Let the above discussion not create the erroneous impression that the writer is assigning a higher or lower status to various faculties of the mind and suggesting that one or the other in itself is an obstruction in the path of Self-Realization. As a matter of fact, it is the mind in totality, which is bringing you nearer to the reality of your true immortal identity and your Inner Self (Aham). Each faculty of the mind has its own specific role in helping the seeker move towards Self-Realization, provided it is properly utilized. The common man uses only the lower, less evolved faculties of the mind. They are hardly aware that different realms of mind have distinctive known and unknown miraculous potentialities. People tend to ascribe their failures to incapability of their mind. However, those aspiring for spiritual awakening are always advised by blame for their failures on their mind. Instead of considering the dormant potentialities of the mind irrelevant for human progress, they should earnestly endeavor to activate them properly. The lesson being imparted here can be put into practice through the mind. All activities leading to success, including understanding an idea and accepting its viability, first take place in the realm of mind only. Hence, addressing the mind of the reader directly, the writer says, "Open the door to receive the wisdom being transmitted from your higher mental faculties." He further pleads, "Please pay attention to this sacred subject. Please do not crate obstacles in the way of transmissions of divine illuminations (Daivi Chetna). These can be received through your faculty of Adhyatm Manas, which has capability of perceiving the Truth. So not create obstacles when it transmits divine energies for enlightenment".
Exercise for differentiating Soul from the Products of Mind
With a calm, relaxed and peaceful state of mind be reverently seated, receptively opening yourself to the higher wisdom, being transmitted through your Adhyatm Manas.
In the previous article, we have come to understand that your "I" is an immortal entity beyond your body, controlling your thoughts, emotions and traits. Now, we proceed further to deduce that all objective and subjective thoughts are products of the mind and therefore are different from the soul. In other words, soul has an independent identity of its own beyond the mind and its qualities and attributes.
Let us examine how the soul exists independent of the mind. Numerous emotional impulses like animosity, anger, maternal or paternal love, jealousy, hatred, elation, dejection etc are endlessly arising in the mind. Your "I" the Inner-Self or Aham can differentiate, examine, analyze or discard each of these. This "Aham" can also observe the state of their origin, maximum intensity and end. After practicing this introspection for a few days, the seeker will become so adept in this process, as though the object of observation were some other person. All such impulses are part of contemplative observation. Their nature can be examined threadbare and impact assessed from all angles. Thus the seer "I" or observer is a different entity than the observed objects - the body or mind. Visualizing the Inner-Self (soul) in this way will make it easier to comprehend.
The very fact that the creations of mind are being examined separately means that these are not part of your real self the "I". W ith practice, this perception of separateness will continue becoming stronger and stronger and ultimately an abiding uninterrupted expression.
Inherent human traits and 'Aham'
It is not the purpose of this article to make the reader impervious to emotions, though it would be welcome if through this Sadhana one could develop a capability for getting rid of one's depraving and downgrading traits. However, for the objective under consideration, the seeker is advised to ignore all traits - whether good or bad, leave them as they are and realize that Aham is beyond these and is an overarching independent entity. Let the seeker now resolutely and clearly make a demarcation between the traits and virtues of three modes of nature (Gunas) discussed earlier and Aham. There is no need to worry that a particular trait has become so strong that it cannot be discarded. Before this trait was established, your Aham was already in existence. It this Aham is capable of clearly discerning these traits objectively and independently, it will become easy to discard them in no time. Remember! Through this exercise, the seeker is experiencing and developing a conviction that the "I" who is using the intellect and its powers, the "I" which considers the mind and its powers as its implements, is the master of the mind.
