Siddharth: And what is most important in life?
Maharaj: The most important thing in life is to take control of manas, the ordinary mind, which is based on thoughts and reactions stemming from feelings and emotions. The ordinary mind, manas, must be brought under control, calmed, conquered, tamed. After conquering manas, one must direct all attention to that pure, eternal, unchanging and indestructible presence within us – some call it Atma, some Truth, some Brahman. One must find this unchanging, indestructible, eternal constant within oneself. This requires inner independent work, deep study and self-observation, contemplation, reflection. Who are we? Where did this external world come from? How did we end up in it? What is the ultimate, absolute Truth? After all, this body is not Truth. It is changeable and transient. What is subject to change cannot be absolute Truth. Truth can only be that which never changes. One must figure out what in us changes and what remains unshakeable and eternal. This is Atma3 or absolute Truth, whatever you call it. It never changes. Under any conditions. It remains unchanged in you in all states – both when you were a child and now. Truth was here before the body’s birth and will remain after its death.
This Truth is what one must try to feel, to recognize. The search for Truth is a special path. To follow it, one needs to aim in a certain direction, tune oneself, change one’s way of life, maintain discipline, create rules for oneself and develop a new style of behavior. One must adopt a sattvic lifestyle, eat only sattvic food. Your behavior, interaction with the world and people – and this is the main thing – must become sattvic. Simple and modest. You must be even-tempered, calm, polite, and patient. This is sattvic behavior. You must have an equal, impartial attitude toward everything. No rejection, dislike, or conversely, attachment to anyone or anything.
The Ramayana says: «One who renounces desires, fear, sorrow, and joy will find refuge in My heart.» Ideally, you should strive to develop within yourself the state of samdarshi – an even attitude toward everything that happens, a detached view of things, the ability to look at all phenomena in life equally, be it joy or sorrow. Samdarshi is the absence of emotional attachment to events and phenomena.
Desires and thoughts associated with them must leave your soul. Samdarshi – this is what your sadhana should be directed towards. No desires. You are calm and steady – both in sorrow and in joy.
Siddharth: Why is it so important to conquer one’s mind? And what exactly does this mean?
Maharaj: Everything we do in this life is connected with the activity of manas. All reactions and thought processes are tied to it. We look at the world through it. We think through it. It unites our feelings, thoughts, emotions, and ego. Through it, our body comes into contact with surrounding reality, forming attachments. It is our instrument of interaction with the world. Further, everything depends on how you use this instrument. How you apply it, where you direct your attention, there a connection arises. You can direct it towards samsara, towards food, towards worldly goals and pleasures. Or you can direct it towards knowing Truth, toward strengthening its connection with the Divine.
Siddharth: Undoubtedly, directing the mind toward God is far more important than toward worldly affairs and pleasures. But how to do this? Should we somehow form an attachment in the mind only to God? Or is it better to have no attachments at all, even to God?
Maharaj: Manas can connect with anything. Above the worldly mind, manas, stands the higher mind – buddhi, which gives us viveka, our innate ability to distinguish good from evil, truth from falsehood. Viveka and buddhi exist in each of us. Manas has no eyes. It has no vision and no awareness. Like a small child, it grasps at everything that attracts it. It doesn’t understand that here it might fall, there it might get burned. A child reaches for fire because he doesn’t yet know it will get burned. But buddhi is our wisdom accumulated over many lives, inner knowledge, experience, and ability to make decisions. And if manas is handed over to buddhi, then the higher mind-buddhi [reason, intellect] will lead manas onto the right path. Everything then depends on what goal stands before you – if you want to go on the road to heaven, buddhi will lead you to the road leading to heaven. If you want to go into samsara, on the path of career growth and earning money, buddhi will help you with this.
But if manas is not given over to buddhi’s control, it will be left to itself, jumping and darting between different desires, passions, and extremes. But such wandering of the mind only depletes your energy. The more your ordinary mind wanders and roams, the weaker you become energetically.
Indriyas, our senses, can be compared to horses harnessed to a chariot. What controls them, holds them in check, and prevents them from running off in different directions? The reins. Our manas is these reins. And who holds the reins in their hands? The charioteer, buddhi. If buddhi-charioteer loosens the reins, the horses will run scattered and drag manas – thoughts, emotions, ego – along with them. If the mind is in buddhi’s firm hands, you will move on the right path. You won’t stray from the path. Therefore, it’s very important that your mind be in the firm and reliable hands of viveka-buddhi. Even if ego-emotions-thoughts (manas) try to dart aside from the road, buddhi with its willful decision and conscious thought will return them to the true path.
Before every muni, sage, in India, there always stood a dual choice – shreya or preya. Shreya is spiritual joy, preya is worldly joy. Either go toward samsara and strive for a prosperous life in the physical world, or go toward God, Ishvara4, Atma. Two main paths in life, two directions. You cannot walk on two roads at once or take a middle path. You must choose one thing. You can strive only toward one goal. There is no middle ground here. It’s impossible to hit two bullseyes at once. If you have tea in your glass and someone brings you milk, to drink the milk, you’ll have to pour out the tea. Tea and milk cannot occupy the same glass simultaneously. You’ll have to give up one thing. And accept something else irrevocably and finally. If you want to live in samsara, you’ll go down samsara’s road. That will be your practice. If you want to go down the road leading to Ishvara, you must turn away from samsara and begin spiritual sadhana. Whatever sadhana you choose, that’s what you must practice. You can’t retreat from it. Two different roads. But manas is one.
Siddharth: How does one develop viveka? How does one use their intellect, buddhi, to choose the right path?
Maharaj: Buddhi knows from the very beginning what is true and what is false. What is right and what is not. Buddhi inherently knows that fire is hot and your body can get burned. And it tells us about this. Our organs of perception, eyes for example, show us what’s outside. But buddhi shows and reveals the knowledge that we already have inside. But for this, we must learn to listen to it, think deeply, catch its messages. For this, we must use our power of investigation – detach from the external, close our eyes, focus, concentrate on our inner «I»: «Who am I? Where am I from?»
Siddharth: But how does one learn to hear specifically their buddhi, the higher mind, and not manas? How does one focus internally, what are your practical recommendations? How does one focus within oneself and act from the position of buddhi, rather than from the position of the changeable mind, manas?
Maharaj: For this, certain rules are prescribed in the yoga sutras. You set a goal, make a decision to achieve it, and strictly follow the rules, discipline. Direct communication with your buddhi requires constant abhyasa – training,