Thus Spoke Mahapragya - Vol.1: 21. Beyond Mind

Beyond Mind

“I am alone.” Is it possible to be alone? Who can be alone? As long as you have this body, mind, memories, imagination and thoughts, till then a person cannot be considered alone. Even in the caves of Himalayas, deep within the sea or up in the sky, one cannot be alone. Only a person who has learnt to live beyond his mind can live in isolation. In the world of Yoga and in the Western Countries numerous discussion is happening on 'Beyond Mind'. Beyond mind is a very difficult state of mind to be achieved. Everybody can experience and recollect what they have done the whole day. Earlier they believed that man could recollect, imagine and think when he was awake and during the night he does nothing other than sleeping. Today this misconception has been totally broken by the scientists. As per the findings the sub-conscious mind works even when man is asleep. As a result of this, man dreams. Even during the time of meditation man is not alone. He is neither alone when he is awake nor when he is sleeping. He continues to work throughout the day and night. The only difference is that during the day his conscious mind is active and during the night his sub-conscious mind is active.

There are different types of mind. Small insects also have mind. Every small living creature has a mind. Even plants, trees and herbs have mind. In Aagam, this is called Hetuvaadopadeshiki. In Nandisutra (One of the scriptures of Jain tradition) there are three categories of mind. One of the categories is Hetuvaadopadeshiki (For one's benefit). Imagine you are in an empty space and there are many ants around. If you place jaggery or sugar in one corner, you will see that all the ants will move towards it. They have a very good sense of smell. They do have a mind. They also have knowledge as to what is in their benefit. The moment they smell of jaggery or sugar they move towards it.

A child had pasted the label on which 'salt' was written on a container containing sugar. When the mother asked him the reason for it, he replied that he wanted to deceive the ants by putting a wrong label. The child does not know that it is not the label but the smell, which attracts the ant. They have knowledge. The question is if they have knowledge why can't we consider that as mind? It is mentioned in Gyanbindu (One of Jain scriptures) one cannot call a person a rich man if he has a dime or two. He can be called rich when he possesses a lot of wealth. Similarly, one can be said to have a mind if it is a well developed mind.

It is important to have a mind to run our daily lives. Every living being has a mind. The only difference is that living beings that are born out of womb have a relatively well developed mind. Among them man has the most well developed mind. The development of mind is very much related to how the body is constructed.  Human body construction is considered to be the best among other living beings. It is for this reason is said that it is a boon to possess a human body. The reason for it is that he has a well developed nervous system and a well developed mind. The energy or strength the human mind has is because of the consciousness. Human body is such a medium where this consciousness can be produced. For this consciousness to be produced it needs some time and space. If one gets the body of a fly, then there is no medium for this consciousness to be produced. A developed medium is required for the consciousness to be produced. Human body is one such medium and, hence one can see tremendous development here. We become isolated when we are beyond our mind. I have experimented this. I have also enabled others to experience this isolation. This was possible through what is known as thought free meditation.

Some years back during one of the camps of Preksha Dhyan meditation one Gujarati brother came to me and said that he wanted to experience isolation. The question here is how can we experience isolation? One can get isolated by place and the other by mind. Getting isolated by place is not a real isolation since one is not isolated from his thoughts. One can never imagine where the flight of mind can reach. He might be sitting in one place but his mind may be travelling thousand of kilometres far away. Mind can make him experience wealth and at the same time, it can make him to experience poverty. Mind plays a very important role. I conducted an experiment for fifteen minutes on him to make him experience isolation. After fifteen minutes when he opened his eyes, I asked the Guajarati brother where was he? He said that he didn't know. If one doesn't know where he was, where do you think he could have gone in those fifteen minutes? If one is asleep he could say that he didn't know where we was. A person who is awake cannot say so. Many people speak something even when they are asleep. Sometimes this habit can be annoying for the person around him. Even when a person is sleeping there are many activities happening. Even in his sleep, he is still connected with the activities. When he is awake he cannot even think of being disconnected. If he learns the art of disconnecting, then he can truly experience feeling of isolation. The fact is, we are alone and this is the truth.

King Ishukar was collecting Bhrugu Purohit's (pundit) wealth. Purohit Bhrugu along with his family members was giving up a family life and becoming a monk. In those days it was customary to donate one's wealth to the King's treasury, when there was no one in the family as successor. When the queen Kamalavati heard this, she immediately went to the king asked him to stop collecting the Purohit's wealth. The King said that he was just following the rules of his kingdom. The queen said that this rule was made by the kings themselves. There is no truth behind this rule. Numerous times, we have seen that in the name of rules or discipline lot of injustice is being done. If one has to evaluate it holistically, then he would realize that the results are totally different. The queen persuaded the king that whatever he was doing was not good. The King said that he was just following the rules and if he himself didn’t follow that, he would set a bad example in front of his subjects.