In the previous article, we have done an in-depth study of the Prabuddha Manas and its creations and found that Aham is capable of discerning these as separate from it. In the same way, the creations of the highest faculty of mind the Adhyatm Manas can be discerned by "Aham" as separate from itself. The seeker may doubt that, since the divine spiritual inspirations are not related to physical body, and these cannot be utilized like emotions arising in the lower faculties of mind, perhaps these are inseparably related to the Aham. At this stage, let us not enter into a deep discussion on this subject, as the seeker still has very rudimentary and fleeting experience of the Adhyatm Manas, which unlike the lower, less evolved faculties of the mind is like a workshop for activation of divine forces in human mind. Seers, who have had the paranormal vision of the "light" (Jyoti) of Aham at the highest level of their spiritual evolution, tell that Aham exists beyond the Adhyatm Manas but it illuminated the latter with its light and that reflection of Aham in the Adhyatm Manas is like the image of the sun seen in water. The enlightened sages say that the brilliance of Adhyatm Manas is only a faint reflection of the inherent and dazzling effulgence of Aham, although first experience of Adhyatm Manas crated an illusion as if this itself were Aham, which in reality it is not. Aham is like an incessantly glittering jewel wrapped under several coverings of cloth (the coverings of the illusory world created by the magical mind). As the coverings are removed one by one, the filtered light becomes brighter and bright. The inherent brilliance of the jewel remains undiminished irrespective of the number of coverings or no covering at all.
The sole purpose of going to this level of consciousness is to create the highest level of awareness of Aham, so that the seeker becomes convinced of the competence of the soul for utilizing its instruments effectively. This understanding empowers him to take off the old, sullied, tattered clothes (regressive traits and illusions) and put on new, resplendent garments (noble, virtuous traits) and with their help carry out the assigned duties and responsibilities of life effectively - thus becoming a role model for others to follow.
After attaining this level of perception through persistent practice, the seeker may be eager to know what remains to be experienced which is beyond Aham. Transcending Aham is the pure, ultimate, immutable Super Soul (Vishuddha Atma) - the almighty God of which the individual soul is a spark. The conviction of this Transcendental Being comes through personal realization. By separating the Aham from the body, the mind and everything else related to these, successively discarding ever subtler layer of ego-bound consciousness, the seeker is ultimately left with the immortal, immutable soul, beyond which, nothing remains to be discerned. The logic is simple. The thinker, the analyst, and the object being deliberated upon, or being analyzed, can never be one and the same. The sun can never illuminate its own self. In the same manner, the soul cannot be something to be deliberated upon, nor can it be a subject of analysis. At each moment of life your consciousness tells you that your Real-Self - "I" is the thinker, the seer and the doer. This "I", as we have already discussed, is neither your body nor your mind in its conscious, subconscious or unconscious states. It has to be some other independent entity, which remains ever vigilant, alert and awake irrespective of the state of the body or the mind. This is what we call Atma or soul in spiritual parlance.
Exercise for differentiating Soul from the Products of Mind
With a calm, relaxed and peaceful state of mind be reverently seated, receptively opening yourself to the higher wisdom, being transmitted through your Adhyatm Manas.
In the previous article, we have come to understand that your "I" is an immortal entity beyond your body, controlling your thoughts, emotions and traits. Now, we proceed further to deduce that all objective and subjective thoughts are products of the mind and therefore are different from the soul. In other words, soul has an independent identity of its own beyond the mind and its qualities and attributes.
Let us examine how the soul exists independent of the mind. Numerous emotional impulses like animosity, anger, maternal or paternal love, jealousy, hatred, elation, dejection etc are endlessly arising in the mind. Your "I" the Inner-Self or Aham can differentiate, examine, analyze or discard each of these. This "Aham" can also observe the state of their origin, maximum intensity and end. After practicing this introspection for a few days, the seeker will become so adept in this process, as though the object of observation were some other person. All such impulses are part of contemplative observation. Their nature can be examined threadbare and impact assessed from all angles. Thus the seer "I" or observer is a different entity than the observed objects - the body or mind. Visualizing the Inner-Self (soul) in this way will make it easier to comprehend.
The very fact that the creations of mind are being examined separately means that these are not part of your real self the "I". W ith practice, this perception of separateness will continue becoming stronger and stronger and ultimately an abiding uninterrupted expression.
