post 10

(Fro Be as You are)

Q: What is the nature of the mind?

A: The mind is nothing other than the ‘I’-thought. The mind and the ego are one and the same.

The other mental faculties such as the intellect and the memory are only this. Mind [tnanas], intellect [buddhi], thestorehouse of mental tendencies [chittam], and ego [ahamkara]; all these are only the one mind itself. This is like

different names being given to a man according to his different functions. The individual soul [jiva] is nothing but thissoul or ego.

Q: How shall we discover the nature of the mind, that is, its ultimate cause, or the noumenon of which it is amanifestation?

A: Arranging thoughts in the order of value, the ‘I’-thought is the all-important thought.

Personality-idea or thought is also the root or the stem of all other thoughts, since each idea or thought arises only as

someone’s thought and is not known to exist independently of the ego. The ego therefore exhibits thought-activity.The second and the third persons [he, you, that, etc.] do not appear except to the first person [I]. Therefore they arise

only after the first person appears, so all the three persons seem to rise and sink together. Trace, then, the ultimatecause of ‘I’ or personality.

From where does this ‘I’ arise? Seek for it within; it then vanishes. This is the pursuit of wisdom. When the mindunceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that there is no such thing as mind. This is the direct path for all.The mind is merely thoughts. Of all thoughts the thought ‘I’ is the root. Therefore the mind is only the thought ‘I’.

The birth of the ‘I’-thought is one’s own birth, its death is the person’s death. After the ‘I’- thought has arisen, thewrong identity with the body arises. Get rid of the ‘I’thought. So long as ‘I’ is alive there is grief. When ‘I’ ceases to

exist there is no grief.

Q: Yes, but when I take to the ‘I’-thought, other thoughts arise and disturb me.

A: See whose thoughts they are. They will vanish. They have their root in the single ‘I’- thought. Hold it and they willdisappear.

Q: How can any enquiry initiated by the ego reveal its own unreality?

A: The ego’s phenomenal existence is transcended when you dive into the source from where the ‘I’-thought rises.

Q: But is not the aham-vritti only one of the three forms in which the ego manifests itself. Yoga Vasishtha and otherancient texts describe the ego as having a threefold form.

A: It is so. The ego is described as having three bodies, the gross, the subtle and the causal, but that is only for the purpose of analytical exposition. If the method of enquiry were to depend on the ego’s form, you may take it that anyenquiry would become altogether impossible, because the forms the ego may assume are legion. Therefore, for thepurposes of self-enquiry you have to proceed on the basis that the ego has but one form, namely that of aham-vritti.

Q: But it may prove inadequate for realising jnana.

A: Self-enquiry by following the clue of aham-vritti is just like the dog tracing his master by his scent. The mastermay be at some distant unknown place, but that does not stand in the way of the dog tracing him. The master’s scent isan infallible clue for the animal, and nothing else, such as the dress he wears, or his build and stature, etc., counts. Tothat scent the dog holds on undistractedly while searching for him, and finally it succeeds in tracing him.

Q: The question still remains why the quest for the source of aham-vritti, as distinguished from other vrittis[modifications of the mind], should be considered the direct means to Self-realization.

A: Although the concept of ‘I’-ness or ‘I am’-ness is by usage known as aham-vritti it is not really a vritti

[modification] like other vrittis of the mind. Because unlike the other vrittis which have no essential interrelation, theaham-vritti is equally and essentially related to each and every vritti of the mind. Without the aham-vritti there can beno other vritti, but the aham-vritti can subsist by itself without depending on any other vritti of the mind. The aham-vritti is therefore fundamentally different from other vrittis.

So then, the search for the source of the aham-vritti is not merely the search for the basis of one of the forms of theego but for the very source itself from which arises the ‘I am’-ness. In other words, the quest for and the realization of

the source of the ego in the form of aham-vritti necessarily implies the transcendence of the ego in every one of itspossible forms.

Q: Conceding that the aham-vritti essentially comprises all the forms of the ego, why should that vritti alone bechosen as the means for self-enquiry?

A: Because it is the one irreducible datum of your experience and because seeking its source is the only practicablecourse you can adopt to realize the Self. The ego is said to have a causal body [the state of the ‘I’ during sleep], but

how can you make it the subject of your investigation? When the ego adopts that form, you are immersed in thedarkness of sleep.

Q: But is not the ego in its subtle and causal forms too intangible to be tackled through the enquiry into the source ofaham-vritti conducted while the mind is awake?

A: No. The enquiry into the source of aham-vritti touches the very existence of the ego.Therefore the subtlety of the ego’s form is not a material consideration.

Q: While the one aim is to realize the unconditioned, pure being of the Self, which is in no way dependent on the ego, how can enquiry pertaining to the ego in the form of aham-vritti be of any use?

A: From the functional point of view the ego has one and only one characteristic. The ego functions as the knotbetween the Self which is pure consciousness and the physical body which is inert and insentient. The ego is therefore

called the chit-jada-granthi [the knot between consciousness and the inert body]. In your investigation into the source

of aham-vritti, you take the essential chit [consciousness] aspect of the ego. For this reason the enquiry must lead tothe realization of pure consciousness of the Self.

You must distinguish between the ‘I’, pure in itself, and the ‘I’-thought. The latter, being merely a thought, seessubject and object, sleeps, wakes up, eats and thinks, dies and is reborn. But the pure ‘I’ is the pure being, eternalexistence, free from ignorance and thought-illusion. If you stay as the ‘I’, your being alone, without thought, the‘I’-thought will disappear and the delusion will vanish for ever. In a cinema-show you can see pictures only in a very

dim light or in darkness. But when all the lights are switched on, the pictures disappear. So also in the floodlight of thesupreme atman all objects disappear.

Q: That is the transcendental state.

A: No. Transcending what, and by whom? You alone exist.