The pure mind does not create phenomena, but it is a phenomena
itself.
A man who wanted a certain bracket for his room did not know
where to go in the city to find it. But he had a definite idea
in his mind of what it should be like, and as soon as he went
out the first shop that his eyes fell upon had the bracket in
it. Perhaps throughout the whole city he could not have found
another, but his mind brought him straight to the object he
desired. What does this come from? It comes from purity of mind.
Mind can be likened to water. Even to look at a stream of
pure water running in all its purity is the greatest joy one
can have, and drinking the pure water is so too. And so it is
with the mind. Contact with the pure-minded is the greatest
joy. Whether they speak with one or not; there emanates from
them a purity, a natural purity, which is not man-made but belongs
to the soul and gives one the greatest pleasure and joy. There
are others who have learnt to speak and entertain, and their
manner is polish, their wit exaggeration, and their speech is
artificial. What does it all amount do? If there is no purity
of mind, nothing else can give that exquisite joy for which
every soul yearns.
There is a saying that a pure-minded person very often seems
too good to live and appears to be devoid of common sense; that
very often the pure-minded seem not to belong to this world.
It is true; but it is not the fault of the pure-minded. It is
the fault of the wicked world. The world has gone from bad to
worse. Everyone who shows purity of mind begins by being an
outcast and appears to be incapable of doing whatever he may
attempt. But what does it matter? One can just as well be pure-minded
and wise at the same time. The pure-minded can also work in
worldly matters as thoroughly, as capably as a worldly man;
and the one without the pure mind may be able to make a success
in the world, but not an everlasting success.
When we come to the question of success and failure, there
is no principle upon which this is based. It is not true that
one must be good and honest and pure-minded in order to make
a success. Very often the opposite is more true. But at the
same time one cannot say that one has to be the opposite in
order to be successful. Very often dishonesty and lack of purity
of mind bring great failure upon one. If there be any rule pertaining
to this, that rule is that the success of the one who achieves
it through honesty and goodness, depends upon honesty and goodness.
And the one who makes a success of something without honesty
and goodness will have a failure the day he is honest and good.
It is because their paths are different. The whole attitude
of mind acts upon one's life's affairs. It is most wonderful
to watch. The more you think about it, the more it will prove
to you that the success and failure absolutely depend upon the
attitude of mind.
I was very interested in what a friend who was a salesman
in a big firm of jewelers once told me. He used to come to me
to talk philosophy. He said, 'It is very strange. I have seen
so often on arriving at a house where I thought they were able
to pay more than the actual price of things, that I was tempted
to ask a much higher price than what I knew the value to be;
but every time I gave in to this temptation, I did not succeed.
And again I was encouraged to do the same when I saw my fellow
salesmen selling a stone to someone who took a fancy to it for
a price perhaps four times its value. Why did they succeed and
why do I not succeed?' I told him, 'Your way is different, their
way is different. They can succeed by dishonesty; you can succeed
by honesty. If you take their path you will not succeed'.
Thus sometimes he who is busy developing mentally by mental
purification may have to undergo small sacrifices, minor failures.
But these are only a process towards something really substantial,
really worthwhile. If he is not discouraged by a little failure,
he will certainly come to a stage when success will be his.
Purity of mind sets free springs of inspiration which otherwise
are kept closed. And it is through inspiration that one enjoys
and appreciates all that is beautiful, and creates all that
is good for the joy and pleasure of others.
Once I visited the studio of a painter who had died. I sat
there for fifteen minutes, and such depression came upon me
that I asked the widow of the painter, 'what was the condition
of your husband?' And she answered, 'A terrible condition. His
spirit was torn to pieces.' I said, 'That is what his pictures
show.'
The effect was such that whoever saw those pictures underwent
the same influence. If we have purity of mind we create purity.
In all we do, art, politics, business, music, industry, we pour
out the purity of mind to such an extent even that those around
us, strangers or friends, all have part in our joy. One says
that diseases are infectious. But purity of mind is infectious
too, and its effect creates purity in others. Some keep it for
a long time, others keep it for a short time. It depends upon
the mind.
