Why No-Mind (thought- free state) is sine qua non for self-inquiry?

Life is action in relationship. At present we are acting with drive of desire with an end in view.So desire will be free of end in view if it is not empirical,selfish, in the service of “me” and “mine”. We always seek a result from action. We don’t do any action without a reward. It is our habit.But that habit results in formation of “actor”, “doer”, “me”, “ego”.So action seeking a reward can never produce stillness of mind. On the contrary it results in more thoughts, more thought burden on mind. Such mind can never be free of its contents, such action cannot help in emptying of mind.Once a group of scholors met Sri Ramana Maharshi and asked “what is action without an end in view” (Nishkama Karma). Instead of replying Ramana Maharshi uprooted a spiky plant and with the help of leaves he made it into a beautiful stick which took six hours. One shepard lost his stich and looking for a new one. Ramana Maharshi gave the new stick to him.This is spontaneous action without an end in view.Scholors understood his existential message. In such action there is no “doer”, only “doing” is there. There is bondage due to action because no “doer” is born out of such action. So the action is “complete”.In action with an end in view. action will always be incomplete.

We know only conditioned action.Conditioning is old and so action is arising from the old. The translates the “new” and modify it.But interval between thoughts is always “new” and cannot modify the old. This does not mean that the “new” is exclusive. It is a state of deepening experience and so constant regeneration and is in constant revolution.It meets the problem anew,it meets the old without contaminated by it. This “new” is always moving and transforms everything it meets. The “new” goes on extending and old disappears by itself. There is no need to condemn, avoid or supress it.So thought arising in the interval disappears.

The interval between two thoughts gives the mind greater capacity to deal with any thought that may arise in the interval. The interval has vitality without any identification, condemnation, justification, interpretation.So self-inquiry is possible and easy in the presence of still mind with this interval.We should go on doing self-inquiry till such a time, this thought-free state becomes natural to us. Then we can tackle any problem in daily life “anew”.
In that state there is no sensation because sensation is thought process is verbal.What we are doing is that we are naming the living processes like fear, greed, anger, violence and creating their opposites and we are always involved in thought process trying to correct these energy leaking degenerating factors. Thought cannot do anything with a living process.If it understands this it will subside by itself. This subsidence of thought paves the way for “insight” of whole network of psychological problem which flowers in passive awareness of still mind, tells its story in detail and withers away. There is no need to “do” anything in psychological arena. So in psychological arena “insightful perception” is enough. Here non-doing is action. Self-inquiry is the way for it.

Upadesa Saram verse 13

Verse 13: laya vinashane ubhaya rodhane laya gatham punar bhavati no-mrutam

laya vinashane : absorption and destruction
ubhaya rodhane : by the restrain of both [prana and mind]
laya gatam : (the mind ) that has gone to absorption
punar: again
bhavati na: does not come into existence
mritam: having died.

Upadesa Saram Verse 13:
“Absorption or laya, destruction or nasa are the two kinds of mind control. When merely absorbed, it emerges again, but not when it is destroyed.”

Comment:
Subsidence of mind is two kinds. Abeyance (laya) and destruction (nasa).That which is in abeyance will rise but if mind dies it will not rise. The subsidence of mind is gained by breath restraint and in states like sleep, death, swoon, coma is temporary and is thus manolaya or abeyance of the mind. Since happiness is experienced only when the mind subsides and since rising of the mind is misery itself, if we are to enjoy happiness forever it is necessary that the mind is destroyed permanently. Such permanent destruction of the mind which is the true goal of all spiritual disciplines is called manonasa. The reason why breath control cannot bring about manonasa is breath control does not destroy the tendencies.

For making the mind subside permanently there is no adequate means other than self-enquiry. If made to subside by other means, the mind will remain as if subsided but will definitely rise again. Where as in manonasa (destruction of the mind) the “I” thought is pulled into the spiritual heart centre which eventually destroys it so completely that it never rises again. The concept of individual self is destroyed forever, only Self remains.

Upadesa Saram verse 12

Verse 12:
citta vayavas chit-kriya-yutah sakhayor-dvyai sakti mulaka

chitta-vayavah : the mind and the vital airs
cit kriya yutah: they are endowed with consciousness and the activising force.
sakhayoh dvayi: they are the two branches

sakti mulaka: the root cause of energy or power

The mind and the vital airs are the two branches with thought and action as functions that eminate from the same root.

