Cast Aside Your Self-denigrating Thoughts

Dentam koom tyagi nar apno swarup dekhi
Tu to sudh brahma aaj drishya ko prakashi hai
‘Cast aside your Self-denigrating thoughts
and awaken to your Real Self,
You verily are the unborn pure Brahman
That brings to light this visible world.’
(The Vicharassagara: 6.12)

O man! You are the consciousness personified Atman. You alone illumine all ‘seen’ objects of consciousness and then impressed by it you yourself get entangled therein. You yourself imagine a thief in a stump of the tree and then you yourself are scared of that. You yourself imagine a snake in a rope and then you yourself tremble with fear. Similarly, you yourself project your own self-created imaginations on your Real Self, the Pure Consciousness, the Supreme Brahman, and you yourself are entangled therein just like the spider who makes a cobweb from out of its own body and gets entangled therein, which becomes its death-trap. We too get trapped in our own beliefs created by our own mind, viz. ‘What will people say, if I don’t do this… I must do this, it is my duty….’ You have so many duties. But where have these duties come from?

You are imposing on yourself make-believe duties owed to the make-believe world. Your first and foremost duty is to realize your Real Self. You say, “God made this world and God is Pure Consciousness.” But is God your friend or foe?

He is your supreme well wisher God, our supreme friend, has made this world. Then why is there so much misery in this world? There is absolutely no misery in this world. But, Yato Yato nischariti manaschanchalamasthiram. ‘from all those objects after which the restless and fidgety mind ruins…’

(The Gita 6.26), it is verily the unsteady and restless mind that wanders and regurgitates all kinds of imaginations and takes their burden on its head. Otherwise, there’s no trouble in this world at all. If man wants to remain joyful, every situation in this world is full of joy; but his mind wants lie to fit into its imaginations. Imaginations is born out of ignorance and ignorance is unread, Unsubstantial. And thus, one’s life is driven by one’s own imaginations. Even if one reaches is fancied goal, one finds his mind still yearning for something else.

Many people labour under the delusion, the misunderstanding that we can not live without worldly things, without coming into contact with the materials of the mundane word. Vedanta tells us that we can not live without renouncing the worldly things and relationships.

You can sleep only when you renounce all things of the world. From sleep alone you gain some vital energy and become capable of living the next day. You can live without establishing links with the world, but you can not live without renouncing the world. You renounce the transient things transient relations, kins, fiends, spouse, children and all else to get the comfort of sleep and become rejuvenated and capable to live. Similarly, if you renounce the world and steer clear of your imaginations; and then instead of going to sleep get into Samadhi, it will fill your life with perennial happiness.

BY renouncing all relations, when you go to sleep, you gain enough vitality for a day. If you take time off from worldly relations and repose in your Real Self, you will come by the eternal life. Whereupon, you become deathless. The body has to die; everybody dies. And interestingly indeed, all are afraid of the physical death and strive to save themselves from it, but nobody has been able to do so. They alone can save themselves from death, who transcends the body to get established in their Real Self That is free from desires. Do not consider the death of the body to be that of yours and realize your immortality; when there is no rebirth, where is the question of death?

The mind is extremely restless. It is really difficult to control the mind, but this too becomes easy with practice. We should take a retrospective look at our actions everyday and sincerely repent for the inauspicious or sinful ones. We ought to persuade the mind, ‘O mind! You have committed numerous offences till today. You misled the senses to depravity, thereby causing degeneration and ruination. And how strange it is that even after the passage of the most precious years of life you are still reluctant to refrain from the wrong doings! Fear the Lord. Have faith in Him. The Lord Supreme is beholding all our actions.

‘O mind! If you do not acquiesce, it will be difficult for you to find a place even in hell, let alone that in heaven. Your certificates, wisdom and temporal knowledge won’t protect you against the onslaught of sorrows. O debased mind! You have brought my degeneration. You have made me fall for the momentary sense pleasures, thereby depriving me of true happiness and destroying my strength, intellect and health. If the offences that you have forced me to commit be revealed to the people, they will curse me and admonish me with contempt.

‘O depraved mind! On account of having committed evil deeds and made evil resolves in association with you, I am being cursed today. How can I face them with dignity who know my evil acts? Yet, you are not ready to acquiesce in and tempting me to evil deeds!

‘O kind-hearted Lord! Give me patience and wisdom. Guide me on the righteous path. My depraved mind has ruined me. My human birth has gone in vain. The depraved mind is a devil.’ Keep persuading the mind in this manner constantly, whereupon the mind will lose its sway over you and come under your control. If you march on the path of Truth, justice and honesty, salvation it not difficult.

Never trust you mind. Given a free reign, the mind will put your very life into jeopardy. A goad has to be used properly in order to keep an elephant under control. Similarly, in order to keep the mind under control one needs to take regular recourse to satsanga, virtuous contemplation, pious study and translating the precepts thereof into life. Make a time-table leaving no room for the mind to be empty. Bind every moment of your life with the shackle of punctuality giving no freedom to the mind. You must sincerely regret for the time you have already wasted. The supremely gracious Lord is very kind. Take refuge in Him and He will certainly protect you. Though humans, we lack in humanity. Everywhere it is barbarousness that meets the eyes. In order to become true humans, bring self-restraint in your life. Mansa sivayati eti manushya: - ‘A human being (manushya) is one who can forge a relationship with God through the mind (manas).’

May the Lord endow everyone with noble intellect and make them true humans. Hari Om peace…..
(From ‘Nirogata ka Sadhan’, a book published by the ashram-currently not available in English.)