D ETERMINACIONES DE CARÁCTER ESPECÍFICO

mind itself". You are correct that "we are no longer talking about physical energy (sound), we are talking of non-material mental energy - the mental equivalent of sound in the mind".

Mind is the connection between what you called external universe and what you called the deeper non- material universe. Mind has access to ALL realms of experience, but it normally focuses on the physical/material realm. Though mind can theoretically be focused on ANY realm of experience through effort, it is not easy.

Let me give a small analogy:

If Brahman is like the ocean bed, supreme cosmic being (who thinks all that all of us think, who desires all that all of us desire, who knows all that all of us know, and who does all that all of us do) is like the bottommost layer of ocean. Various deities are like intermediate layers. Various objects of the external material world that are perceived by our senses are like the ripples on the surface of the ocean. Objects on the surface perceive other objects on the surface around them. One's body and the senses attached to it are an object on the surface in the analogy. When one's mind identifies "self" with that body and its senses, it perceives objects as perceived by those senses. When one successfully detaches mind from that self- identity and identifies with another object in the ocean in a different layer, one may perceive a different reality. An example was in yesterday's mail on mystical experiences.

Just as the ocean is vast and deep and has infinite objects at infinite depths, this universe has infinite possible self-identities. As one's self-awareness is focused on a specific object, one has specific experience/perception of self and "others". When self-awareness changes to a different object, one has a different experience/perception of self and "others". However, this is theoretical discussion for most people, as they cannot imagine self-awareness changing. The self-awareness of most people is focused on their body with its senses and their experience/perception of self is the body and "others" is various objects as perceived through the senses attached to that body. But, it IS possible for one's self-awareness to go from an object on the ocean surface in the analogy to a layer in the middle of the ocean or even a bottommost layer.

Repetition of a mantra is only a tool for calming down the mental activity that keeps feeding this self- awareness. Mind is identifying with a physical object made with gross matter (body). By keeping it busy with a particular repetitive activity, you have a chance of cutting off its identification with that object. As an analogy, suppose a kid saw a rope right next to him and thought it was a snake and was scared. You

may tell him no, but still the thought "snake is next to me" will keep scaring him. If you keep him busy with an activity that he immerses in, the thought of snake next to him may vanish from his mind slowly.

Once the identification of mind with the body is cut off or weakened, mind will have to identify with something else. Imagine a frog clinging to a rock on an ocean surface. If it is afraid of slipping and holds on the rock tightly, its thoughts are on the rock always. If the frog stops thinking about rock and becomes absorbed in some other thoughts, it may slip from the rock. If it starts sinking in the ocean, it will get hold of something else on the way to the ocean bed (otherwise, it will drop all the way to the ocean bed. Though that is not a bad thing at all, the frog is afraid of it and instinctively grabs something on the way!!). Like in that analogy, mind will get a hold of another object (on the way to ocean bed, i.e. Brahman)

and develop another self-awareness, i.e. a perception of "I" and "others". In the example from last night, the perception of "I" was not the body, but a tiny particle in a tremendous wave of energy that reverberated with the sound of a beejaakshara. The perception of "others" was millions of particles of the same wave of energy engaged in making the same sound and absorbed in the same sound.

Let me come back to what you wrote: "if mantra is to have ANY enlightening effect, mantra must resonate in the mind itself. ... We are no longer talking about physical energy (sound), we are talking of non-material mental energy - the mental equivalent of sound in the mind."

Mind or individualized consciousness is just a window to the universe. If a room has window on the east, you see what is on the east. If a room has window on the west, you see what is on the west. And so on. The sound of the mantra IS resonating somewhere (actually, everywhere) in the universe. A mind with a strong self-identification with a body is bombarded by the sense inputs of that body, just as a room with an open window on the south is filled with cold wind blowing from the south and bombarded by the floodlights installed outside on the south. You have to close that window and open window elsewhere to get something else. If self-identification with body is weakened, the bombardment of sense inputs weakens and the window of mind can open to the mantra that resonates in the universe.

When I said earlier that a vaccum should be created in the mind for the mantra and the deity to fill, this is what I was referring to.

Different objects of the universe, including human beings and deities, are made up of gross/subtle matters of different gunas. Each object of the universe has different perceptions of "I" and "others". Each object of the universe has different energies, i.e. different abilities to affect interactions between "I" and "others". The energy of an object is the energy that brought that object into being. Deities are objects with tremendous energy. But one cannot get close to a deity unless one overcomes attachment to individualized ego and its potential energy. One needs to convert that potential energy into kinetic energy that helps one break away from that ego and approach a deity.

In the long run, none of those objects is permanent. None of those energies is permanent. In terms of the previous ocean analogy, one may cling on to an object on the way to the ocean bed temporarily, but the

final goal is to not view any object as "I" and not consider any energy as "mine". The final goal is to drop down all the way to the ocean bed and stay there, without any sense of "I" and "others" or "energy".

Please realize two fundamental things:

(1) The energy of the mantra is experienced *after* the sadhana is fruitful and one overcomes ego. The mantra is an indirect tool for overcoming ego. If one thinks that he is doing a powerful mantra and its energy will free him from ego, one is mistakened. One MUST put in conscious effort with constant contemplation to weed out ego and pride to make one's sadhana fruitful. Mantra does not replace that need. Instead, it works hands in hand with that and depends on that.

(2) When one succeeds in overcoming ego and experiencing a mantra, one should not think that "I did it" or "I created that energy in my mind". One does not do anything (other than *undoing* what one did previously, viz putting together of a complex and weird self-identity called a body with so many things attached to it and so many pre-conceived notions about the world). The energy of the mantra IS already there and resonating everywhere. When mind experiences that energy and fills with it, it is simply *tuning* to something pre-existing and not really creating something or doing something. It is like a radio tuning to a different channel and one listening to newer and better music or a driver driving on a different scenic road and viewing beautiful and better scenery.

Q. If all repetitive chanting were equal, mantra shastra would be 1/2 a page of text, not