Speaker: Ashish says, “Whatever was once important to me now seems insignificant. I wonder whether there is anything worth doing. The feeling has made me lethargic. Or is that just another trick of the mind?”
You have got it right. It is just another trick of the mind .
Now, let’s start looking at the three states of the mind. There is an important lesson for you there.
In the vacant state, the mind has an object. That object is called as the world .
In the sleeping state, again the mind has an object. That object is called the dream.
And in dreamless sleep , the Learned ones have said, the mind again has an object. Now this is quite strange. First of all you are sleeping. So, there is no world at all. Secondly, you are sleeping dreamlessly, so there is no dream either. Neither the world nor the dream, then what now is left to be an object?
But the Wise ones have said that there is still an object. The object is objectlessness itself. The mind is so clever and cunning that it turns objectlessness into an object. And that is why ‘*Sushupti*’ (deep sleep) is just another state of mind, not beyond mind.
So, you might be experiencing objectlessness, but still you have an object. What is that object? Objectlessness. And the mind, in its cunningness, is smiling even as you are claiming that, “Whatever was once important to me, now seems insignificant”. No, not everything is insignificant.
Now what is significant to you? Insignificance is significant to you. And that is why this question is coming. Had everything become insignificant, from where would this question come? The presence of this question proves that the question is significant and the question talks of insignificance. So, what is significant?
Listeners: Insignificance.
Speaker: Insignificance is significant. And this is a very dirty trick. When everything is gone, then you make the vacant space as another thing. You were staring at the chairs. The chairs are gone. You were staring at the walls. Now the walls too are gone. But you are still staring and that is possible. Can’t you stare at nothingness? Have you not experienced that you are staring, yet at nothing in particular ? Don’t you know that? Has that happened with you?
You are staring objectlessly. That is your condition right now. But don’t forget, you have not yet gotten rid of staring . You are still staring, you are still occupied. Your mind is still busy. Busy with what? Insignificance. That is what rules you now. That is what dominates the mind now. The mind is not clear.
Remember, going by your efforts , you can bring the mind only to the edge of the precipice. You cannot push it. You cannot make it fly. You can, by your efforts, rid mind of all the objects but any effort of the mind will never succeed in riding the mind of itself. Your efforts will drive away all the objects but the mother object will still remain, because the mother object is the mind itself. That cannot be driven away by the mind. For that you require Surrender and Faith . That only somebody else can do, you cannot do. You have probably already done close to the maximum that you can do. And the maximum that you can do is worth nothing.
It does not matter whether you are standing in the middle of the room, or at the edge of the room. You are still standing within the room. All your efforts, all your movements, are limited to the boundary of the room. You cannot breach that boundary on your own.
So, bow down in prayer . You will have to give yourself up. Not only all that which the Self thinks and dreams of, but the Self itself. Unless that is given up, nothing has happened.