Upadesa Saram Verse 12:
“Mind and breath manifesting in thought and action, branch out from a common source, Atma Sakti (Aham Spurana).”

Comment:
The mind is the conscious aspect, the power of objective knowing, thinking (Jnana Sakti) where as breath or life force (Prana) is the power of doing or action (kriya sakti).But the original power Aham Sphurana is like a trunk of a tree having mind and prana as two branches. So mind and prana are interrelated. The imaginary power of the mind comes to a stand still if breath is controlled. Likewise if mind stops imagining completely whatever is the reason breath comes to a standstill. Prana supplies energy to mind for thinking and to the body for it’s maintenance. When mind is strayed if we control the breath, immediately it feels suffocated, stops imagining and comes back to the present. If due to self-enquiry thought process collapses in the spiritual heart the breath is controlled. The existence of the mind depends upon it’s identity with something gross. In self-enquiry because we pay our entire attention on the source of mind identity with nonself including all adjuncts is nullified, so attraction to nonself does not exist and in such a state of being there is direct experience of nonexistence of the mind (naiva manasam).The ego, the thinker appears as a real entity because of our continuous identity with the nonself. This identity is broken when we pay attention only to “I” thought excluding all other thoughts. Then “I” thought is deprived of it’s identity with all other thoughts and perceptions it normally identifies with. Then the “I” thought start to subside in the spiritual heart and gets dissolved in it.

Commentary on Verse 16 -Chapter 2 Samkhya Yoga

Verse 16
nasato vidyate bhavo nabhavo vidyate satah ubhayor api drsto ‘ntas tv anayos tattva-darsibhih

SYNONYMS
na–never; asatah–of the nonexistent; vidyate–there is; bhavah–endurance; na–never; abhavah–changing quality; vidyate–there is;satah–of the eternal; ubhayoh–of the two; api–verily; drstah–observed; antah–conclusion; tu–but; anayoh–of them; tattva–truth;darsibhih–by the seers.
TRANSLATION
Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent there is no endurance, and of the existent there is no cessation. This seers have concluded by studying the nature of both.

Commentary by Dr.Raju.

This verse is purely about self-inquiry. Krishna says that which did not exist before birth, that which will not exist after death and that which exist only between birth and death is not real. Somebody asked Ramana Maharshi whether the waking state is real or a dream stuff. He emphatically replied that except in duration there is no difference between dream state and waking state, both are made of dream stuff. Then the questioner asked why in waking state everything looks tangible unlike in dream/ Ramana Maharshi said even in dream while you are in dream it looks real and tangible to you. For example dream hunger is relieved by dream food. You may dream that you went to Europe in plane and all those things appear real in dream. Only after waking you will know that dream happened to you but it is unreal. That which is unreal lays in between existence and non-existence, it appears to be real but it is not. When we wake up in Self we realize that al our perceptions even in the waking state are unreal. Reality exists in all modes of mind. It survives physical death. In life search towards the real begins with inquiry into the unreal. That is why our attention must be there where why this unreal is springing up. To know the unreal as unreal is the basis for the search of real. We have no other alternative. What we call unreal is based on real. Hence unreal appears to be real just like appearance of snake in rope in twilight but appearance of snake is unreal but deep down its essence is real. That is why if we go very deeply into the false we touch the real. The eternal soul exists behind the mortal body, formless ocean exists behind the waves which have form. If you are reflected in a stream, the reflection is not real but the source of reflection is real. So all forms are momentary expressions of the real. If we are attached to the forms our perceptions are unreal. Our world as we perceive it is the world of reflections of forms. At present our vision is habituated to look towards the image rather than its source. So our journey starts from images, forms. We are in a state of metaphysical dreaming, so we have to start from our dream in the inquiry. This is a down to earth approach unlike other methods in which ego is kept intact and starts dreaming about god basing on ideas, beliefs, dogma. The moment we recognize dream is just a dream it disappears. We don’t recognize dream as a dream unless we do self-inquiry. Krishna says to Arjuna you will become wise only when recognize the difference between the real and the unreal. That which does not disappear even while you are awake which remains in spite of all is real, eternal and so timeless. The unreal exists in a time frame. Yesterday it may not have existed, today it is here, tomorrow it may not be there. But that which existed in the past, existing today, will exist tomorrow it cannot be divided into three dimensions of time. It simply exists, which past, present, future it can have? So that which is real is always beyond time, there is no concept of involved in it. The reflection needs a medium to exist. You do not need a medium in order to exist. You do need a medium for your image to be reflected. Time is the medium that allows the reflection to manifest. The reflection is formed on the mirror of time, it exists in the dimension of time and it is unreal. Nothing is static in the dimension of time. This quivering reflection that is formed in the mirror of time may have existed yesterday, may exist now but it may not exist tomorrow. It may not have existed a moment ago and it may not exist a moment from now. That which keeps changing moment to moment which can change one moment to another is always unreal. That which does not change every moment is eternal. Lord Krishna says those who can recognize the difference between the real and unreal attain wisdom. This is possible through self-inquiry.

