All your sädhanä is only for purifying the mind, quietening the mind –'chittasya suddhaye'. Teachers, in all religions, point out that all the various methods of spiritual sädhanäs are for only purification of the mind.

By the various sädhanäs themselves, you do not directly gain the Ätman, the Self:

cittasya çuddhaye karma na tu vastü-palabdhaye,

vastu-siddhir-vicäreëa na kiïcit-karmakoöibhiù.

Selfless work and charitable acts help to purify the mind but they do not, by themselves, contribute to the perception of Reality. The discovery of the Self is brought about only by discriminative analysis and never by any number of actions.

'Na tu vastu upalabdhaye’. The Ätman, the Self is already there. All of you are conscious, is it not? It is that Consciousness that we are talking about, the very life in you. It is already there!

The only problem is that we are not aware of It. We have no direct experience of It. In order to have that direct experience, we must have a mind in contemplation. The mind cannot be in contemplation because, at this moment, it is fully engaged in the world of objects outside. To gather the mind from there and to quieten it, is called antaùkaraëa çuddhi.

Sädhanäs – the Means

So then, all sädhanäs are ' cittasya çuddhaye: citta – thoughts; ' çuddhi – purification. Purification means quietening the thoughts. This is the goal for which all karmas, all spiritual activities – whether it is a pilgrimage or giving in charity for construction of an ashram, a school or a hospital – all these karmas that you do for the benefit for others, are for antaùkaraëa çuddhi.

So, na vastu upalabdhaye– it is not to gain that supreme Reality but it is only for purifying the mind. Once the mind is purified, it is very easy; you are automatically there because contemplation will take you to the Higher. In order to gain that vastu, get a direct experience of It, one has to sti down and contemplate – vastu-siddhir-vicäreëa.

Sankara categorically declares that however noble and sacred any karma may be, na kiïcit-karmakoöibhiù, even if you do crores of yagnas, havans, pujas, worship, you may do all those karmas or serve society, but you cannot gain the Higher through them. They can only purify your mind.

Today, our mind cannot contemplate effectively because it keeps on running after sense objects. The moment you sit down to contemplate, you start thinking, ‘Should I have a cup of coffee? How nice it would be!’ You are meditating, mind you! ‘I am the Ätman, I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the intellect. None of these objects are there. They are all finite, perishable. The Permanent, Eternal, Immutable Self – that Self I am … the Self I am ... a cup of coffee ... Self I am.’

See how you go from the sublime to the ridiculous! This always happens because there is no antaùkaraëa çuddhi.

Meditation – the Goal

So, first purify the mind and with that purified mind, you can gain direct experience of the Reality – through contemplation only – vicäreëa - not because you did so much of japa. Generally, seekers come and tell me, “I have finished 10 crore of Rama japa” or “I wrote Shri Rama ten crore times.” Or, “I have been meditating regularly, Swamiji, for the last four years. Nothing happened.”

Nothing will happen! All practices are only for purification of the mind. However much you may clean the vessel, will milk come in it? You must clean the vessel, then pour milk into it. If the vessel is not cleaned, and you pour the milk and boil it, it will be spoiled. So, the vessel must be cleaned, and in the clean vessel, you receive milk. In the same way, mind has to be purified. With the purified mind, do vicära. It will be consistent; it will not trip back again into the world of objects.

At this moment, you and I are not directly experiencing the Reality behind this pluralistic phenomenal world. With the purified mind, through close analysis, you have to re-evaluate what you are perceiving and recognize, and come to see that substratum, the Permanent, the Changeless, the Immutable upon which the changeable, the variable is playing about.

That higher state of Consciousness can be reached, gained, only through vicära – as instructed by the great Rishis for your benefit.

arthasya niçcayo dåñöo vicareëa hitoktitaù,

na snänena na dänena präëäyämaçateena kä.

Neither sacred baths nor any amount of charity not even hundreds of präëäyämas can give us knowledge about our own Self. But a firm experience of the nature of the Self can be gained when we send our thoughts along the rails of argument laid down in the salutary advises of the Wise.

If you turn your mental attention in that direction, then you come to experience this higher state of Consciousness, the Reality, the substratum behind the world of plurality.

Footnote: Edited excerpt from the discourses on Vivekachudamani at the Marathon Camp in Sidhbari from August to October 1992. (DVD 1)