This is the twelfth chapter of the book „Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru.“
The whole book will be tokenized as NFTs on Mirror and, as such, published in 20 articles (20 chapters of the book: The Illusion; India, oh India!; The Accurate description of the Reality; The Crown Jewel; Dead Guru; Living student; Who you?; Leaving the room; The Weakness of the Mind; The Archimedean Point; Three Powers of Maya; Viveka - the Sword of Truth; The Cave of the Mind; Language Can Save Us; Searching for Lakshana; Nine Golden Rules of Viveka; Purification Exercises; What to do with all this?; Dealing with Fear; Ekam Evadvityam: Living without a Center).
Chapter Twelve: Viveka - the Sword of Truth
vāyunānīyate medhaḥ punastenaiva nīyate |
manasā kalpyate bandho mokṣastenaiva kalpyate ||The winds gather clouds together, and again the wind disperses them.
Similarly, the mind creates bondage, and again it creates liberation.Vivekachudamani 172
Don't hate me, don't hate Shankara, but if you want liberation from the illusion, you'll have to deal with the mind.
It's a hard-to-swallow fact for many spiritual seekers who develop quite a repulsion for everything and anything „mental“. They literary escaped from such things in the opposite direction towards the warmer and comfier fields of the heart. They started to doubt their scientific education and the influence of the culture, which trusted only hard facts, analytics, and „objectivity“. And rightfully so, because that is the civilization that created terrible things, like social injustice and financial hierarchy, atomic bombs, and genetic manipulation - and who knows what other horrors are hidden from view. It seems that we are losing – or already have lost – our humanity, and we will destroy ourselves in the end. That loss and the threat of destruction seem to be directly connected with our rational, materialistic worldview. We need less mind and much more heart.
Spirituality welcomes newly „awakened“ people with intense emotions, heightened sensitivity, different states of consciousness, understanding, empathy, and universal love. It gives them a new home for troubled souls and a hope that the world can change if only we do our part and change our ways. The necessary change is not so much in thinking but much more in feeling. Experience of different realities brought by the shift in consciousness is the most wanted commodity on the spiritual market. „No, no, we don't want to think again; we had enough of that! We want to feel, dance, sing, love... That's what life is about, isn't it?“ Such is a cry from millions of victims of a displaced culture, non-holistic science, violent religions, and other modern monsters.
The upside of that movement is that spiritual seekers start to breathe more lightly. They find not only inner peace but also a long-lost feeling of security and hope. Many find new creativity and become successful, confident, and much healthier than before.
The downside... well, if you run away from thinking, you could end up losing that ability. With severely impaired ability to think, perhaps you could be temporarily happier, but in the long run, you'll inevitably suffer more. The others around you may not be so highly spiritual as you, and that would be the source of misunderstandings – probably at your cost. You may become a victim of disinformation served at your door with a lot of emotion in a compelling high-vibration envelope. If by neglecting it, you lose a lot of mental discrimination, your bullshit detectors could turn off, and you'll probably end up believing nonsense.
The fate of the mind as a villain in spiritual circles is sealed by many old and new sources - texts, books, and teachings. Pointing the finger at the mind and pronouncing it guilty is more of a rule than an exception. The mind is the one causing all the confusion; without it, there would be no illusion, no separation, no I-ness. Do not enter the darkness and the mud of the mind; you'll be lost in a blink of an eye. Some of those warnings are more sophisticated than others—for example, the „principle of another element“: the idea that the solution must come from a different level than the problem. If we apply that principle to the mind, the result may sound like this: „The mind is the problem, so we should draw the solution from other sources, like the heart or the body.“
Although the principle of another element may be valid in the case of illusion (don't deal with an illusion; see the truth, and the illusion will disappear), the question is where we can find the truth? What if the truth is in mind?
