The Way To Freedom-Part III

Continued From The Second Part

To gain the intuitive experience of his own real nature, the seeker must have the necessary instruments: a purified mind and intellect. A mind that tosses the least is called a pure mind. Tossings are caused by desire, hatred, lust, and other negativities in our psychological makeup. The mind, goaded as it were by its impressions (vasanas), throws out for us the external world of objects,just as the picture in the film reel gives us the story on the screen. The person watching the show identifies himself completely with the picture and comes to suffer or enjoy the sorrows and joys of the hero and the heroine.

Similarly, our external world is formed by objects and circumstances. Identifying ourselves with this world, torn between hope and despair, loss and gain, we live the pains of a life of limitations. Yet this world of objects and circumstances is only as true as the reality we claim for the hero in the picture during our stay in the movie theatre.

How then can we remove the vasanas which inhibit the vital, intimate, subjective experience of our real Self? How can we acquire a pure mind? The only known method of erasing the vasanas is to scrape the mind clean. Imagine holding a piece of sandpaper close to a reel of film in a projection room. As it winds and rewinds itself, the film reveals less and less of the story to the audience. In time, the scratched strip will have lost much of its distinct charm, and be only a blurred vision of filtered light interspersed with patches of darkness.

In the mind film, the vasana picture can be erased by scraping it with devotional practices consisting mainly of constant repetition of the names of the Lord and remembrance of Him. In a clean mind, divinity comes to manifest in all its absolute glory.

About the author

Swami Chinmayananda

Swami Chinmayananda the great master's lectures were an outpour of wisdom. He introduced the Geetha Gnana Yagna. He wrote a lot of books on spirituality, commentaries to Vedantic texts, children books etc. He then started spreading His teachings globally.....