Inherent human traits and 'Aham'
It is not the purpose of this article to make the reader impervious to emotions, though it would be welcome if through this Sadhana one could develop a capability for getting rid of one's depraving and downgrading traits. However, for the objective under consideration, the seeker is advised to ignore all traits - whether good or bad, leave them as they are and realize that Aham is beyond these and is an overarching independent entity. Let the seeker now resolutely and clearly make a demarcation between the traits and virtues of three modes of nature (Gunas) discussed earlier and Aham. There is no need to worry that a particular trait has become so strong that it cannot be discarded. Before this trait was established, your Aham was already in existence. It this Aham is capable of clearly discerning these traits objectively and independently, it will become easy to discard them in no time. Remember! Through this exercise, the seeker is experiencing and developing a conviction that the "I" who is using the intellect and its powers, the "I" which considers the mind and its powers as its implements, is the master of the mind.
In the previous article, we have done an in-depth study of the Prabuddha Manas and its creations and found that Aham is capable of discerning these as separate from it. In the same way, the creations of the highest faculty of mind the Adhyatm Manas can be discerned by "Aham" as separate from itself. The seeker may doubt that, since the divine spiritual inspirations are not related to physical body, and these cannot be utilized like emotions arising in the lower faculties of mind, perhaps these are inseparably related to the Aham. At this stage, let us not enter into a deep discussion on this subject, as the seeker still has very rudimentary and fleeting experience of the Adhyatm Manas, which unlike the lower, less evolved faculties of the mind is like a workshop for activation of divine forces in human mind. Seers, who have had the paranormal vision of the "light" (Jyoti) of Aham at the highest level of their spiritual evolution, tell that Aham exists beyond the Adhyatm Manas but it illuminated the latter with its light and that reflection of Aham in the Adhyatm Manas is like the image of the sun seen in water. The enlightened sages say that the brilliance of Adhyatm Manas is only a faint reflection of the inherent and dazzling effulgence of Aham, although first experience of Adhyatm Manas crated an illusion as if this itself were Aham, which in reality it is not. Aham is like an incessantly glittering jewel wrapped under several coverings of cloth (the coverings of the illusory world created by the magical mind). As the coverings are removed one by one, the filtered light becomes brighter and bright. The inherent brilliance of the jewel remains undiminished irrespective of the number of coverings or no covering at all.
The sole purpose of going to this level of consciousness is to create the highest level of awareness of Aham, so that the seeker becomes convinced of the competence of the soul for utilizing its instruments effectively. This understanding empowers him to take off the old, sullied, tattered clothes (regressive traits and illusions) and put on new, resplendent garments (noble, virtuous traits) and with their help carry out the assigned duties and responsibilities of life effectively - thus becoming a role model for others to follow.
After attaining this level of perception through persistent practice, the seeker may be eager to know what remains to be experienced which is beyond Aham. Transcending Aham is the pure, ultimate, immutable Super Soul (Vishuddha Atma) - the almighty God of which the individual soul is a spark. The conviction of this Transcendental Being comes through personal realization. By separating the Aham from the body, the mind and everything else related to these, successively discarding ever subtler layer of ego-bound consciousness, the seeker is ultimately left with the immortal, immutable soul, beyond which, nothing remains to be discerned. The logic is simple. The thinker, the analyst, and the object being deliberated upon, or being analyzed, can never be one and the same. The sun can never illuminate its own self. In the same manner, the soul cannot be something to be deliberated upon, nor can it be a subject of analysis. At each moment of life your consciousness tells you that your Real-Self - "I" is the thinker, the seer and the doer. This "I", as we have already discussed, is neither your body nor your mind in its conscious, subconscious or unconscious states. It has to be some other independent entity, which remains ever vigilant, alert and awake irrespective of the state of the body or the mind. This is what we call Atma or soul in spiritual parlance.
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Spiritual spirit comes from the very inner layer of our body. This is known as feeling of an individuals.