Question:

Hello Ekta, I have a question. Nisargadatta was saying that ‘how can restless mind can calm itself’ or something similar…Then you were explaining this point and at some point, you said Mind and body are reflections of the self, so when the self’s calmness reflects on the mind, it also gets calmer. If I understood what you said correctly that body/mind are reflections of the self, why not body/mind is not as calm and serene as the self to start with? Could you please help me get out of this loop in my mind?

Answer:

Let’s take the example of an old mirror.

Do you have a very old mirror in the house that has lost its sheen and become dirty and chipped its reflective coating? Please go look into the mirror. You will notice that your face looks chipped and dirty. Does that mean your face is chipped and dirty, in reality? No, it is simply the bad mirror that is showing the reflection like that.

Similarly, when you feel that you are restless or agitated, it is not you-the-consciousness that is restless, it is the mirror [mind] that is a restless reflective coating. That is why you start feeling that you are restless or agitated. That is what I meant by body and mind being reflections [chittachaya] because they are akin to the mirror.

Secondly, when I said that the restless mind cannot calm itself, it is obvious, can an unconscious thing like the mirror repair itself? It cannot. Similarly, the mind is nothing but a chipped and dirty mirror. It is unconscious [Anatma]. It cannot fix itself therefore Maharaj says that the mind can never be happy. It is pointless trying to repair this mirror dear, it is beyond repair.

Why is the mind beyond repair? Why can’t the mind be happy?

That is because:

1] Mirrors cannot repair themselves so the mind cannot repair itself as it is unconscious by itself.

2] The Witness Consciousness does not do anything, in fact, there is NO DOER! So the witness too cannot repair the mind or make it happy.

So is happiness an illusion? 

Wake up and see the truth that the mind cannot be happy because happiness is a conscious quality and the mind by itself is an unconscious entity.

Let’s experiment and prove it to ourselves: 
I know that it is a hard truth to swallow but if you put the ego’s tantrums aside, you will notice that in your own experiential recognition of living a life of 30-40-50-60 years however long you have lived, the mind has never been content. Irrespective of whether its desires were fulfilled or unfulfilled, it has always been looking for pleasure with the beggar’s bowl in hand and thirst for pleasure in the eyes. Whatever wealth of the world it acquires, it never ever drops the begging bowl, its stomach is ever-empty. It is a bottomless pot that can never ever be satiated. That which is bottomless, how can that be happy or content?

Wake up and recognize your own experiential truth and have the courage to acknowledge it. Once acknowledged, the futile seeking sheds away automatically, and your awareness moves towards deeper levels of existence. You drop trying to entertain the mind and resort to a higher search for the ultimate truth! When you naturally seek the true nature of your own self, you automatically attain bliss! That is the source of true happiness. Then you are never unhappy dear. The mind may be unhappy but you will always be happy!

How do you go beyond this mind? Only through self-inquiry is that possible. Start with any inner self-exploration meditation from here – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRdfdWWXRI5GAhkXgAEBk8Q

Move higher!

#AtmaNirvriti #AtmanandaKrishnaMenon #AdvaitaVedanta #Non-duality #Nisargadatta Maharaj