Question and answer 12

The mind still has to carry out the dealings its prārabdha brings. Can it have the experience of its own true nature described above in the very midst of those dealings?

Whatever costume a Brahmin puts on to act a part, the feeling in his mind that he is a Brahmin stays as it was. In the same way, whatever dealings there are, the body and the rest must not appear as 'I'; the firm feeling 'the Self is I' must come instead. If the mind leaves its own state and turns outward, at once bring it back to its own state by the enquiry: 'Oh! Oh!! We are not the body and the rest. Who are we?' This enquiry, Who am I, is the chief cause both of the ending of all sorrow and of reaching the supreme good. As the mind settles more and more into its own state this way, nothing is left in the way, and the experience of your own true nature comes of itself. After that the pleasures and pains of objects no longer strike the mind. Everything appears without attachment, like a dream. Never forgetting the feeling of one's own Self, which is always entirely full, is the final devotion, the final yoga, the final knowledge, and every other austerity as well: so the great ones say.

Can the mind, which has to carry out the transactions that accord with prārabdha, obtain the aforesaid experience of one's own true nature right within the state of transacting itself?

Just as, whatever costume a Brahmin puts on and acts in, the feeling in his mind that 'I am a Brahmin' persists regardless, in just the same way, whatever transactions there may be, the firm feeling 'I am the Self' must come, without the body and the rest appearing as 'I'. If the mind, leaving its own state, tends to turn outward, it must at once, by the enquiry 'Oh! Oh!! we are surely not the body and the rest — who are we?', be made to abide once more in its own state. This enquiry 'Who am I' is the chief cause both for the removal of all sorrow and for the attainment of the highest good. As the mind thus subsides more and more into its own state, in the absence of any obstacle, the experience of one's own true nature comes of itself. Thereafter the pleasures and pains of objects no longer touch the mind. Everything appears, without any clinging, like a dream. Never forgetting the ever all-full feeling of one's own Self — this alone, the great ones declare, is the final devotion, the final yoga, the final knowledge, and every other austerity there is.