And why not? The mind is not an illusion. Nobody dares to say that. The mind creates the illusion – that is what they are saying, but only a few understand. The mind is here, in consciousness, and it has its function. The mind does what it's supposed to do: it thinks. While thinking, the mind creates an illusion. The problem is not the mind; the problem is in the mind! If you try to apply the principle of another element by running away from the mind, it would be the same as if you would like to heal a painful knee by treating the elbow or the spleen. The correct application of another element principle is to find another element inside the mind, something that will serve as a light and chase away the darkness. In other words, the solution is to use the mind differently than you use it when it creates an illusion.
And that is precisely the message of Vivekachudamani. Verse 172: „The winds gather clouds together, and again the wind disperses them. Similarly, the mind creates bondage, and again it creates liberation.“ If the mind created the illusion, the mind would have to see through it. If the mind is wrong about something, if it makes mistakes, it is in the mind that those errors should be corrected.
As I wrote, it is a hard-to-swallow conclusion for those who thought that a path to liberation should be paved with exotic experiences and ecstatic emotions. When they are told that viveka – a supposed method the mind should use to purify its function – is some kind of analytic skill similar to mathematics or logic, that could be a drop overflowing the glass. But do not despair! While it is true that not all people could follow the strict path of mental purification, it is also true that viveka is mainly a common sense, something uneducated people with a sane mind often have in larger quantities than learned academics. Nevertheless, I'll try to show you another side of insisting on a mind as a solution.
Firstly, the mind is the only feature of consciousness that can discriminate on the most delicate levels. Since the superimposition of an illusion on top of reality can be very sophisticated, we need a sharp tool to separate one from another. The expression „the Sword of Truth“ (from the title of this chapter) attributed to viveka is actually poetic. It is meant to inspire your mumukshuta and make you see yourself as a warrior of truth. And as a warrior, you'll need a weapon to fight against the enemy. But, the sword is a good analogy in the beginning, when you can swing broad strokes around and cut down the tick strings of the tapestry of illusion. When you start to do that, Maya will quickly adapt and surround you with much more delicate veils of her dress. To cut your way through them, you'll need something smaller and sharper, like a scalpel. There is no other part of consciousness that can perform such a function except the mind.
Furthermore, the mind is the only faculty of consciousness that can look at itself through itself. That makes it unique. Not even the eye can do such a miracle. Sensory objects, energies, knowledge, emotions, and other experiences will always be referral, not self-referral. That means they will always demand another part of consciousness (the world) to inspire them. It is not possible to turn your senses towards your senses – the senses need an object of experience which is outside them. Your emotions behave similarly. There is always something that you love or hate. Theoretically, it is possible to love your love or hate your hatred, thus creating some kind of emotional loop, but it is not possible to examine your emotions that way. If you want to examine them, you'll again use your mind.
So, love it or hate it, the mind is the battlefield where truth and illusion fight for the dominion of your reality. You are in the middle of that fight, and you can not run away. You can try as many do, but that's the point. There are two kinds of people on that battlefield: the soldiers of Maya – the ones who run and run and run, and the soldiers of truth who are standing upright, trembling from fear but facing the beast nevertheless.
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There is one more thing that I want you to understand clearly. Placing our hope for winning the battle over illusion on the mind does not depreciate the value of other functions of consciousness. Quite the contrary, that just means that the diagnostic is precise, and now we know which part of „us“ is problematic, so we'll have to work on it. The other parts are free from mistakes and should be all right once we eliminate the main problem.
Do not think for a moment that developing viveka means you have to ignore other parts of your life. You'll not become a cold, rational, non-physical, non-emotional entity without a trace of humanity. Despite his status and rank as an ascetic, a monk, and a scholar, Shankara was everything but cold. He was a poet, a creative person, and highly sensitive to social injustice and human suffering. Even though I am writing a book explaining the purely mental discipline of viveka, I am fond of love, dance, and art. I do sports, enjoy new experiences, and consider myself a lover of life. Well, there is something out of the ordinary in life without bondage, something that goes beyond the human condition. I'll write about that later. But the life in freedom is in no way focused on manomayakosha, the mental body. The mind is a battlefield, a place where mistake is made, and it contains a tool for correcting them. But the mind is not everything left after the mistake is fixed. Quite the contrary, it is only after the job is done that the other bodies – including manomayakosha - can flourish fully. Let me explain
As you now know, there are five bodies: food body, energy body, mental body, the body of knowledge, and body of bliss. You can look at them as some kind of hierarchy (from gross to subtle), but manomayakosha, the mental body or the realm of the mind, is in the middle of them. In a way, it is a central point of everything – the place where the mistake is made and where, in the end, the mistake can be corrected.
