Question and answer 6

But the mind's workings go by several names — mind, intellect, memory, ego. How, then, can liberation be simply the ending of 'the mind'?

The scriptures that set out what the mind is describe it like this. It congeals out of the subtle part of the food we eat, and grows through desire and aversion, craving and anger. It is the coming-together of mind, intellect, memory and ego, and so, though it is many, it bears the one name 'mind'. It thinks and it decides. It is an object, known by awareness. It is insentient; and yet, insentient as it is, joined to awareness it appears sentient, the way a heated iron ball seems to burn of itself. It is bounded, impermanent, made of parts, and it changes its shape the way lac, gold or wax do. It is of the nature of every category there is. Its seat is the Heart-lotus, as the eye is the seat of sight. It is the limiting condition of the individual soul. Thinking of some one object, it takes the form of a modification; joined with the awareness in the brain, it has the objects brought to it through the five senses by the brain, knows them, tastes them, and comes to rest satisfied. Whatever answers to all this is what is called 'mind'.

So it is exactly like one man who is called by different names for different jobs. It is the one mind that is called mind, intellect, memory and ego, according to the difference in its modifications, and there is nothing else there. And because this mind is itself the individual soul, the Lord and the world, holding every category in itself, the moment knowledge turns it into the form of the Self, that is called kaivalya, the state in which everything is Brahman.

The modifications being of many kinds — mind, intellect, memory, ego — how is it said that liberation is the destruction of the mind alone?

In the scriptures that state the nature of the mind it is said: 'That which congeals from the subtle portion of the food we eat, and develops through desire, hatred, longing, anger and the rest; which is the aggregate of these — mind, intellect, memory, ego — yet bears the single name "mind" though it is many; which has the properties of thinking and determining; which is the object known by [pure] awareness; which is insentient, yet, insentient though it is, appears sentient through its association with awareness, as a heated iron ball [appears to burn of itself]; which is limited, impermanent, made of parts, undergoing transformation the way lac, gold, or wax do; which is of the nature of every category; which has the Heart-lotus for its seat, as the eye and the rest have for the faculty of sight; which is the limiting condition of the individual soul; which, itself thinking of some one object, takes the form of a modification and, joined with the awareness that is in the brain, is furnished by way of the five senses with those very objects by the brain (joined with awareness), and, having known and tasted those objects, shows itself as the thing that comes to rest satisfied — whatever answers to that is what is called "mind"' — since the nature of the mind is described this way, it is exactly as when one and the same man is called by different names for different tasks: it is the mind alone that, on account of its various modifications, is spoken of by the names mind, intellect, memory and ego, and there is nothing else there. And because this very mind, in its nature, is the individual soul, the Lord and the world together, comprehending every category, the very moment it is turned by knowledge into the form of the Self, that is called kaivalya, the state in which everything is of the nature of Brahman.