THE IMPORTANCE OF A CLEAR MIND

 

THE REALITY OF PURE CONSCIOUSNESS

Pure consciousness is the Manifestor, and when that pure consciousness assumes different forms through the interaction of its very nature, which is composed of all forms, they become grosser and grosser and grosser, right to the level of the mineral kingdom. When it reaches a grosser level, we consider it a manifestation of the Manifestor. So, the goal of man is to get back home, meaning going away from the grosser levels to which we have come, back to the purity of pure consciousness.

Pure consciousness, though the absolute reality, could never be comprehended by the mind because the mind, having become gross, is away from the primal subtleness it battles on. Therefore because of its very grossness, it cannot recognise pure consciousness. You could say that if everything existent is pure consciousness; by the same token, you could say that pure consciousness has varying degrees, from the subtlest to the grossest. We refer to pure consciousness when we talk of the purity of man’s mind.

WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?

Consciousness is the totalness of awareness. If you are totally aware of the universe around you then you can say you are swimming in pure consciousness. Pure consciousness cannot be qualified, and neither quantifies qualities, but its manifestation has qualities. The manifestations we see in all things existent around us have various names and forms, yet names and forms are the creations and projections of our limited minds.

So, the greater the limitation of the mind created by ourselves, deviating from pure consciousness, we naturally would see differentiation. For example, people look at the flowers but fail to see the invisible sap that gives life, for the flower could never exist without that hidden, energising sap. A human being can never live without that pure consciousness or, in other words, life force. You can only observe the lights burning in this room, but you cannot see the electricity in its proper form, and many scientists have tried to define electricity, but they have not succeeded. And then the very same electricity attracts to itself a magnetic force, and we have the law of magnetism. Then that very electricity is the foundation stone of the law of gravity. So, as far as the field of electricity is concerned, all these various factors are combined in the electricity itself, so in like manner, pure consciousness combines in itself all its grosser counterparts which we know as manifestation.

This brings us to the conclusion that manifestation is none other than the Manifestor. So, pure consciousness is the Manifestor, and once the pure consciousness assumes its grosser forms, it is still the manifestation of the Manifestor. Manifestation could never exist without the Manifestor. Such as heat could never live without fire, and fragrance could never exist without the flower. How are you going to differentiate the aroma from the flower? There is no differentiation at all. If you analyse it scientifically, every time you breathe fragrance, you will find that you are breathing particles of the flower, so you are imbibing and consuming it. So every action man performs through pure consciousness in its grosser forms. This realisation will remind us that we are not the doer. The Divinity is the doer, for Divinity is pure consciousness.

WHAT IS PURITY?

Purity is a factor which is uncompounded; it exists in its essence. So, when we reach the core of ourselves, we start realising that it is only the essence that matters. For example, there is a murderer, a thief, a rapist, or any of the acts we regard as immoral in our society, as it should be because, without these man-made laws, the man-made world can never function in a man-made way. But if we look deep within the murderer or the thief, the very essence that makes him do the things he does, is the same essence that makes the thing a Sage does for the benefit of humanity. It is the same essence. The one is going through rough waters and compounded by factors not commensurate or compatible with society. While the other, the Sage, who does good, is also using the same essence, the same energy, and is using it for all for the good of humanity. But who is going to judge the spiritual quality of the murderer, and who will judge the apparent good attributes of the excellent doer?

We have many good-doers in the world doing good to satisfy their egos. Their doing good does not stem from deep within themselves – it does not. They escape their problems by doing good, but how much heart is there? Mr X donates fifty thousand pounds to some charitable work – does it come from his mind, his ego self? If it does, it is useless because he is just going for aggrandisement for his prestige. “Oh, the world will say I, Mr X am such a great man.” That is selfish. While the murderer might murder with a pure Heart, the trouble might have been just a sick mind. And the action he might have performed in his sickness might be even of more excellent value to his evolution than the do-gooder who is just doing it to inflate his ego. The inflation of the ego is something that takes you away from your essence, takes you away from Divinity. At the same time, the man in sincerity, whatever act he performs, could be evolutionary to him. It could be a path in his progress that he has to overcome.

JUDGE YE NOT THAT YE BE NOT JUDGED

Therefore, we do not condemn anyone. Thus, the Bible says, “Judge Ye not that Ye be not Judged.” For whom am I the judge of another person? I cannot. I can only judge with my little mind and what my mind thinks is right; only by that would I judge, and everybody does not measure with the same ruler. Some people’s rulers are eight inches, and some have ten inches and some twelve inches to the foot. So, we use our particular measuring tape. It is wrong. Pure consciousness does not measure because it is above the various machinations of the little mind, which is nothing but the thought body, the mental body, which in its wholeness and limited wholeness, becomes the ego.

EVERYTHING IS DIVINE

It is essential to understand that to find pure consciousness, we have to die to find real life, and death is not necessarily of the body; you can find pure consciousness while still existing in this body. But the death must be of the ego, which dies in many different ways. The ego can die in self-surrender, not I but Thou. Thy will be done. There is no little ‘i’ at all; I just make up that little ‘i’ for my selfish ends.

