The Reflection in the Mirror of the Heart

Vikshepa is an affliction of the mind that consists of worldly distractions; various spiritual exercises (sadhanas) are undertaken to overcome it and realise the Divine. The sadhanas include meditation, concentration and performance of good deeds for achieving purity of mind. When one succeeds in overcoming Vikshepa, one is confronted with avarana (akin to a thick covering in which one is enveloped). This covering is known as maya (delusion). It envelops everything in the universe. The eyes with which one can see everything that is outside cannot see themselves. Likewise, Maya, which reveals the entire universe, cannot reveal the Divine. Because we are enveloped in Maya, we seek worldly pleasures and do not seek our own Divine essence. ‘Yaddhrushyam than-nashyathi - Whatever is perceptible, is perishable.’ In the pursuit of fleeting and impermanent pleasures, we are throwing away the permanent, the unchanging and the real elements in human life.

Baba (thought for the day) 

As it is about affliction of the mind and worldly distractions, it is actually a very important lesson in that thought for the day and we can ask what is the worldly distraction for us? If we are used to for us it seems normal. 

Vikshepa is an affliction of the mind that consists of worldly distractions; various spiritual exercises (sadhanas) are undertaken to overcome it and realise the Divine.

Here we have the name of the affliction – Vikshepa and it matters what type of affliction it is, because he talks about another one and it is a new challenge after the first one is done. We have the definition, worldly distractions in the mind and we have the remedy spiritual exercises (Sadhana) and not only one, but various. That can make it difficult if we don't know yet what Sadhana. 

If we talk about meditation and we have some meditation practice, we know what we are purifying the mind and one of the most important insights about Sadhana is that it is for the purification of the mind only. That is the aim of it. If we do spiritual exercise we do it to heal or normalize our afflicted mind and how is that done, by purification.

The sadhanas include meditation, concentration and performance of good deeds for achieving purity of mind. When one succeeds in overcoming Vikshepa, one is confronted with avarana (akin to a thick covering in which one is enveloped).

He is telling us that Sadhanas include meditation, concentration and good deeds, but the purpose of it is ‘purity of the mind’. If we go in direction of purification of the mind we are doing good deeds and if somehow that turns into the opposite and it is not anymore about purification, but about pollution and it is contaminating and not purifying, it is not the right direction, but how do we know the difference and sometimes it seems difficult to know. 

Mediation, concentration, contemplation and ‘good’ deeds, what creates harmony on the level of consciousness and a positive influence for society and the world, and in that sense goes in direction of world peace, that is a good influence. 

And he tells us also that we have to understand peace, he said it in a different place and if we want to make the experience of ‘pure love’, there have to be three things, truth, right action and peace and there will be the experience of 'pure love'.

'Pure love' is different from ordinary 'love', in that sense it has no color, it is not attached to someone or something and there is no reason and no season for it, it is just a state of transcendence, that means a state which cannot be transcended anymore. 

We need to understand peace; it means we don’t go into arguing if we know we create just stress and strain in the mind by doing it and that we pollute the mind or collective consciousness with bad vibrations, we meditate to solve our own problems.

With good deeds Baba means everything good and not bad, if we have ‘bad’ thoughts, we have in that sense also a not good influence on consciousness or we don't care about it at all or we create only troubles for others and that is definitely not good. 

We have to understand the difference between good deeds and that influence on the level of consciousness and how it is if it is ‘bad’ and the influence created on that level. 

If we do not good deeds, we don’t purify the mind, but we add to the impurities in the mind figuratively speaking.

A motivation to go for it is the example of the glass of water. If it is dirty, it is not clear and pure, but it is mixed and impure. 

If we purify it we separate the dirt from the water and only clean shiny water is left and the sunlight is able to reflect in it and the water gets aware of the reflection in the glass and tells, ‘I am that’ – that is self-realization.

Our body is the example of the glass of water and mind is the water and if the water is clear, the reflection of the sunlight can be realized in our own self.

With other words, the sun is seen in the mirror and that is the same with Baba’s words. If the mind is pure enough, we get aware of the reflection in his words as the same reflection we find reflected in the mirror of the heart and we recognize, 'I am that' and it is self-realization.
We don’t look into the sun, the light is blinding the eyes and we think – that is divinity. That is not the right approach. We look at the reflection in the heart and tell - 'I am that'.

It is indirect and not direct. Looking with the eyes into the sunlight is direct perception, seeing the reflection in the heart is indirect perception and inner view.
If the mind is pure the light gets reflected and looking at that light, what means listening to his words, he is the light, his words are enlightening and we get aware of the reflection of the light in our own mind and that is ‘He’ and that is how we get aware that ‘we and He is I’.

If we look at our meditation experience and the purification of the mind, we know it is like that and we purified the mind and that is Vikshepa. 

But there was never an issue about avarana. So what is avarana. We also did the Sutras and it was about good qualities, divine qualities, what is good, no matter what, but it didn’t take care of the avarana part of the problem, we didn't have to face the new challenge and that is Maya, the deluding nature as Baba said, the natural characteristic of the Universe is Maya, illusion. 

If it is about a pure mind and we purify it with repetition of a mantra, that is the first part and after we overcame Vikshepa, we have to face another confrontation and that is avarana and here we are on the battlefield and notice that we have not only good, even if we meditate and do our best, we also have the other side of it. 

