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58
Spiritual Enlightenment
Hari and Hara. One reaches that condition on which one's mind is set; one should not, therefore, direct one's attention towards other foreign stuff than the status of Para-Brahman. That which is non-sentient and separate from the self is the foreign stuff consisting of matter, the principles of motion, the principle of rest, space and time. One who is devoted towards Paramatman, even for half a moment, burns the whole lot of sin, as a spark of fire reduces a heap of logs to ashes. Setting aside all thoughts, one should peacefully concentrate on the highest status of liberation and thus realize the divinity. The highest bliss, which is attained by visualizing Paramatman (Shiva) in course of meditation is nowhere attained in the world of Samsara. Even Indra, who sports in the company of crores of nymphs, does not get that happiness which the saints attain when meditating on their self. The soul which is free from attachment, when realizing the self termed as Shiva and Shanta attains that infinite happiness realized by great Jinas by visualizing the self. Paramatman is visualized in the pure mind like the brilliant Sun in the cloudless sky. As no figure is reflected in a mirror with soiled surface, so indeed the God, the Paramatman, is never visualized in the mind (hrdaya) unclean with attitudes of attachment etc. There can be no place for Brahman when the mind is occupied by a fawn-eyed one: how can two swords occupy the same scabbard? It appears to me that the eternal divinity dwells in the clear mind of a Jnanin like a swan on the surface of lake. God is not there in the temple in the statue, in the plaster nor in the painting; but he dwells in the equanimous mind as an eternal and stainless embodiment of knowledge. When the mind and Parameshvara have become identical, nay one, where is the question of any worship? To concentrate the mind that is running towards pleasures and passions on the Paramatman free from the stains of Karman; that is the means of liberation, but not any mystic syllable nor mystic practice. (109-123*3)