Verse 16
दृश्यवारितं चित्तमात्मनः |
चित्त्वदर्शनं तत्त्वदर्शनम् ||
dṛśyavāritaṁ cittamātmanaḥ |
cittvadarśanaṁ tattvadarśanam ||
The seen warded off, the mind is of the Self.
The revelation of Consciousness is the
revelation of the Truth.
The mind that is
‘destroyed’, which does not run after objects, is itself declared to be
Consciousness. This is the revelation in this verse, which will turn many
necks. That state of total annihilation of the mind, requiring its withdrawal
from the sense objects, is nothing but Consciousness. Not only that, it is the
ultimate vision of Reality or Self-realization.
When One’s mind,
CHITTAM, is withdrawn from all perceptions, DRSYAM, one gains appreciation of
one’s nature which is awareness, CHITVAM and this is the truth in essence,
TATWAM.
To understand this,
we first look at two very basic definitions:
i) What is the mind? – A flow
of thoughts.
ii) What is a thought? – Only an awareness
of an object.
Mind = Thought + Thought + Thought…..
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(Mind is a bundle of thoughts, Swami has said)
Awareness + Object = Thought
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So, if the object is
removed from the above equation, then what remains??
Mind = Awareness!
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i) If object changes,
thought will change; awareness remains the same. As we allow the mind to jump
from object to object, thoughts keep arising in it. To control the thought, we
need to stop the objects from changing.
ii) If
we remove the object from thought, only awareness remains. As we do
this to many objects one at a time, the mind only becomes a flow of Awareness.
In the above process,
it is to be known that there is a knower consciousness and there is an object
consciousness.
Our thought on an
object and we the knower, both are in the same consciousness, as God, as Pure Consciousness,
pervades the entire creation.
Just remove the
thought of an object, what remains in awareness.
You are observing / seeing
an object, say, a flower kept on the table. Here, what is explained is that
your thought process about the flower is also in awareness, and you, the
knower, is also in the same pure consciousness. If the thought about the flower is withdrawn, then what remains is you the pure awareness.
When we stand on a
sea shore and keep observing the waves, apparently, one may say that a wave is
different from the water.
However, the reality
is that waves will keep coming from the water. Thus wave, innumerable waves,
have no separate existence apart from water. Each wave, when it arises, the
truth is that the vision of water flows as wave. Even when waves change, the
vision of water does not change.
Similarly, even when
the thoughts (waves) keep changing, the pure awareness “I” remains the same
(water). One must see themselves AS THE PURE AWARENESS, even amidst the thought
waves that flow from them.
The Culmination of
Ashtanga Yoga:
The search for the
Reality ends in the mind itself. The mind, when freed from restlessness by not
permitting itself to have any relationship with either object or subject, is
found to be none other than pure consciousness.
There is no
‘ego-consciousness’ left, since the subject ‘I’ has been treated as just
another ‘object’ and eliminated. The objectless mind is pure
Consciousness.
Love.