The queen told the king that no one is immortal here. Everybody has to leave the world one day and no one would carry the materialistic comforts with him. The queen's argument opened the king's eyes. Further the queen also told that the relationship between them is due to the existence of both. When one dies, the relationship between them would also cease to exist.

We consider this relationship as the truth and, hence when it breaks it brings sadness. We have associated sadness with this relationship. When this relationship, which is like a thread is tied, its one end contains sadness and the other end contains happiness. If you look on one side you will see sadness and on the other side happiness. The fact is that we are different individuals with two different souls.

The queen requested the king not to collect the wealth. During the last days of one's journey of life only one's religion will be his true companion. Only his good deeds will accompany him when he dies. Arhanak was asked to leave his religion. He said, “I do not have anything to leave. I am the religion and the religion is me. Purification of one's soul is the religion and how can one leave his soul”.

The King was shocked to hear this and his entire thought process changed. A big transformation occurred within him. The King who wanted to go out and collect Purohit's wealth was totally influenced with the queens thought and followed her on the path to discover his soul.

In this world the entire cause of misery and sufferings are because of our materialistic surrounding. The only remedy to this problem is in isolation. Numerous problems can be solved with this. The essence of this sadness is this samyoga (co-incidence / combination). When one meets another the seeds of sadness are sowed. When the person experiences isolation and becomes conscious of it, then any kind of external reaction or influence cannot disturb him.

Happiness or sadness are based on the reactions. When there are no reactions, then one can neither be happy nor sad. In such a situation even when somebody honours or dishonours a person that person will be least affected. When you read the autobiographies of any well-known, legendary or renowned personality, you would see that all have gone through difficult times in their lives and yet they remained calm and steady. Even if you leave such personalities who lived thousand of years back and only consider the last three or four centuries, you will see the similar results, and they all have come out of it successfully.

Dadu, on whose name the Dadu Cult was formed, was a very ardent spiritual aspirant. In the olden days, the law enforcement officer of the city was called kotwal. The kotwal was riding a horse reached near a well where one person was filling water. The kotwal enquired, “Where is Dadu?” The person asked “Why?” The kotwal said that he wanted to meet him. The person remained silent. The kotwal repeated his question once again and the person remained silent. The kotwal once again repeated his question and the person remained silent. In those days, not answering back was considered to be an offence to a police officer. The kotwal took the person's silence as an insult and started beating him all over. The kotwal was tired of beating the person but the person remained silent. The kotwal left the person and moved ahead and again enquired about Dadu. One of the people near the well replied that Dadu was there at the previous well. The kotwal realized his mistake that the person whom, he had beaten left and right was none other than Dadu.

One will find such numerous incidents in the history. Even if one leaves aside the life of Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Mahavir and considers the lives of the monks and legendaries in the last four or five centuries they would always be happy. The reason is they all would have experienced isolation. They had experienced their soul and their inner consciousness and hence they were always happy.

According to me only those persons would remain sad or unhappy who have not experienced this isolation. It is an irony that a man possesses the body of a human being and is still unhappy. When you give up a family life and embrace a monk's life and if you are still unhappy then there cannot be a bigger surprise than this.

The essence of a religion is “Only I and my soul exists and nothing else.”  One becomes a sadhu only to give up all the attachments. One does sadhana (spiritual practice) only to sacrifice the attachment. Whether you call this attachment as the samyoga (co-incidence) or the seeds of sadness they grow together. It is our illusion to consider happiness and sadness as two different things. Hence one must focus on the spiritual development. Intellectuals and learned scholars today consider that the solution for all the problems in life is the spiritual development. I encourage all the sadhu and sadhvi to read the book There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem [Wayne Dyer]. The people who have given up their lives to lead a spiritual life must definitely know how to practice isolation or solitude.

George Gurdjieff from Russia was a very devoted spiritual leader. He used to conduct experiments on meditation. As part of the exercise, he would lock the people in a room for three months and would not let them go outside. He used to only teach them they were alone. He himself and many other scholars have written that when they came outside after three months, the world appears to be new to them. All the enmity and kashaya (Passions like anger, conceit, deceit and lust) they had within them would have disappeared.

Isolation is the panacea for all the problems. We must practice to learn to live in isolation and experience it.

On a 26th January