Is
Self-experience possible for the mind, whose nature is constant change?
RAMANA MAHARSHI: Since
sattva-guna (the constituent of prakriti which makes for purity, intelligence,
etc.) is the nature of mind, and since the mind is pure and undefiled like
ether, what is called mind is, in truth, of the nature of knowledge. When it
stays in that natural (i.e. pure) state, it has not even the name 'mind'. It is
only the erroneous knowledge which mistakes one for another that is called
mind.
What was (originally) the
pure sattva mind, of the nature of pure knowledge, forgets its knowledge-nature
on account of nescience, gets transformed into the world under the influence of
tamo-guna (i.e. the constituent of prakriti which makes for dullness,
inertness, etc.), being under the influence of rajo-guna (i.e. the constituent
of prakriti which makes for activity, passions, etc.), imagines "I am the
body, etc.; the world is real", it acquires the consequent merit and
demerit through attachment, aversion, etc., and, through the residual
impressions (vasanas) thereof, attains birth and death.
But the mind, which has got
rid of its defilement (sin) through action without attachment performed in many
past lives, listens to the teaching of scripture from a true guru, reflects on
its meaning, and meditates in order to gain the natural state of the mental
mode of the form of the Self, i.e. of the form 'I am Brahman' which is the
result of the continued contemplation of Brahman. Thus will be removed the
mind's transformation into the world in the aspect of tamo-guna, and its roving
therein in the aspect of rajo-guna. When this removal takes place the mind
becomes subtle and unmoving.
It
is only by the mind that is impure and is under the influence of rajas and
tamas that Reality (i.e. the Self) which is very subtle and unchanging cannot
be experienced; just
as a piece of fine silk cloth cannot be stitched with a heavy crowbar, or as
the details of subtle objects cannot be distinguished by the light of a lamp
flame that flickers in the wind.
But
in the pure mind that has been rendered subtle and unmoving by the meditation
described above, the Self-bliss (i.e. Brahman) will become manifest.
As without mind there
cannot be experience, it is possible for the purified mind endowed with the
extremely subtle mode (vritti) to experience the Self-bliss, by remaining in
that form (i.e. in the form of Brahman). Then, that one's self is of the nature
of Brahman will be clearly experienced.
extract from the book self_enquiry.pdf