Viveka Chudamani Verse 367
In her Message for 2019, Gurumayi encourages us to befriend our mind and lead it to experience the effulgent light of the Self, which is its own true nature. This verse from the Viveka Chudamani, or “Crest Jewel of Discrimination,” a text attributed to Adi Shankaracharya, extols the virtues of continually keeping the mind calm and beyond the reach of the senses. Such a mind becomes śāntamanāh—serene and peaceful—by virtue of being freed from the darkness of limited self-awareness. In this way, the mind becomes radiant and ever-oriented toward the Self.
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Freeing ourselves from the limited mind is done through absorption in the innermost Self, while also disentangling ourselves from the pull of the senses. As we do this, we become friends with the mind and are able to recognize again and again our oneness with the innate divinity that exists within us. The verse continues to explain that this profound understanding ultimately destroys what the sage calls in this verse dhvāntamanādyavidyayā, “the darkness of ignorance that has no beginning.”
In her book Sadhana of the Heart, Vol. 1, Gurumayi teaches “the same mind can be friend or foe, gold or dross. And believe it or not, the choice is up to you. You are the one who makes the mind your friend or your enemy.”1 So let’s make the mind our friend—our best friend. The choice is ours to make. When we know our truest nature, we become increasingly aware of the bliss of the Self that is within every particle of creation. Bit by bit, we come to experience life through this expanded awareness, and our own inner world expands accordingly.
One way we can immediately practice “concentrating on the innermost Self and identifying with That” is by meditating while focusing on each inhalation and exhalation of our breath and holding in our firm awareness the syllables of the So‘ham mantra, “I am That.” In this way, we gently lead our mind toward the luminous state of sacchidānanda—our own divine state of pure being, consciousness, and bliss.
