been so listened to) and Nididhyasana (Meditating on its validity and

significance). Those who expect and look forward to the fruits of their actions

can engage in them until their consciousness is cleansed. So, one must be ever

conscious of the Atma, as pervading and penetrating everything, so that

attraction and repulsion, the duality complex, cannot affect him. Do not

look at the world as the world with a worldly eye. Look upon it with the eye of

Atma, as the projection of Paramatma. That can make one cross the horizon of

dualities into the region of the One. The One is experienced as many, because

of the forms and names man has imposed on it. That is the result of the mind

playing its game. (A tiny compilation and extracts from: Sathya Sai Baba.

"Sutra Vahini," pp. 7, 9, 21-23).

 

PS: The aim of serial "Swami teaches..." to awake the deeper interest and

motivation to study complete issues of Swami's Teaching and to realize the

received experience in different circumstances and aspects of life. His

Teaching is the modern Cosmic Bible for any human being, who longs for

spiritual development.

 

I add the site of Glossary where the words from Vahini's serial used and

explained by Swami have collected.

http://www.vahini.org/glossary/p.html

 

Namaste - Reet