Never, in no place whatsoever, does Shankara in Vivekachudamani, or elsewhere, blames those bodies themselves. He knows that such is the structure of human life, and nothing is wrong with it. It is somewhere in manomayakosha, the mind, that the transgression happens. When the mistake is present, life is in bondage. Without it, life is free.
Vivekachudamani, verse 173:
dehādisarvaviṣaye parikalpya rāgaṃ
badhnāti tena puruṣaṃ paśuvadguṇena |
vairasyamatra viṣavatsuvudhāya paścād
enaṃ vimocayati tanmana eva bandhāt ||The mind produces an attachment to all bodies and all sense objects. This rope of attachment binds a person as if they were an animal. Afterward, the same mind creates an aversion for these sense objects and, in the end, liberates one from the bondage.
Does this look to you as a condemnation of different bodies of man? It is the mind that creates bondage; it is the same mind that creates liberation. What the „body of food“ or energy body has to do with that? They are entirely innocent. The problem is not in the experience of the physical body (the „body of food“); it is in the attachment to it, created by the mind. The problem is not in sensory experiences - enjoyments or suffering; the problem is in the attachment to those experiences (repulsion being the other side of attachment).
To directly answer some common misunderstandings: liberation does not mean you don't like physicalities or variegated energies, emotions, and experiences. Not at all! They are not guilty of anything. The mistake is not in them. Thus, they do not require a special purification treatment, at least not in the sense of „achieving“ liberation or deconstructing the illusion.
Contrary to usual interpretations, verse 173 of Vivekachudamni does not recommend an aversion to sense-object. It merely states that the mind creates first attachment, then aversion, and, in the end, liberation. Attachment to sensory objects is often in the human condition, especially without any knowledge about the nature of reality. After the accumulation of some knowledge and development of the first signs of a desire for liberation, the aversion is the next stage of the same illusory reaction created by the mind.
So, the mind does it all! From attachment to aversion up to liberation.
It's worth repeating: the other bodies of ours do not participate in the creation of an illusion. It's all happening in the manomayakosha.
The first consequence of such an insight is that the conventional idea of being ascetic (renunciation, modesty, even suffering) as a prerequisite for liberation is wrong. The second consequence of the same insight is that usual spiritual work on energy bodies, emotional states, gathering information (learning and understanding), and even different states of consciousness, although useful as an improvement of life, is not in a causal connection with liberation from the illusion.
Vivekachudamani, verse 177:
manaḥ prasūte viṣayānaśeṣān
sthūlātmanā sūkṣmatayā ca bhoktuḥ |
śarīravarṇāśramajātibhedān
guṇakriyāhetuphalāni nityam ||The mind continually produces for the experiencer all sense objects without exception, whether perceived as gross or subtle; distinctions of body, caste, status, and nation, as well as all the varieties of qualification, action, means, causes and effects.
As a central point in all our bodies, manomayakosha is responsible for the awareness of all experiences. It is there, in mind, that we can say: „I am experiencing that“. It is happening all the time, without exception.
Imagine what happens when you listen to the advice about ignoring anything mental. Somehow, if you go spiritual, it is natural to do just that. You don't like the coldness of mental activity. Emotions are much more interesting to you; feelings, inner experiences, connections, all-encompassing love, oneness, higher states of consciousness... All right, you go in that direction and explore the new worlds and dimensions of spirituality. However, you still have manomayakosha, right? The fact that you turned your back to the mind doesn't make it inactive. Your attention might be somewhere else, but the job the mind does is always the same. The mind says: „I am experiencing that“.
