Mind-The Barrier between Man and God

Divine Life Society Publication: The Mysterious Mind and Its Control by Swami Chidananda

It is universally acknowledged that the mind is the only link between man and the body, and between personality and the external world. Right from childhood man learns everything about the universe through the mind. Senses just feed data to the mind. It is the mind which actually correlates the data and produces knowledge. It therefore provides the most important factor in man's life. The mind is also the greatest barrier lying between man and the true source of his being. It is the barrier which forever denies him access to the experience of infinitude. It is the limit within which the human being is confined and cramped into the dimensions of a narrow individualized personality. Struggling to expand and go beyond this limited range of consciousness, man is strongly opposed by his finite mind.

To understand, control and finally overcome the barrier of the mind is the most important business in the life of man. The mind has to be overcome. At the back of you there is that Consciousness of a perfect state of being, where no sorrow touches and where there is no fear. There is that unchanging Reality which lies behind the fleeting experience of this phenomenal world, just as there is an immovable screen present behind the flitting, flickering figures of a cinema show - a screen which remains unchanged by the rapid shadow-play cast upon it and remains unaltered even when the play is finished. In the same way, behind all finite experience, there is that changeless, infinite substratum of indescribable pure Being. That is indestructible. That state of changeless imperishability is your true basis. That is your eternal abode. That is a state of freedom, fearlessness and joy - and that is blocked off from you by the barrier of the mind.

It is in a very peculiar way that the mind acts as a barrier and blocks off man's access to the Supreme. Infact, it does not actually lie between you and the supernal experience and it does not prevent from finding the access. You are actually nearer to that Consciousness than the mind. That supernal experience is represented by the innermost core of your being and the mind is a barrier in the sense that it draws you outside and ever keeps you away from that Centre. It ever entices you to remain on the surface, in the shallows, forbidding you to go down into the depths of your innermost being. Through its desires, its outgoing tendencies and its constant habit of objectification, the mind draws you away from your Center, channeling your being into multifarious names and forms that constitute the external universe. This is the way the mind acts. It distracts you from your true conscious Center and scatters you amidst the externals.

Excerpts from:

Mind-The Barrier Between Man and God - The Mysterious Mind and Its Control by Swami Chidananda

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