THE SOURCE OF THE MIND - Swami Sivananda Saraswati

THE SOURCE OF THE MIND

Creation, preservation, destruction, veiling and blessing are God's five kinds of actions. God is the ruler, the knower of the heart, and the prompter. He helps the student in a variety of ways - through dreams, the inner voice, talking through the mouths of others in conversation and in advice from friends.

Eternal bliss, supreme peace, eternal satisfaction, infinite happiness and unbroken joy can be had only in God. Attain God- consciousness or Self-realisation through exclusive devotion to one aspect of the Lord, or by self-enquiry.

When, by analysing your own mind, you come face to face with something which is never destroyed, something which by its own nature is eternally pure, perfect, self-luminous and unchanging, you will no longer be miserable or unhappy. The nature of Brahman is sat- chidananda (existence-knowledge-bliss absolute). What limits the individual soul's vision? It is only the mind.

Between the Atman (Self) and the organs of the senses, a connecting link is necessary. We acknowledge the existence of an internal organ, the mind, through which perception takes place. If we do not admit the internal organ, there would result either perpetual perception or perpetual non-perception.

Perception results when there is conjunction of Atman, the sense and the object (these are the three instruments of perception). If this effect did not follow, perpetual non perception would take place.

Neither is the case however. We have therefore to acknowledge the existence of an internal organ, on whose attention and non-attention perception and non-perception take place. This is the argument for the existence of the mind.

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Mind is nothing but a collection of impressions. It is a bundle of habits. It is a collection of desires arising from contact with different objects. It is a collection of feelings aroused by worldly botherations; of ideas gathered from different objects. These desires, ideas and feelings change constantly.

Some of the old desires and feelings are constantly departing from the store house, the mind, and being replaced by new ones. This constant change does not in any way interfere with the harmony of mental operations. Some ideas and feelings depart and those that remain work in healthy co-operation with the new arrivals. They work in harmony and this harmony sustains the identity of mental existence.

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