In Sanskrit, the word “Ish” means Divinity, God. It is a derivative of “Ishvara.” “Ish.” So even in selfishness, find the “ish,” then the tiny self disappears, and the big self of the “ish” manifests itself in our daily waking life. Fool-ish put the “ish” to the fool, and the fool will become a God. Do you see how beautiful it is? For life is made of beauty. Everything is pure consciousness, and just because, for the evolution of this universe, because of the condensation of that pure primal energy into grosser and grosser forms in its various manifestations like the mineral kingdom, plant kingdom, animal kingdom, the human kingdom, it has to be. That is the law of the universe. The movement of pure consciousness is so fine that the universe cannot run independently. It has to take various forms. Therefore, there are religions worldwide that worship God in so many forms. You have the God of Air, the Sun God, the God of the Moon, the God of Rain and all this. These are not separate gods; they are all the various aspects of the manifested, eminent God.

Once we start realising this principle that everything is Divine, we are brought closer and closer to pure consciousness. For the gradations are only made by us. We are so patterned by all our karmas and samskaras and all the actions we have done and are doing that our minds are all muddled up. We are not looking at the causes of things, and the basic principle of philosophy, for example, is to find the cause of things, the first cause, the essence of things, and it is only through diving deep within ourselves that we can find that essence. But we swim on the sea’s surface and are tossed around like a rudderless boat on the waves. That boat must sink to the depths where the stillness is, and there lies unblemished consciousness.

A SAGE IS ALWAYS DWELLING IN PURE CONSCIOUSNESS

The only thing a Sage or a Mystic has that the worldly man does not have is his realisation of the essence of things. In other words, he is constantly dwelling in pure consciousness. Every act he performs is inspired by pure consciousness, and once one gets so much into it, nothing else works for him but pure consciousness. Every action he does is a proper action. The worldly man might not recognise it; they might not see what he is doing.

I had the occasion once of slapping a woman, she was in a hysterical state, and a passer-by said, “Oh, Gururaj, what have you done there, slapping a woman? That is cruel, and how can you lift your hand to the stronger, I mean the weaker sex?” But what I was doing there was bringing her to her senses. She was so hysterical that any word I spoke to her about would not make any sense to her until I had to shock her and shock that hysteria out of her. We have to deal with so many people in many different ways, but to the observer, it might seem foolish. Yet the man there, me, slapped this woman, and it hurt me more.

So, the man of pure consciousness will always unconsciously do the right thing. Sometimes I do certain crazy things, absolutely crazy. They say, “Oh, he is mad.” They forgot about the method in the madness. Sometimes with a person, I try by my example – for which I do have to suffer – to put that person through a whole range of emotional problems and draw them out of it, make him rise. I would do things and act as a mirror to the person, to the chela, so that the chela, finding me as a mirror, sees himself and where his fault is and what is his obstacle towards pure consciousness.

In that vast realm of pure consciousness, there are no obstacles, no opposition. You are standing above it all; things will happen down there. The turbulence will be there, and you are even mixed up in those waves, and you are tossed around, and if you are there on the waves being thrown around, become a surfer and enjoy surfing on the waves.

GO FOR YOUR REAL NATURE, WHICH IS GOOD, DIVINE

So, everything can be enjoyed; we can use everything to uplift ourselves to develop a different attitude; if we develop greater awareness, our attitudes will change. It will be mixed with a deep love that wells from that pure consciousness. Then if you love a person, if you love all, how can that person be wrong? A wife might have a hundred faults, but if her husband loves her enough, he does not see the faults; he only sees the goodness. That is a common experience for everyone. But if you do not love your wife, the slightest little thing she does will become irritable to you, and you will find fault in it. It is the same person, the same woman, same ways, same faults, same goodness, but it is my attitude that makes me see her differently. I could see her as a witch and the same woman as a goddess that I could worship. Who does it benefit? It benefits me for having developed the ability to see her as a goddess, and seeing her a goddess, by me entertaining these good thoughts towards her, she will move away from the witchiness and bitchiness into a goddess. Because every idea within me would emanate and would affect her in some way or the other.

You have all experienced this, you go into a sad home, and the atmosphere is such that you feel sad and want to run away. You go into a charming, loving home and feel like sitting there for an hour. You do not like to move. You see how the atmosphere affects everyone. So, to make this world a better world, I must make myself better because every thought I think and action I do, has some reflection. It must have. It has that emanation. No flower does not give off fragrance, and no dung does not give off its particular kind of emanation. So, shall I be the piece of dung or the source of fragrance? Shall I be mixed up in turmoil or instead dive deep down within and find that pure consciousness which is my real nature?

If you do not go to your real nature, you become unnatural. Your real nature is good, and your real nature is Divine. There is no one bad in this world, no one. But because of the faults and frailties and badness within us, we only see the badness around us, and when we see that around us, it affects us more and makes us more and more destructive. So, we always have to start with ourselves.

