01 Sep Removing The Mind

Truth – Brahman, the one Reality – is nothing other than “mindlessness.” As long as the mind remains conditioned and projecting, it has no awareness of Brahman or Reality. When the mind ceases, it becomes Brahman. In other words, the absence of the mind reveals the presence of Reality. Wherever the mind exists, Reality is veiled. The Truth is just behind the mind, and as long as the mind exists, we cannot see Truth or Reality.

Thus, the projecting, conditioned mind is to be destroyed, annihilated, and transcended. If the mind is to be exhausted, the various spiritual disciplines (sadhana) that have been prescribed have to be followed. the process by which the mind can be destroyed at the body level is karma yoga. The process by which the mind can be annihilated at the mental level is bhakti yoga, and the process by which the mind can be transcended at the intellectual level is jnana yoga. These paths of yoga in themselves are not Truth, but they are processes by which the perceiving, feeling, thinking mind is to be negated so that the Truth can be unveiled.

Thus, where the thinking mind is ended, the experience is the infinite Reality. That Reality alone is Aham (the inner Self). I alone am. Yet “I” has no existence without the perceived duality of “you.” Therefore the word “I” also cannot be used. When that experience of the Infinite comes, any word you speak makes no sense because mere words cannot capture or convey Truth. Therefore, the Reality of advaita (non-duality) is not something to be preached or talked about. It is to be experienced as anubhava (direct experience).

– excerpted from ‘The highest Truth’ written by Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda
compiled in the Mananam series book ‘Truth’