Commentary on verse 14 of Samkhya yoga,the 2nd chapter of Bhagavad Gita

Verse 14
matra-sparsas tu kaunteya sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah agamapayino ‘nityas tams titiksasva bharata
SYNONYMS
matra–sensuous; sparsah–perception; tu–only; kaunteya–O son of Kunti; sita–winter; usna–summer; sukha–happiness; duhkha-dah–giving pain; agama–appearing; apayinah–disappearing; anityah–nonpermanent; tan–all of them; titiksasva–just try to tolerate; bharata–O descendant of the Bharata dynasty.
TRANSLATION
O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate and endure them without being disturbed.

Commentary by the Author Dr.Raju.

Phenomenal realities are not untruth because untruth means which does not exist. The phenomenal realities are half truths but part of truth. We can perceive the truth partially through senses because senses are basically limited in their range of perception. So all sense knowledge is only half truth including the scientific knowledge. That is why scientific theories goes on changing and in course of time they contradict their own findings. It is a natural consequence of observing through senses only. A century ago physicists are quite confident that atom is the basic particle with which universe is built. Later they found electron, proton ,and neutron. For some time they felt that they are the only subatomic particles. After some years they said quark particles are final subatomic particles. In course of time they found quark particles do not exist at all. Now they say “Neutrino” is the fundamental particle with which electron is made of and so all universe is made of “neutrino” particle. The electron itself behaves as a wave of energy sometimes and if it is observed by electron microscope it looks as though it is a particle. So electron is interchanging as energy and matter. All half truths are like this if we try to do self-inquiry with a limited instrument like thought. Half truths make you oscillate from happiness to unhappiness and vice versa. Only whole truth make you blissful which is beyond both happiness and unhappiness. Half truths are transient. If you look at half truths you become restless and miserable. So Krishna is asking Arjuna to look at whole truth. Half truth is like earth and whole truth is lie sky. The cervical spine of pigs is arranged in such a way that they can look only at the earth but they cannot bend their neck upwards to see the sky. In their whole life pigs do not see the sky even once. Though man has freedom to see the whole truth he is not utilizing that opportunity and instead he is wasting precious human life in indulging and accumulating trivia. Ours is a sensate culture. We have to recognize the truth in its totality and find our centre of our being. Self-inquiry is a journey from half truth to whole truth. We leave the half truths only through understanding of it but not by avoiding them. If you avoid them deep down you still have some hopes in half truths. Renunciation means understanding the nature of half truth and finding for ourselves that there is no enduring happiness and peace in them and so never get attached to them. Once you are free from identity from half truths you will land in the whole truth which is the sky of pure conscious being and you will be blissful without any effort on your part. Effort is just a mental activity. Effort creates its own frontiers, objectives, its own limitations. Effort has the time binding quality and all half truths are time bound, so effort never throws you out of this time bound half truths. So it is only through understanding the nature of these half truths through self-inquiry we are free from identity with them. Suppose if you say I must meditate the effort puts a limitation on your mind. We can make our mind bound or free. Effort limits the mind, so effort is evil, a self centred activity. From childhood we are conditioned to make effort, to improve ourselves, to become something as Arjuna. The more effort we make the duller the mind becomes. Effort makes our attention limited and directed. Many do self-inquiry with effort. It is just like doing good in wrong direction because it only creates further mental conflict. That is why Krishna asking Arjuna to discover the totality of truth. He is not advising any fresh mental discipline, belief, dogma to solve his problem. He is trying to awaken Arjuna from deep metaphysical sleep of Arjuna by de-conditioning him. Masters come to awaken people into Self but not to impart information and knowledge with which the human mind is already burdened with.

