‘Master the Mind’ series by Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai has been a boon to old and young alike across the globe. The 30-day Sadhana teaches a person various aspects of the mind and how to keep it under control.

 

A group of youth in USA, organised a thought sharing session on the series and invited a few speakers to share their learning. Swami Sarvadevananda from the Ramakrishna Mission, and two devotees of Baba - Mr Bob Bozzani and Mrs Rajeshwari Subramaniam spoke to the youth on various aspects of mind control.

 

Excerpts from their talks:

 

*Swami Sarvadevanandaji *

 

Swamiji taught the young adults about the goal of life, which is to know oneself. “One may make the mistake of limiting one’s knowledge to the physical plane of existence, which separates one from others. There are five levels (koshas) in reality, with the spiritual being the deepest. Body consciousness (dehatma bhava) is the level in which most live. If the mind is clear and pure, it sees the world as Brahman, illumined in the light of Consciousness. The body and mind can be regulated through ashtanga yoga. Consciousness is the entity that energizes the body and the mind. It is always within, yet somehow one believes that one must search for it. When one sleeps, one is not aware of the body yet the ‘I’ remains, both in dreams and in deep sleep.”

 

Swamiji encouraged the youth to examine the statement “I know that I do not know” closely, because within it, there is the Knower! Stated in another way, “God does not sleep!” The spiritual journey, therefore, is to get rid of the maya that convinces each person that one does not know who one truly is. All are the one God (satchidananda), just as a wave and the ocean are composed of water only. The different forms of yoga, namely karma, bhakti, and jnana, are the means by which one realises one’s true nature. He went on to say, “Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem in which he offered his mind to God. Eventually the mind will calm down, detachment will return, and one will remember that only God is eternal. When one gives up the idea of ownership, one can spiritualise one’s life and transform one’s mind. Many householders were also disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. Duality will remain as long as body consciousness remains, but non-duality can be experienced during meditation. It is the act of withdrawing the mind from the body. As the mind focuses, it becomes pure. Love for God helps one melt into the infinite. This is a beautiful journey.”

 

*Mr Bob Bozzani *

 

With tears in His eyes, Sri Sathya Sai Baba had told Mr Bozzani and his wife during a private interview that “so few have come to take what I’ve really come to give them.” Mr Bozzani spoke about the events in 2011 and how Baba taught him, through a book of discourses given exclusively to Sai students, that living His teachings is the best form of worship to the formless aspect of God. He suggested that if each person can generate love within and always project that love at all times, service will occur spontaneously and automatically. He also said that love has the power to heal and purify everything. “God is love-live in love”, Baba always reminds everyone.

 

 

Mrs Rajeshwari Subramaniam

 

During a Satsang in the US, she asked Baba, who created her mind and who then is she. Baba had replied that “everything has come out of God and therefore, even the mind is Divine in its true nature! It may pick up dirt but then, like a loving mother, I will wash it. What is in our hands is to use it in the right way but if we don’t, it will get dirty again. If it does, the prayer should be, ‘God, I am suffering because of my own mind, because of impurities that I have collected. Please clean it. Please make it bright and neat so that I can become pure again, and I can wear this mind, which is clean and bright.’ Everything in the world is Divine, but because of the ‘I-ness’, one has started seeing the world through jaundiced eyes. Thus, the mind is used in the wrong way. The prayer to God should therefore be, ‘You separated me from You so that I could see Your glory, I could live for You, and I could serve You. Please teach me again to come back to You, and serve You, love You, and be pure.’”

 

Being in touch with her Divine nature, Mrs Subramaniam came to realise that “we are divine beings having a human experience, and that it is possible to live our lives with that awareness.” The Master the Mind discourses were a turning point in her life as well, especially the week of silence, in which she focused on meditation alone. She described stillness as a state beyond silence where one remains in the depth of one’s being in a state where nothing else is. “It is both an emptiness and a fullness where everything ceases, including the ego and mental chatter. When the Reality is there, there is only the oneness with all.”