Mysteries of Mind

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Today and Tomorrows Book Agency

Page 50

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TRANSFORMATION OF PERSONALITY -
EQUANIMITY
Even a slight manifestation of consciousness is a pointer towards man's existence. It activates his insight and brings discernment into operation which pierces the ignorance surrounding consciousness. It is the manifestation of enlightenment which is the characteristic of man's existence. It encourages the practitioner to go ahead. A new experience is born with the manifestation of the light of existence. The first manifestation clears the vision and the second results in the feeling of joy which had remained hitherto unfelt. A third manifestation of enlightenment stabilizes the feeling of joy which will never be extinguished. A fourth manifestation brings the practitioner face to face with the centre of consciousness resulting in the highest kind of joy from which the practitioner never likes to return to the murky world of ordinary life.
Discernment produces self-discipline; self-discipline, in its turn, destroys self-forgetfulness; and the disappearance of self-forgetfulness brings in complete freedom from passions. This is the orderly march to freedom. The march begins with man's consciousness of his existence. Self-exertion, austerities and meditation have no meaning for man unless and until he has first become aware of his own existence. The practice of self-exertion begins after this awareness. An austere life and meditation follow it. A glimpse of his existence makes man restless and impatient with his present life. It is this restlessness and impatience which force him to concentrate his mind, and, therefore, they have their own value in sādhanā. Till now the practitioner had been governed by his wanton mind. From now onwards he becomes the controller and driver of his