Commentary on verse 19 of samkhya yoga of Bhagavad Gita

Verse 19
ya enam vetti hantaram yas cainam manyate hatam ubhau tau na vijanito nayam hanti na hanyate
SYNONYMS
yah–anyone; enam–this; vetti–knows; hantaram–the killer; yah–anyone; ca–also; enam–this; manyate–thinks; hatam–killed; ubhau–both of them; tau–they; na–never; vijanitah–in knowledge; na–never;ayam–this; hanti–kills; na–nor; hanyate–be killed.
TRANSLATION
He who thinks that the living entity (Self) is the slayer or that he is slain, is Self-ignorant. One who is in Self knowledge knows that the Self neither slays nor is slain.

Commentary by the Author Dr.Raju:

Gita is a dialogue between Lord Krishna with Self-knowledge and Arjuna with Self-ignorance. The one with Self-ignorance lives a peripheral sensate life and so have no comprehensive understanding of life and so confused and all his actions are self contradictory. While a being with Self-knowledge posits himself in the centre of being and functions from that centre with comprehensive understanding of life. Being aware of the movements of his mind he acts in an integrated way in the phenomenal reality. He does not act according to ideas and so his actions are not contradictory unlike a man with Self-ignorance leading a sensate life who acts out of ideas and all his action is self contradictory.

That which dies is a momentary wave and unreal, that which is immortal is an ocean of consciousness and real. Arjuna being identified with momentary wave of unreal body and thinking it to be real, thinks other bodies also to be real, that is why he says “How can I kill, it is better to die”. A man who thinks in terms of killing is bound to think in terms of dying also, he is bound to suffer because death is a possibility for him. We are in the same situation as Arjuna is in. From our angle death is certain. But Krishna says exactly the opposite. He says death is an impossibility, nobody has ever died, nobody can ever die. Death is a deception. Our lives in each and every aspect revolve around death. Those who see death as real cannot experience anything in life except their bodies. This is the case with vast majority of humanity.

Because we do not experience psychological death while living we are afraid of physical death. Meditation provides this opportunity. In meditation we taste the nature of psychological death. You directly experience living thoughtless state of being and so living without the known. If we live a life of awareness we die to past moment and so death happens every moment and rejuvenates life. Death is not against life, it rejuvenates life. When a person dies meditative energy is release around him. That is why Buddha used to advise those who come to him for the first time to sit near a dead body in the burial ground. We feel the same energy around a saint with much more intense energetic presence. This is the way to taste death while living. Ramana Maharshi experienced even physical death three times which is a rare occurrence. After passing through death experience he touched that which is immortal in him. Such people and Lord Krishna have the authority to say ‘Whether you kill the body or you avoid killing the body, the Self does not die nor it can be saved. The Self neither dies nor it is need to be saved. That which is beyond death and salvation is Self, that is existence.”

Commentary on 18th verse of Samkhya Yoga of Bhagavad Gita

Verse 18
antavanta ime deha nityasyoktah saririnah anasino ‘prameyasya tasmad yudhyasva bharata
SYNONYMS
anta-vantah–perishable; ime–all these; dehah–material bodies;nityasya–eternal in existence; uktah–it is so said; saririnah–the embodied soul; anasinah–never to be destroyed; aprameyasya–immeasurable; tasmat–therefore; yudhyasva–fight; bharata–O descendant of Bharata.
TRANSLATION
Body is perishable, the essence of life which abides within the body is imperishable, therefore, fight, Oh descendant of Bharata.

