Must we purify our mind by other means before we can practice ātma-vicāra?

 

Must we purify our mind by other means before we can practice ātma-vicāra?

(Compiled for a Discourse by NRS for a Discourse at Sri Ganesha Temple, Nashville, USA)

The only real yātrā (pilgrimage) is the inward one that Bhagavan has shown us! If we have even the slightest inclination to practice ātma-vicāra, we have already gained sufficient citta-śuddhi by other means. To follow this path we must be willing to surrender ourselves along with all our cares and anxieties, likes and dislikes, hopes and fears.

The only real yātrā (pilgrimage) is the inward one that Bhagavan has shown us

 Outward yātrās [pilgrimages or spiritual journeys] are good at a certain stage of our spiritual development, but sooner or later we need to leave all outward endeavors. Ultimately the only real yātrā is the inward one that Bhagavan has shown us, namely the simple path of self-investigation and self-surrender.

If others are enthusiastic about outward yātrās, we should not discourage them, because perhaps that is what is most appropriate for them now, but we need not follow them, because we have our own yātrā to attend to. Our inward yātrā may not be as glamorous as some outward yātrās, but it is much more fruitful. If we have even the slightest inclination to practice ātma-vicāra, we have already gained sufficient citta-śuddhi by other means.

We do realize that the ultimate yatra is the inner yatra of self-investigation leading to self-realization. However isn’t Bhakti/Yoga a precursor to doing self-enquiry? Isn’t it necessary to PURIFY THE MIND before we take to Atma-Vichara? In fact Bhagavan had himself mentioned this in the Ramana Gita’. 

In Śrī Ramaṇa Gītā 7.8 it is recorded that someone called Karshni asked Bhagavan, ‘Who is considered fit for this enquiry? Can one by oneself know one’s own fitness?’, and in verses 9 to 11 it is recorded that he replied: He whose mind has been purified through upāsana [devotional practices] and other means or by merit acquired in past lives, who perceives the imperfections of the body and sense-objects, and feels utter distaste whenever his mind has to function among sense-objects and who realizes that the body is impermanent, he is said to be a fit person for Self-enquiry.
By these two signs, that is by a sense of the transitory of the body and by non-attachment to sense-objects, one’s own fitness for self-enquiry can be known.

Ramaṇa Gītā is not truly representative of Bhagavan’s teachings. There are a few useful teachings in it, but as a whole it misrepresents his teachings, because it is a selective and biased recording of some of his answers to questions asked by Kavyakantha and his followers, whose aim was not to learn how to eradicate ego but only to get his approval for their own aims, ambitions and beliefs, which included to gain śakti and siddhis in order to restore their idea of vēdic dharma and a vēdic society.

Regarding these particular verses, they are probably not the exact words of Bhagavan, because they seem to exaggerate the degree of vairāgya required in order for one to begin practicing ātma-vicāra (self-investigation or self-enquiry). Such a degree of vairāgya will be gained by persistently practising ātma-vicāra, but in order to begin practicing we need only a slight degree of it.

However, as these verses imply, in order to practise ātma-vicāra we do need to have a certain degree of vairāgya (freedom from rāga: desire, attachment, passion, liking, interest or concern), and vairāgya comes with purification of mind which can be achieved to a limited extent by means other than ātma-vicāra. The reason why vairāgya is required is that desire (rāga) is what impels the mind to go outwards, so we will not be willing even to try to turn our mind back within to be aware of ourselves alone until our desire to go outwards is reduced at least to some extent. And since likes, dislikes, desires, attachments and so on are the impurities in our mind, purity of mind (citta-śuddhi) and vairāgya are. 

Can a person start his journey directly with self-enquiry, that is, even before purifying his/her mind fully? Will Vichara simultaneously aid in mind-purification, removal of vasanas?

Certainly, ātma-vicāra is the most effective means to purify the mind. In verse 8 of Upadēśa Undiyār Bhagavan refers to  ātma-vicāra as ananya-bhāva (meditation on what is not other, namely oneself) and says that of all it is the best (uttamam), which in the context of the previous five verses means that it is the best or most effective of all means to purify the mind or will.

What are the impurities in our mind that need to be removed? Only viṣaya-vāsanās, our inclinations or desires to experience anything other than ourselves. Therefore the direct means to eradicate such impurities is to cultivate the opposite inclination, namely the love to be aware of nothing other than ourselves, and we can cultivate such love only by persistently trying to turn our mind back within to be aware of ourselves alone.

This is what Bhagavan implies in paragraphs 10 and 11 of Nāṉ Ār?, in which he says that to destroy all viṣaya-vāsanās we must cling tenaciously to ātma-vicāra (or svarūpa-dhyāna, self-contemplation or self-attentiveness, as he also refers to it). 

A certain degree of purity of mind is of course necessary for us even to begin to practice self-investigation, because if our viṣaya-vāsanās are too strong we will not have any inclination or liking to turn our attention back within. Therefore what is the indication that we have acquired the required degree of citta-śuddhi [purity of mind or will] to begin practicing ātma-vicāra? If we have a liking to try to practice it, that itself is sufficient proof that we have already gained the required degree of citta-śuddhi.

Therefore though Bhagavan did sometimes concede, as in his reply recorded in these verses of Ramaṇa Gītā, that citta-śuddhi is required in order to follow this path, this should not make anyone feel that they are unfit or unqualified to practice ātma-vicāra. Provided we like to try, we are qualified to do so.

We cannot purify our mind fully by any means other than ātma-vicāra, so it would be ridiculous to wait till our mind is fully purified before trying to practice ātma-vicāra. It will never happen, so we would be waiting for all eternity. Therefore as soon as we have even the slightest inclination to practise ātma-vicāra, we have already gained sufficient citta-śuddhi by other means, so we can confidently leave aside all other practices and dedicate ourselves to the simple practice of self-investigation and self-surrender.

To follow this path we must be willing to surrender ourselves along with all our cares and anxieties, likes and dislikes, hopes and fears.
Saints like Tukaram, Mirabai and Christ all went through so many hardships throughout their lives.  All these hardships and perseverance are a precursor to self-enquiry.

We are extremely fortunate, because having been caught in the web of Bhagavan’s grace we now have a seat on a super luxury express train, so all we have to do is set aside our luggage and travel at ease till the train takes us to our destination. We just have to be willing to set aside our luggage. That is, to surrender ourselves along with all our cares and anxieties, likes and dislikes, hopes and fears.

If we let him, he will carry all our burden for us. Even if we don’t let him, he will do so nevertheless, but we will suffer unnecessarily. So leave all your cares to him. That is all he asks of us. It is all happening perfectly by his grace. We just have to stop interfering, which means stop rising as ego.