REFORMATION COMES FROM WITHIN ONESELF

I have said this before; many reformers have come and gone throughout history – we study great men – the world is still the same; it is not reformed. But reformation, change and growth come from within oneself. It is never done on a collective basis but always on an individual basis. It is the individual himself when he looks into the mirror; he just does not look at the face but peers deep into the eyes. Shakespeare said, “The eyes are the windows of the soul.” Peer into your soul and see what is there. Am I John Jones? When you look into that mirror, you say, “No. I am not John Jones. My mother and father gave me the name John, and because their surname was Jones, I am Jones. I am not John Jones or Joe Blow.” I am, was and forever will be that pure consciousness. I am deathless, for the Spirit I am is never born and can never die. As they say in the Gita, “No sword can slash you, no fire can burn you, no water can drown you.” Nothing can.

THE ONLY THING WE OWN IS THAT PURE CONSCIOUSNESS

We become limited because we drift away from the purity, which is us, away from the pure consciousness, which is us, and we just look at the surface value of ourselves. And what is the surface value of ourselves, and what motivates the surface value is nothing else but attachment, attachment, attachment. Nothing belongs to us, and yet every moment of the day, our minds are filled with our attachments. My mother, my father, my children, my home, my mansion, my beautiful motor cars, my, my, my, my, my wealth, my businesses, my. Yet you might step out of here and have a heart attack. Where is all that stuff which you say is “mine”? Nothing you say is “mine” has a permanent value, but it constantly changes. People’s fortunes fluctuate all the time. Their loved lives are in good health one day and lousy health the other. Okay, so she does not love me anymore. It was just an infatuation, and she left me. Fine, let her leave me. She was never mine in the first place. How could I own her?

How could I own something so intangible? I am chasing after rainbows. How can I hold it? How can I brook the running water with my hands? It will keep on flowing and running. So, what is here today might be gone tomorrow. The only thing that is yours and that you are is that pure consciousness. That stays all the time, and our spiritual practices aim to reach that pure consciousness which is ourselves. So, from the unreality of possession, we reach the reality of non-possession, which is pure consciousness. And when you reach that area of pure consciousness, that is the time everything belongs to you because you become it all, the changeless and the unchanging.

PURITY VERSUS MORALITY

In Eastern mythology, Vishnu is a God, and Vishnu stands for virtue, the God of Virtue, and his consort is called Lakshmi, which means fortune. Vishnu cannot stay without Lakshmi, and Lakshmi cannot live without Vishnu; virtue can never live without fortune, and fortune can never live without virtue.

Fortune does not mean wealth, money in the bank, not that kind of fortune, but to have real fortune oneself, you will have virtue. They are a team, husband and wife, one side of the other, fortune and virtue go together. I am not talking of morality; remember that. Religions preach morality, which is necessary for the stability of the world. Different places have different systems of morality. For example, in our Western countries, we believe in monogamy, while in some Eastern countries, they believe in polygamy. If you study ancient history, in some other countries, too, there has been polyandry, where a woman can have five husbands. Like in the Mahabharata, Draupadi had five husbands. In Tibet, you can have so many wives. The Muslim faith allows you seven wives. But we do not; legally, we can have one husband or wife.

Like this chap said, “I have only got one wife.” And I said, “Yes, sure, I have seen you with her,” and he said, “No, no, one wife but ninety-nine concubines.” So, morality has its own time and place. Morality keeps changing from age to age, from place to place, from circumstance to circumstance, and all these various things. But there is one unchangeable thing, and that is purity. To be pure of heart is to be so childlike, not gullible but childlike, innocent. If you came and told me something, I would have no reason to doubt you. If you come to me saying that walking up the path here, you lost your wallet with five hundred pounds in it, I have no reason to doubt you. I would say, “Oh, sorry. It will come back to you in some way.” Childlikeness, not childishness, not gullibility, but childlikeness.

THE CLARITY OF THE MIND IS VERY IMPORTANT

These are the outer manifestations of pure consciousness because that sublime Divine energy of pure consciousness expresses itself through a pure mind, a concentrated mind, and a mind with a positive attitude. We can train ourselves consciously to have the right attitudes and ways of living, which comes about by opening the heart, and spiritual practices are primarily aimed at opening the heart and regulating the mind. Because our minds are like butterflies, one moment on this flower and the next moment on that next flower, or like bees rather, flitting here, there and everywhere and never being still.

Spiritual practices lead us to pure consciousness, bringing that stillness within ourselves. If there is a lot of turmoil around, it becomes tough for pure consciousness to shine in its glory because it gets mixed up in chaos. But once the turmoil is lessened, pure consciousness shines through in our daily actions. It must; it is inevitable because it is there.

So, clarity of mind is essential. By transparency, we mean the ability to think precisely, not just the mind running here and there and everywhere. This comes through practice, and everything requires work. If we have that direct channel to the superconscious level of our minds, that force and energy flow through to the conscious level of the active mind, and our physical activity would be proper. Every action you perform then would be the right action. It might not seem so now, but it will end in the right move. So pure consciousness is the essence of our lives. Pure consciousness is all in the life force, undying, never-ending and forever there.

… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: UK 1984 – 12