manonasha (contd.)

   The term manonasha is not a suitable word in the sense that Mind cannot be destroyed. The right word should be laya yoga where the mind control is achieved by sadhana. Manas (Mind) is the mainstay of human existence; once mind is destroyed, there is nothing to live for! Mind only creates the world and our existence is depending up on the vibration of mind, chittavrutti. However, it should be clearly understood that mind is the creator of ideas, images, imagination, desires, aspirations, dreams, hallucinations, etc. and takes steps to idealize, fantasize and mesmerizes the jiva and destroy it! Hence, mind is the culprit and it has to be destroyed, in a sense! But Mind cannot be destroyed since it does not exist independently by itself. It rests on maya, the curtain of avidya, like the silver screen on which a movie film is run in a theater. The moment current goes off the movie stops! It is the white screen on which the color film creates an illusion of reality. Pancharatra makes this point clear.

   Pancharatra says, it is the nature of the jiva to run after things which do not exist; the world is a mirage. The jiva, due to its vidya, knowledge covered by desire and attachment, creates dreams, images and runs after them, only to be disillusioned! The jiva is in fact a bundle of desires; desires are the seeds of birth and whatever is born has to die in this mrutyu lok. Sage Vashsishtha makes this point clear by saying: Anything made of parts has to give way sooner or later; the earthlings made of the five great elements (pancha mahabhutas) suffer from the three elements- vata, pitha and kafa (air, fire and water, respectively) and any  imbalance in these three elements cause ailments and sickness. The embodied jiva finally dissipates and dies!

  What is the remedy?

  Since the manas (Mind) cannot be destroyed it has to be tamed, tutored to serve the jiva. The Mind (chitta) is designed to serve the jiva, but due to its associated buddhi and ahankara (ego), it dominates the jiva. Thus the jiva suffers. The mental waves are no different from the sea waves. The sea is calm when the wind is calm; only a storm creates strong waves, so also, the desires and attachments, anger and selfishness, ego and envy, etc cause strong mental waves and destroy the calmness, balance of mind. Hence, yoga helps to calm down a perturbed mind. A mind which is guided by buddhi that gets the light from prajnya can keep the mind in its track and work towards total emancipation, mukti. The Mind works for the welfare of the jiva only when it is guided by the buddhi and this buddhi should seek guidance from pure consciousness (prajnya). Ahankar (ego) tries to disturb the buddhi and leads it to destruction. Ego (ahankara) has to be made subservient (humble) to prajnya. Then only the jiva is redeemed from its cycle of repeated births and deaths.
   It may be of interest here to note how Jiddu Krishnamurti  (J K, for short) advocated elimination of Mind altogether.He insisted that the mind should be cleansed of all pollutants such as impressions, memories, desires, dreams, and the person should experience the supreme bliss of that mindless state!
  Yoga helps to still the mind and realize the 'oneness' devoid of all dualities, 'unity consciousness' (samyak prajnya). A man of stitha dheeh, equanimous mind, or balanced or equilibrium state of mind is a yogi -sthita dheeh muniruchyate | (Gita). Sage Patanjali treats yoga as chittavrutti nirodhah |
   In the yogic trance, the person is totally devoid of his body consciousness; he transcends the jagrata, svapna and sushupti states and establishes himself in the turiya (the fourth state). In fact, deep sleep state (sushupti) is one of both existence (sada) and non-existence (asada) as stated in the nasadiya sukta of Rk Veda.  The jiva is 'aware' as well as 'not aware' of its existence- aware of its existence in total bliss (ananda) of nether world- lying unaware of the physical and mental existence here, and unaware (ignorant) of its true nature, too! However, the moment the jiva experiences this bliss of being totally aware, and realizes its true state of supreme bliss (mahat ananda), it is instantly redeemed. This is mukti to the embodied soul. Here lies the secret of emancipation.