Commentary by the Dr.Raju:

For Lord Krishna world is just a dream reality. Ramana Mharshi never took events in the world as real, his vision of the world is Ajata vada which means world has only apparent existence like silver in the mother pearl. For him there is no creation. Even if snake crawls over his body and surrounded his neck he is never concerned. It is not due to insensitivity but due to supreme understanding. But for ordinary people world is real and they take the events in the world seriously. The war seemed real to Arjuna, It is understandable. To him physical body is real and so its death also seemed real. But Krishna says bodies are unreal and perishable and so don’t be concerned about them and go ahead with the war. Ordinary people with body identity who constitute vast majority of humanity cannot understand the stand taken by Krishna. Many cannot digest a spiritual person advising Arjuna to go ahead with the war and kill opponents. But religiosity is not just following social ethics. Ethics is a functional part of world of dreams. Ethics is part of unreal and so it changes when society changes and it varies from country to country, from religion to religion, from caste to caste, from race to race. This does not mean religiosity is unethical. They are not bothered being socially good or socially bad. They are highly sensitive people who transcend both good and bad. Adjusting with corrupt society and getting recognized as a good man is not great. It is cowardliness. Bad means the one who goes against the establishment of society. So both are concerned with dream reality. In essence there is not much difference between good and bad man. One is pro-establishment and another is antiestablishment. The really religious man is beyond the morality of corrupt society. Once one man was charged of committing adultery and people followed him to kill him. He took shelter behind Ramana Maharshi. People came and told Bhagawan what has happened. Somehow Bhagawan saved him and told him that many people commit adultery but they are cunning unlike, you must have tact to do such things secretly without being caught. We never expect a saint talking like this but what he said is existential though it may not fall in line with social morality which immorality. The same is the situation when Jesus saved a prostitute Mary Magdalene from a crowd. Mary Magdalene is a truth seeker even though she is a prostitute, that Jesus knows. So morality of an awakened person is different from that of social morality. Same is the case with Lord Krishna. He is neither in favour of violence nor in favour of non-violence. He says a profound statement that man cannot be killed nor saved. You cannot kill nor save anybody. If you see the dream in totality you will really understand. That is what we do in self-inquiry, we see the totality of the illusory content of ego with a still mind in passive awareness without any choice. Simply we see the dream in totality and become awake in self-inquiry. It is difficult for people like Arjuna and us to understand Krishna’s way of dealing the situation. Arjuna is very much disturbed because he cannot rationalize the killings because he has encountered an unethical dream and so he started talking about morality. Probably he wants an ethical dream. Lord Krishna advises him not choose, see the dream in its totality and get awakened. This applied self-inquiry, dynamic self-inquiry in action .When action has no motive we get more energy to do self-inquiry even during action.

Commentary on verse 47 of 2nd chapter of Bhagavad Gita by Dr.Raju

TEXT 47
karmany evadhikaras te ma phalesu kadacana ma karma-phala-hetur bhur ma te sango ‘stv akarmani
SYNONYMS
karmani–prescribed duties; eva–certainly; adhikarah–right; te–of you; ma–never; phalesu–in the fruits; kadacana–at any time; ma–never; karma-phala–in the result of the work; hetuh–cause; bhuh–become; ma–never; te–of you; sangah–attachment; astu–be there;akarmani–in not doing.
TRANSLATION
You have the right to perform an action, but you can never determine the fruits of action, its outcome . When you never consider yourself to be the cause of the outcome of your activities, then you will experience the joy of not being the “doer” of your actions.

Commentary by the Author Dr.Raju:

This sutra is the back bone of Karma Yoga. Thinking that one is the “doer” of action and one can determine the outcome of action is binding and is due to wrong understanding of nature of action. Life is action in relationship and we do not know the nature of action and its outcome. When one thinks that one is the “doer” of action and has the capacity to determine its outcome every act circumscribes our consciousness and the ego is strengthened and we will be in bondage forever. Such action never liberates us, on the contrary it binds us. Our freedom does not go as far as determining its outcome. Our freedom is limited to perform the action. The result of action is determined by the collective. So individual performs the action and the outcome depends on the collective. So expectation on the outcome of action brings frustration because the ouycome may not be in accordance with your expectation. But commonly our expectation comes first, then action follows. That is why there is so much misery in the world. We don’t do action for action sake, we do action for the sake of our expectation. We are free to act and that is enough. Those who have an eye on fruit of action perform less action because he acts in a calculative way. The action is not pure. Trying to manipulate the outcome of action limits the action. Such action is never holistic. The focus is more on the outcome rather than the action per se. Once we try to determine the outcome of action then we become future oriented and we miss the present and are caught in the trap of time, mind.
Then mind is more involved with expectations and so loses its capacity to do the act skilfully. So action proceeding from such mind becomes insignificant and mediocre. The more a mind is free from any expectations the more it is capable of acting totally because action remains. It is the concern about the outcome that creates the split. When we have no ida of manipulating the outcome our whole being, mind, body are concentrated into single action in the present moment without any split between them. Usually we do action with a split personality, thinking one thing, doing another, talking completely differently. Then our consciousness is pulled in different directions and the action is spoiled.