The mind is a storehouse, a storehouse of all the knowledge
that one has accumulated by studies, by experiences, by impressions,
through any of the five senses. In other words, every sound,
even once heard, is registered there. Every form that our eyes
have seen, even a glimpse of it, is registered there. And when
our heart is pure it projects the light of the soul just as
the light is projected from a searchlight. And the most wonderful
phenomenon is that the light is thrown by the power of will
on that particular spot in the storehouse of the mind, which
we are wanting to find. For instance, we saw a person once ten
years ago and he comes before us and we look at him and say,
'I have seen that person before, but where?' In that moment
we will throw the light of our soul on that picture that was
made on our mind on one occasion ten years ago. It is still
there. We had completely forgotten it, but the picture is there.
The moment we desired to see it our soul projected its light
on that particular spot; and the most wonderful thing is that
there are perhaps a million pictures. Why should the light be
thrown on that particular image? That is the phenomenon. It
is that the inner light has a great power. It is a power, which
is creative by nature. And therefore when it throws light, it
throws it on that particular spot.
By the word 'mind' I mean here what is often called subconscious
mind. The storehouse I spoke of above is the subconscious mind.
In that storehouse there are things and they live. All thoughts
and impressions are living things. There is nothing in the mind
that dies. It lives and it lives long; but when we are not conscious
of it, it is our subconscious mind.
For instance, a person was told that he must go and see his
friend on such a day at a certain time. He had written it in
his notebook, but then he forgot it. During his daily occupations
there came a moment when he thought, 'I ought to be in that
place! I have not gone there. I had quite forgotten. I should
have been there. Why am I not there? Why did I forget it?' Now
this idea that came to his memory was in his subconscious mind.
And as his will wanted to know it came up. He knew without doubt
that he had an engagement, that he was meant to be there. Only
for the time being he had forgotten. Where was it? In that part
of his mind which one calls the subconscious.
A pupil I once had who was very interested in spiritual exercises
and metaphysical questions, left me and became a businessman.
All his time was taken up with business. He forgot me altogether.
For ten years he never did his practices. One day I happened
to come to the city where he lived, and he remembered his old
teacher who had returned. When he heard the lecture I gave,
everything, which he was taught ten years before, became alive
in a moment; it was only too eager to come. He said, 'It is
all living for me. Please tell me what to do.' He was so eager
to do things now.
And so it is. All that is in the mind, all one has never
thought about, all that one never troubles about, is there;
and when one has leisure from worldly occupations, it all becomes
living.
At death comes leisure. After death the mind comes to greater
life, a life more real than here. Death is an unveiling, the
removal of a cover, after which the soul will know many things
in regard to its own life and in regard to the whole world which
had hitherto been hidden. Therefore the realization of what
is said about heaven and hell which have accumulated in our
mind, in the hereafter will be our own. Today our mind is in
us. In the hereafter we shall be in our mind. And therefore
that mind which is mind just now, in the hereafter will be the
world. If it is heaven, it will be heaven. If it is another
place, it will be the other place. It is what we have made it.
No one is attracted and put there. We have made it for ourselves,
for our own convenience.
What we sought after, we have collected. A costly dress,
if it was really important, is there. If we find out that it
is not important, that it is foolish, it is there just the same.
Even useless things take a form in the mind, as everything
has a form. But it has a form akin to the source of impression.
For instance, not only a painting, a picture, has a perceptible
form. Music also is a language. The eyes do not see it, but
the ears see it. So the mind even accumulates all such forms
as sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, all the different tastes. We
do not see them, but they are registered in the mind in a form
distinguished by us. The eyes do not see the form, but the mind
sees it actually in the same way as we had once tasted it. To
the mind all these forms are intelligible in the same way, exactly
the same as when they come through the different senses.
Various impressions remain in the mind after death. Because
what is individual? Being individual is like being in a mist.
When different physical organs cannot any longer hold the spirit
then they fail, and the spirit has finished with them. The body
departs, the spirit remains. The spirit is as individual as
the person was individual in the physical body. After the physical
body has gone, the nonphysical impressions are more distinct
because the limitation of the physical body has fallen away.
The physical body is a great limitation. When it has fallen
away individuality becomes more distinct, more capable of working
than on the physical plane.
checked 18-Oct-2005