Verse 14
प्राणबन्धनाल्लीनमानसम् |
एकचिन्तनान्नाशमेत्यदः ||
prāṇabandhanāllīnamānasam
|
ekacintanānnāśametyadaḥ ||
From the binding of the prana, the mind is
dissolved.
From one thought, that reaches destruction.
The state of Mano-Laya
is not to be criticized. It is a good thing to have attained a quiet mind; it
is no joke to achieve this. Most people find that impossible.
They are perpetually
subjected to the captivity of the mind, except for the brief relief they get
during sleep. So to be freed from the mind’s captivity may in itself be a
victory of some sort for most people. However, having done that, the important
thing is the next step.
We cannot waste the
opportunity of having a quiet mind in our hands. We rarely get this chance. Sri
Ramana Maharshi tells us that such a mind is put to its best use by making it
contemplate on the Self. A quiet mind is meant for knowledge, so we must give
it that.
The Laya mind does
not possess the impulse to seek knowledge. It is an inert state. The impulse
comes from one’s desire to know and to realize God.
“Eka Chintanam”– The
Contemplation on the One:
Pranayama is the
basis for and laya is samadhi. However, once you come out of this samadhi, you
are not enlightened.
Just as the example
of “Our Self being clouded by our ignorance”given by the author in a series of
the messages to few last week, here, it has to be observed in the context of
this Laya and the experience after coming out of this temporary samadhi that “TRUTH
OR SELF IS COVERED BY VRITTIS OR THOUGHT PATTERNS”.
Remove these thought
patterns and SELF is revealed. Thus, sage Patanjali advocated that “the atma
is covered by thoughts and you uncover Atman by chitta vritti nirodha, i.e.,
restraint or stoppage of thoughts.
Thoughts are like
continuous flow of a river and due to the same, you are not able to see the
ground under / beneath the flowing river, which is SELF.
So, how to use this
laya state / practice to progress further in Spiritual Sadhana?
Let the Laya mind be
used to reflect upon the Self. It is quiet. It has no disturbance. That is the
best time to do Self-contemplation. The instrument of the mind is as we would
want it to be – sharp and focused, with no distractions. What better use can we
put it to?
The snake and the
rope example is very famous in Vedanta.
Even while one
mistakes a rope to be a snake, the fact remains that rope and snake are two
different entities and are not the same.
Problem is there only
when we seriously mistake a rope to be a snake and in such a situation, rope
verily becomes a snake due to our misapprehension.
Let us suppose this
snake to be our thoughts and our pure SELF, the ATMAN to be Rope and see the
following
Snake is there (notion)
|
Rope is there.
|
Snake is not there
(notion is removed)
|
Rope is there.
|
Similarly,
Thoughts come
|
SELF is there.
|
Thoughts go
|
SELF is there.
|
Thus, we conclude
atleast intellectually that “I AM THE SELF and Not the thoughts that come and
go”
Thus, we keep the
mind thus engaged and reflecting on the Self within. By prolonged practice the
individuality is bound to crack, dissolve and get destroyed.
This is what the
verse holds out to us. Destruction of the mind should not alarm us; it is not
something to be feared. The aim is to destroy the restlessness of the
mind, which has ever been the bane of all human drama.
The Maharshi is quite
firm on the matter that there is no other way to destroy the mind but the
contemplation of the Self. This happens in all of the Yogas in their advanced
stage.
Anything else we do
with the mind in Laya would return us to the same old ‘fool’s paradise that we
are already in. That is not worth it.
Love.