The action itself is the way towards the outcome, your expectations cannot lead you to the outcome. If you are total in your action you can reap the fruit of action. The more the mind is filled with expectations with regard to outcome, the less it is able to act.

Ramana Maharshi says if you do self-inquiry you will realize the Self.
Doing self-inquiry is action and Self realization is the outcome.
In psychological dimension “perception is action”. In self-inquiry we perceive the way of functioning of mind, then we develop the capacity to go beyond the mind and realize the Self. But nobody focus his attention on the first part which is “perception of the activity of mind in awareness” but everybody’s focus is on the outcome which is Self realization. In the first place how can you expect the fruit of action without doing the action at all. In self-inquiry just ‘perception is action” but majority don’t do that action. How can they reap the fruit of action then? Even Bhagawan advises us to drop all concrns with regard to the outcome which is Self-realization. During his death experience Bhagawan did only self-inquiry, he has not even idea about Self realization. Because his action is total he reaped the fruit and got Self realized in just 20 minutes. If we drop all concerns with regard to outcome divine takes care of outcome of actions. This is exactly what happened in the case of Ramana Maharshi. Non-concern about the outcome of action is real surrender and the collective will take care of such person. Such surrender needs a great trust in the divine. Expectations are due to non-trusting the divine. The more you are non-trusting the more you are focussed on the outcome. When the mind is split between the action and the outcome, the amount of expectation with regard to outcome increases and the outcome becomes more uncertain.
So our part ends with sincerely doing the action, the outcome will be decided by the divine. This is the message of this sutra.

Commentary on verse 41 of chapter 2 of Bhagavad Gita by Dr.Raju

TEXT 41
vyavasayatmika buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana bahu-sakha hy anantas ca buddhayo ‘vyavasayinam
SYNONYMS
vyavasaya-atmika–resolute Krsna consciousness; buddhih–intelligence; eka–only one; iha–in this world; kuru-nandana–O beloved child of the Kurus; bahu-sakhah–various branches; hi–indeed; anantah–unlimited; ca–also; buddhayah–intelligence; avyavasayinam–of those who are not in pure consciousness.
TRANSLATION
Oh Arjuna, on the path of liberation a mind which is determined is whole whereas a mind with desires is fragmented.

Commentary by the Author:

Mind’s function is to observe. Mind is there, the thing to be observed is there but mind does not observe because it is lost in ideas and it goes on translating the thing to be observed according to its conditioning. This translating habit prevents the mind from observing the thing. Even physical eyes do not see the thing put before them and confuse the thing for some other when they are not connected to an attentive mind. Similarly when the mind is not connected to awareness it is connected to past memories, ideas, beliefs etc and such a mind goes on translating the issue put before it instead of seeing it “as it is”. Observing mind is whole, unitary whereas translating mind is fragmentary. Action based on idea is action based on choice, of confusion, is not liberating and on the contrary creates further resistance and conflict. At present Arjuna’s mind is fragmented and he translating the challenge according to the conditioning and so getting confused landing in conflict. In conflict there can be no understanding. One has to be aware of the process of conditioning without condemnation or justification. Then only mind becomes unitary, tranquil, silent and action is possible only from such a mind. If the conditioning is not understood the process of thinking is just a process of escape which is quite obvious in Arjuna’s case. In split mind man’s intelligence is divided into many fragments which are opposite to one another. When conflicting desires arise all at once mind becomes split into many fragments. Our mind is attached to many different objects which are in conflict with one another. This creates a fragmented mind. On the path of Nishkama karma desires begin to disappear and also the fragments which are created by those desires begin to disappear. Fragmentation is a by product of expectation and when we live a life without expectation an integrated mind is born and such one is unipsychic. Then there is peace, happiness, energy, beauty and all these are lost if mind is fragmented. A mind which pursues objects simply runs in different directions and so restless. There is peace only when the mind stops running. Whenever the mind is integrated and whole there is intelligence and peace. A mind that is integrated and whole is resolute, only a split mind wavers. The decisions taken by split mind are not definitive, they are like parliamentary decisions with majority vote but there is a realization that there is a contradictory voice inside. On the path of Nishkama karma the individual experiences definitive intelligence and he has no expectations and his mind does not go astray in the material world. He understands that desires are meaningless. He lives in the present moment and he is not interested in the outcome of action which does not mean that he is irresponsible, he is not bothered about the future.
He does not need to do anything.