You don't care. You enjoy yourself. You are immersed in the beauty of exploring the bliss of life, the miracles of other dimensions, astral travels, unity consciousness... you name it. Unfortunately, just as you don't care about the mind, the mind doesn't care what kind or quality of experiences you deal with. They are all the same, and they will always end up in the same basket of „my experiences“. I am, I am, I am, I am... doing, experiencing, feeling, exploring, learning, deciding, improving, enjoying, suffering... I, I, I.
Ignore it as you wish, run away from thinking, and hide behind whatever experience you want to; your mind will always say: it is I; it is all mine.
Vivekachudamani, verse 178:
asaṅgacidrūpamamuṃ vimohya
dehendriyaprāṇaguṇairnibaddhya |
ahaṃmameti bhraMāyātyajasraṃ
manaḥ svakṛtyeṣu phalopabhuktiṣu ||Deluding the soul, whose nature is unattached pure consciousness, and binding it with the ties of the different bodies, the mind causes him to wander with a sense of “I” and “mine”, experiencing the varied results of actions done by itself.
The same thing happens with all the bodies. Let's say you learn all holy texts by heart (chose among Vivekachudamani, Yoga Sutras, Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Kuran, Kabala... or all of them). Then, imagine that you spend years studying them, meeting different teachers, and discussing fine knowledge details with them. Your vigjanmayakosha flourish. Your body of knowledge grows. Now, you may remember that vigjanmayakosha is the source of patterns and, consequently, the seat of karma. By increasing the volume of your body of knowledge, did you step toward liberating yourself from the bondage of illusion? No, you didn't. The reason is that you didn't deal with manomayakosha first. Your mind is still making the same mistake. You may learn all those books and earn fancy scholarly titles (spirituality, academic science, no matter – it's all the same), but your mind will still say, „I have done it“.
Do you think spiritual practice and higher states of consciousness will save you from that destiny? No, they will not. If your manomayakosha is not purified, you can achieve amazing results in altering and heightening your spiritual abilities. But, you'll be no better than a person attached to the pleasures of his physical body.
However, be careful. That doesn't mean gathering knowledge is not a useful and fun activity. That doesn't mean that exploring higher states of consciousness is not the right thing to do since it is your birthright as a human being to live up to your full potential. That also doesn't mean that enjoyment in food, love, sex, and all beauty of life must be abandoned. Quite the contrary, it means that life is as it is, delicate, variegated, enormous, exciting, full of surprises, and worth exploring.
But, Vivekachudami is saying that all that is for nothing if you live in an illusion. The first thing you have to do – or at least do it while you are exploring all avenues of life, be it spiritual, scientific, or purely material – is to purify your mind and try to correct the mistakes made in the manomayakosha.
Remember, that mistake is not what you do – it's how you think.
Vivekachudamani, verse 11:
cittasya śuddhaye karma na tu vastūpalabdhaye |
vastusiddhirvicāreṇa na kiṃcitkarmakoṭibhiḥ ||Actions help to purify the mind, not to perceive reality. The perception of the Truth is possible through discrimination and attained through inquiry and never in the slightest degree by even a hundred million actions.
How you think, how you approach the inquiry about the nature of the reality – that is viveka, „the sword of the Truth“. Viveka is a legend, a hidden tool. It is the sharpest scalpel for the most delicate operation of separating an illusion from the true reality. The awkward thing is that each one of us should perform that operation by ourselves. First, we must discover and develop the tool and sharpen the scalpel. That means we must start to think in a viveka way, to think without making a mistake.
The secret of how to do that was never directly revealed in Vivekachudamani. At least not in the form of direct instruction or a method. I have a pretty clear idea why it is so: viveka is not something you have to learn – it's something you'll have to discover. A precious jewel that delivers you the truth about everything is not a stranger to your mind. It is a part of it.
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Next Chapter: The Cave of the Mind