848. Universe is as neutral as a mirror………!

This universe is as neutral as a mirror; we perceive in it only what we place before it……  

There is this following verse in Sri Dakshinamurthy Stotram:-

Viswam darpana drusyamana nagari, Thulyam nijantargatham.  Pasyannathmani mayaya bahirivoth, Bhutham yatha nidraya.

Meaning: World is like a city seen in the mirror, which is seen within (mind/mirror) but appears outside due to veil of ignorance, just as in a dream.

The quintessence of the above verse is that world which is outside us is same as our inside but we see them as different entities due to the veil of ignorance. A person taking a nap after a hefty meal dreams that he is hunger. When he wakes up he realises that the feel of hunger is false. Likewise when I look at myself in the mirror I am sure that it is just the reflection of me in the mirror and that the image is not me.

Mirror has this amazing feature of reflecting whatever is in front of it. Suppose I place a teapot in front of the mirror the mirror reflects that teapot. If I smash the teapot with a hammer the teapot breaks mirror is intact. The mirror has no attachments towards objects that it reflects. Also while reflecting the teapot the mirror does not reflect the various objects it had reflected in the past. An enlightened person is just like that mirror. They just reflect only the present and yet are not attached to it. They are not anxious of the object that has to be reflected and if there is nothing to reflect upon, they just reside in the emptiness.

Now what is that mirror in me???

It is the MIND. If my mind has to be free of the objects, I need to be aware of them. If I am unaware of what happens then attachment creeps in without me knowing. That is the key. My mind is always drawn towards the world through my five sensory organs. Sabda (sound) got from my ears, Sparsha (touch) from my skin, Rupa (form) got from my eyes, Rasa (taste) from my tongue and finally Gandha (smell) from my nose direct my mind to outside world. Hence I address this relative world as Prapancha (ruckus of five).

My mind always triumphs in the association of something gross that my five sensory organs deliver to it. The five sensory organs bring in material things , thoughts, emotions and my mind without them cannot stay on its own. It craves for them and runs behind them. In this melee it becomes stained with the impressions of them. Awareness is for the mind to notice these happenings. Noticing or witnessing is enough to understand about the clinging. Reality in its purest form is never affected by anything. Just like that, awareness is also like a mirror reflecting everything and never being affected by them. When I am aware I need not worry. Realising that I am a mirror is called awareness and thus my mind is stainless. Stainless mind can easily get aligned to Absolute Consciousness …..What say???