AVOID EXTREMES

Avoid Extremes 

The mind always wants to be doing something. When it attaches itself to the objects it cherishes, the mind feels amused and happy. There can be attraction without attachment. You can be attracted to a beautiful rose, but you are not attached to it. Attachment comes after possession and enjoyment.

Attachment, love, ananda (bliss), all go together. You are attached to your wife and children and so on. You love them because they give you ananda. As this world is illusory and as, through this illusion, pain appears as pleasure, you must cut asunder all worldly attachments ruthlessly. Direct your love and attachment towards the reality, towards Brahman, towards the substratum which lies at the back of all objects, which is the witness of all activities taking place in the buddhi (intellect).

It is difficult to divert the mind which from early childhood has fallen into the pernicious habit of seeking external pleasures and which continues to do so unless you give it something superior to be amused with. Intellectual pleasure is far superior to sensual pleasure. So too, ananda (joy from meditation) is far superior to intellectual pleasure. Spiritual bliss gained from Self-realisation, is infinite, immeasurable, unbounded. It is anandaghana (a solid mass of bliss).

Keep the mind in a state of moderation. The mind likes always to run to extremes. It runs either to extreme joy or extreme depression. Extremes meet and bring about a reaction. In excessive joy the mind cannot be calmed. Hence let the mind always be calm and cheerful.

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Ghee (clarified butter) has two states - solid and liquid. So it is with the mind. In the waking state it is solid and in the deep sleep state it is liquid. In the solid state it is limited and gross. This is why it has finite experiences. In the liquid state it is limitless and so the jiva (soul) experiences the homogeneous and limitless bliss. In the deep sleep state there is no ego, no desire, hence it experiences the limitless bliss of the Atman.

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