Be a watcher and be free

It is 5 am and everything is in tranquil state both inside and the outside. There is a transitional state between deep sleep and waking mode of the mind, called Bija Jagrat in which thought flow and tendencies are yet to take hold on our consciousness. If we can hold on to that state for some time, the undercurrent of it will have its effect al through the day. Every being has this state but because we are unaware it goes unnoticed. Daily we sleep without feeling that we are going into a supernatural state. Similarly we can go into a state of meditation in waking mode of mind. Every human is endowed with that potential but we have to actualize it. For sleeping we don’t do any methods. The more naturally we work in waking mode, sleep we will have state happens itself and we will have undisturbed sleep. Similarly meditation happens as naturally as it should be if we have the skill to live a life without conflict. It is the mental conflict that denies us natural happening of meditation in waking mode. So if we want such thing happen to us we have to live a life which is without conflict. But at present all our activity is resulting in mental conflict. So we have to change our way of thinking and life radically if we want to live a life without conflict. Basic needs can be fulfilled but psychological desires cannot be fulfilled. It is the desires that drive us mad with rabid ambition which results in a life with severe mental conflict. Sleep, food, making love with opposite gender(Maithunam),meditation are basic needs of every human being. But we are living in such a culture and way of life is such that during the waking mode of mind with our self centered activity we are doing everything that prevents natural happening of meditation while we are awake. Our culture is preventing us from the natural happening of meditation which is as natural as happening of daily sleep. The structure of society is such that it throws everybody into a stream of sorrow and misery. The society creates guilt if anybody tries to live naturally. Our society, our religions are all anti-life, anti-natural .Once we live a way of life which is against the nature and life we are split and we will have perennial mental conflict. Meditation will not happen to a mind that is split and in a state of conflict .A man with conflict and guilt can easily be enslaved. Our conditioning provides them both. Politicians keep such people enslaved at physical level by denying them bare basic needs of life. The priest at psychological level enslaves the humanity by keeping his mind tied to superstitions, beliefs, dogmas and encourages human to do complicated rituals, entertainment and tourism in the name of religion, inventing methods in the name of meditation, all of which aimed to exploit and enslave the fellow human being. In Pune one asram charges Rs1000/ as entry fee apart from charging Rs60,000/ for meditation method and other expenses as usual. See how we are exploiting fellow human being by denying him basic needs both at physical and psychological levels. No savior will come and redeem us from all these anomalies. Such belief is just a nonsense. We have to redeem ourselves. We have freedom to watch daily life which is a stream of misery. If you carefully watch you will be an outsider to that stream. That watching of daily life and watching the response of our mind to the interaction outside is self-inquiry. It is such a simple thing to be an outsider to that stream of misery. If you really watch you will never enter into that stream again. If you are a watcher, your mind is not split and is not in conflict and for such a mind meditation happens in waking mode and it becomes as natural as happening of sleep-In meditation is happening spontaneously to any person we are calling him as a saint. He is not a saint, he is just living a natural life and you can also live like that, he is just an example. Be free of all beliefs, dogmas, religions which are nothing but organized beliefs, spontaneous meditation will happen to your mind and you will live a life of joy, love, compassion which is real religiosity.