Private
International Self-preparation Group
Message from Krishnaji VIII
We were discussing not long ago the value and necessity
of discrimination in order to understand the Path and human life generally.
I want to go more into detail so as to make the idea of discrimination clearer.
It is quite obvious that to be able to discriminate
in the right way you must have mind, you must have intelligence. It would
be impossible for an idiot to tread the Path. You must not be cranky, you
must be sane; and to be sane you must have an intelligent mind and a right
outlook. We are not concerned for the moment with the higher mind; we are
concerned with the mind functioning on the physical plane, and which needs
to be well-trained; able to read, to understand, to grasp the various meanings
of life. That lower mind is essential, though full of danger. It is the lower
mind which gives us a clear perception of things on the physical plane. We
must have that clear perception, as also the capacity to understand and to
assimilate, because without a mind, without intelligence, without intellectual
criticism and judgment of the right kind, it is impossible to advance. I
dislike that word "advance", because it has been so misused. "Advance", to
me, means going about your ordinary daily life with intelligence. If you are
walking along an ordinary road towards the goal, you are bound to advance.
It is the same thing with the Path. If you want to reach another shrine, you
do not worry as to whether you are progressing or taking steps, or acquiring
labels; you just go on.
If you are to grasp the various opportunities
which present themselves along the Path, you must be able to judge for yourself,
you must have this lower mind well developed. You cannot be purely devotional,
for that means that you are not perfectly balanced; neither can you be purely
intellectual. You must have the combination of both intellect and devotion,
and not aim at being merely an intellectual giant or an absolute devotee.
This means that you must study, study everything, not only along one particular
line. The lower mind, if it is properly trained, does not make you merely
critical; we can all criticise. It means that you are able to exercise right
judgment, and by the practice of this judgment you grow big.
You cannot train the lower mind simply by shutting
your eyes and becoming a devotee. You must observe; you must put out mental
tentacles in all directions, because you must acquire the result of all experiences
without necessarily indulging in those experiences.
You must learn to use the lower mind to create
new thoughts, new ideas, new ways of thinking, and not just follow the old
ruts; because then you will be able to judge for yourselves, and not merely
follow in the footsteps of another. We all have the instinct to follow, we
want to be led, we want to be a follower of X, Y or Z, instead of making
ourselves into X, Y or Z. Why do we want to follow? Because we do not trust
our minds, our judgment, our intuition; we are willing to remain small people
instead of standing on our own feet and making our own decisions and acting
for ourselves in the right sense and without conceit. That is why it is so
important, so essential, to understand what this Path requires, because then
you can lead, you can train others, you can make them feel differently about
the things that really matter in life.
We all want to create; that is the instinct
both of the animal and of the human being; but in creation, especially in
mental creation, we must be individualistic - in the sense that we must follow
our own particular dharma. But it does not mean that we should be
separate or conceited.
If you have a mind that is always judging and
balancing and weighing things, then there is no question of ever being unnatural,
hypocritical, or unreal about things. We all pretend to some extent. This
pretending has its value; but pretension of the wrong kind becomes hypocrisy,
and hypocrisy will gradually grow into our being if we are not careful. If
we do not like a thing, let us be honest and say so. It is not possible for
us all to like the same things. The Path is so wide, so incredibly extensive,
that there is room on it for millions of people with different points of
view. They will all arrive at the same shrine, however they come. We must
use our own minds, our own eyes, and judge for ourselves; and not swallow
anything and everything that other people put before us, whether we like it
or not. If we like it, let us dissect it and see why we like it. If we do
not like it, let us equally examine it, and find out if our dislike is well-founded
or the result of prejudice.
Mind is Brahman; it is the essence of God,
and not something to be despised and put aside. But like everything else
in the world, you must train the mind, you must carefully guard it and shield
it. The mind has its potential value; and it is absurd for any of us to set
it aside and not to use it, and shut our eyes to the realities and the unrealities
of life.
If you have such a trained mind, you will be
able to distinguish between the desires of the elemental of the body and
the mind itself, between the emotions and the real Self. The body has its
own feelings, its own instincts and desires. If you leave it alone, it will
act in a certain fashion and make tremendous efforts to get its desires satisfied.
Most of us do not know how to distinguish between
the body and the real Self; we are in a state of complete confusion. It needs
much training to distinguish between the mind, the emotions and the body.
There are so many varieties of desire; and you can only distinguish between
those varieties if your mind, if the real Self, is able to exert itself
and assert itself.
You can see how a child is swayed by his natural
instincts, how he is at one moment noisy and hilarious, and at the next moment
depressed. That is because the real Self has not yet entered, has not yet
taken control of the body; and so the body has a good time on its own account.
It is much the same with us all. We think we are far superior to the child,
but we are still childish in many ways; but when we have learned to use
this capacity of discrimination to distinguish the real Self from its physical
vehicle, then the irritations, the petty desires, the jealousies and dislikes
and hatreds, will disappear.
There is so much ugliness all around - in ourselves,
in others, in our circumstances, in our feelings and in our minds. It is
the lower expression, the lower consciousness of the Supreme; and through
these small things, you can grow to understand the higher expression of the
Supreme, the real God. To me there is nothing which is intrinsically evil,
nothing which smacks of the devil; the black magician himself must be a part
of the same divinity, although he may be of a lower stratum.
The mind is the highest thing that we have
in us, because the mind, if it is properly trained, becomes the intuition.
We have to work so as to arrive at that perfect knowledge, that perfect intuition,
which we can trust without the least hesitation. The lower mind must become
one with the buddhic mind, which is the essence of intuition.
Until you have gained this perfect balance,
you do not tread the Path in the right way. When you have gained it, you
acquire a certain independence, a certain poise, and you will never be carried
away by outer circumstances. You become impersonal, and nothing really effects
you except as you desire it. Then you also develop a tremendous will to accomplish
things.
You must use the lower mind as a link with
the higher. You cannot possibly do without it; but it is dangerous to exaggerate
the lower mind, because then it becomes unbalanced. To me, spirituality is
perfect balance, it is the apotheosis of common sense. If you put some beautiful
thing before a lunatic, he will not be able to appreciate its beauty. We
do not appreciate real beauty, real greatness, until we have a spark of beauty
or a spark of divinity or greatness in ourselves. We must have the essence
of all qualities before we can really understand, before we can really enjoy
the swing, the march on the Path. We must learn, though our feet may be
bleeding, though we may suffer, though we may be really happy. We must have
the desire, the determination, to know for ourselves. We must reach that
stage where knowledge becomes certainty instead of a second-hand belief,
where knowledge becomes a part of us, where knowledge is ourselves. Then
we shall know the real joy of living, we shall have found the essence of
happiness.
J. Krishnamurti