Ask The Master: 20 Dec 2007

Q. Dearest master, since the mind is only ‘inner chatter’, is it necessary to drop the intellect in order to approach the divine?

Before I can answer that, you need to understand the working of the mind. The mind is a composite of 4 functions: manas (the part that receives information about the outer world from your senses), chitta (the memory or record of cosmic knowledge), buddhi (intellect) and ahankaar (ego). Beyond all these is the atman (self). All information is tracked through these areas of the mind.

For instance, when you see a marigold, the nonverbal information, ‘yellow flower’, is absorbed by your manas from the eyes.

This information is sent to chitta, which matches it against all records of flowers previously seen, and determines whether this particular flower is a familiar one.

The file then passes to the buddhi, which concludes that the yellow flower is a marigold; it is large; it is not a fragrant flower, and so on.

Then comes the turn of the ahankaar, which is in charge of generating opinions based on self-interest, e.g. ‘I like this flower’, or ‘I think the neighbours’ garden has better marigolds,’ or whatever. Based on the information supplied by the ahankaar, the atman decides the plan of action: ‘pick the flower!’ or ‘water the flower!’ or ‘throw it out!’

The unfortunate thing about this arrangement is that by the time the information reaches the atman, it has already been filtered by the ahankaar - with the result that what you see and act upon is not reality, but only a subverted version of reality that the ego wants you to see. No wonder you remain in ignorance and confusion, and come to the conclusion that inner chatter is all that the mind is capable of!

When intelligence awakens, the ego dies a natural death. For the first time, the atman takes direct control of the situation. It’s like President’s Rule (when the president takes control of a region in an emergency situation)! Tremendous sources of energy open up and become available. The absorption of information no longer depends only on the five senses. Consequently, information processing and decision-making become infinitely swifter and more efficient - with the result that it appears miraculous to ordinary eyes. This is the state in which yogis fly or teleport objects and perform other such miracles. This is the magical state which is perceived as being in harmony with the divine.

So you see, to approach the divine, what you should be willing to drop is not the mind or the intellect, but only the ego. Don’t make the mistake of throwing out the baby out with the bathwater!

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Uncommon Answers to Common Questions