If we don’t get aware of the thick covering in which we are enveloped, the task is not done if we don’t get aware of it, we get stuck on the way or we get lost, thinking it is done when it is not done and getting to false conclusions and that is Maya. 

It is more or less all what is around us and feels normal, because we did it all our life, it is the mind patterns we function in since we are born and it is in our habits of thinking.  

When one succeeds in overcoming Vikshepa, one is confronted with avarana (akin to a thick covering in which one is enveloped).

We have done the first part, we have overcome Vikshepa and now we are confronted with avarana and as we are not aware of it, we go through it. 

How does Baba call it, akin to a thick covering in which one is enveloped. 

It was the part which meditation alone didn't take care of and that is why it came from behind and it took us off guard.

It is also in the idea that we know and we think we are in some way special and build up an ego again. If we understand the tendency of the mind to go into self-elevation to feel good taking advantage (using Baba’s words) of the deluding characteristic of nature of the Universe, that illusion and the avarana part of afflictions of the mind.

Vikshepa is an affliction of the mind that consists of worldly distractions; various spiritual exercises (sadhanas) are undertaken to overcome it and realise the Divine. The sadhanas include meditation, concentration and performance of good deeds for achieving purity of mind. When one succeeds in overcoming Vikshepa, one is confronted with avarana (akin to a thick covering in which one is enveloped).

Seen in that light we have to focus on that what was omitted and that is the avarana part.
We know that Viskhepa works, we know how to purify the mind and we know how to understand it right on that level of the afflictions of the mind, but as Baba is telling us here, it is not done

The one pointed focus on mind purification was the reason we got in touch with divinity and in the inner view and if we analyze it properly, ‘we and he is I’ and when he tells in the dream, ‘I wanted to fly’, it means ‘we’, and he is the principle and the I is the right conclusion. It is ‘we’ and ‘he’ the principle of ‘I am that’ what was present as the same 'I am that' in the insight. Baba said in the dream that he is the insight and the following step. The insight was that he made that relationship, there are not 'you and I', but there are 'we' and the principle, 'I am that' and what reflects in the inner view if we listen to his words is that inner reflection of 'I am that'.

It is the one-pointed focus that we went to Baba and in that sense it was done by the tradition of the masters, Veda. 

He explained it in a thought for the day that we reach divinity only with one-pointed focus and the afflictions in the mind are the obstacles, they make it impossible to keep up with a one-pointed focus and we have to purify the mind to get to that one-pointed focus and all the various sadhanas have the aim to purify the mind to make one-pointed focus a reality. That is how the circle is closed. We start again where we began, but it is not done with the first part, there is a new challenge waiting for us. 

We start again with the Sadhana to purify the mind to get out of the afflictions of the mind and overcome it, but that is not the end of it.

If we don't get aware of the illusion in the mind we think we are the doer and that is when we meet with the thick covering of ignorance we are enveloped in.

We got in touch inside with the divine and we went to the divine – and we had to deal with the level of avarana, but we don’t know it.

I went to him and asked about the friend, because it was not clear and it was not clear because of that reason, it had to do with avarana, and as I didn’t know the right answer, Baba said that it is very difficult to understand, just think about God and it is not the right path.

We have to focus on God to know the difference between reality and illusion. 

That I didn’t know who the friend was had to do with avarana, the power of illusion, Maya.

This covering is known as maya (delusion). It envelops everything in the universe. The eyes with which one can see everything that is outside cannot see themselves.

Likewise, Maya, which reveals the entire universe, cannot reveal the Divine. Because we are enveloped in Maya, we seek worldly pleasures and do not seek our own Divine essence. ‘Yaddhrushyam than-nashyathi - Whatever is perceptible, is perishable.’ In the pursuit of fleeting and impermanent pleasures, we are throwing away the permanent, the unchanging and the real elements in human life.

That is the challenge and even if we did the first part and we purified the mind, we have to listen, think it over and absorb, to be able to see the reflection of the sun in our own mirror of the heart. We can see the light only if it is reflecting in the mirror and for that the mind has to be pure, but it is not done with purification of the mind, we have to get aware of the light in the mirror of the heart.

That is how we get rid of avarana the delusion in the mind, Maya. If people sing Bhajans and they would for a change also meditate, what most of them seem not to do, it is just about purification of the mind.

Maya cannot reveal the divine, we can repeat as often as we want the sutras, we still think we are the doer and therefore, we did it and not he did it, but when he said, ‘I wanted to fly’, not we did it, but he is the doer.

If we seek with the siddhis worldly  pleasure instead of realizing that it is divine, we are in Maya, illusion and deluded by the mind.

 We should look at his words like the sunlight, the sun rays and we listen and think it over and find that reflection of light in our dream and in our own self. It is present or reflected in his words and that is how we can tell, ‘I am that’ and it is self-realization.

The first part we did with meditation and the second part is done by time, as he said, time is the best preacher. We went to Baba and we get aware that Atma is a world of its own and we cannot go there with our mind, we don’t have any access to it, we look at it and it is reflected on the screen of our inner awareness and the mirror is in the heart and only if the mind is pure enough we get aware of the reflection and there is the possibility of self-realization.

He is the man in our dream present in our dream to awake us, but we get awake only if we listen to his words and see that same reflection we find in our heart present in his words and that is how it gets confirmed and it makes sense.