We have enormous faith in our mind and its capacities. As Master puts it, it becomes reliable only when it is pure. In any enquiry into the nature of things three aspects are to be remembered. One the object sought to be known should be clearly defined. Two, the instrument of knowing should be pure and clean. Thirdly the knower should be objective. In any attempt to know the workings of mind the instrument and the knower happen to be the same and many times the object of observation itself is an aspect of mind or one of its processes.

Imagine a 'bee' somehow having entered a room which has closed doors and window panes. The bee tries to get out of the room; it sees its freedom through the glass window panes; but however much it tries it is not able to get out of the same. The seeker of freedom sees the opportunities for freedom through the window but is not able to get out of the window. The window pane is the Mind. The seeker like the 'bee' can somehow sense the freedom and even see it from time to time but he only sees it through the window of the mind. The seeker may truly be sincere in the longing for freedom. Really it is this freedom that is sought in all ambition and in the attaining of objects and experiences including spiritual experiences. Regardless of what is attained or experienced one remains inside the mind and continues to search.

Masters have a knack of confronting this problem. They make the mind find its futility. They literally through their methods block the activity of the mind. Our Master has asked us to meditate on Divine Light without luminosity. This is an impossible concept for the mind and it is forced to stare at this idea. In doing so he has blocked the way of the mind for the seeker and left open the way to freedom. Further by assisting the seeker through Pranahuti which informs the nature of pure and unalloyed consciousness he opened the path to freedom. In real spiritual training the mind has to be made silent and put to rest. Master therefore called himself a 'silencer'. This method of course will not be sweet candy and persons who less courageous are likely to "fly off" to try another system even as the 'bee' tries to fly through other windowpanes.

For an individual the way to freedom is silence and in that silence the window of the mind disappears. This is what happens when we receives Pranahuti and imperiences the real silence beyond all comprehension of the mind. We realize it is our true nature to be free and all the bondages are our creation having no reality content. In fact there are no windows or window panes.

In fact all our inquiry or search into the nature of our being is an exercise similar to the blind man searching for a black cat in a dark room which is not there. We erroneously look for something that is never lost, our true nature, because our nature is not a thing!

The mind is not to be shunned. Its true nature of being universal without the limitations of the Ego, relationships and ideas if recognized it is itself the freedom. Such a recognition of freedom renders the mind benign and useful. We need to see what the mind is and also what it is not. The mind has a creative genius and therefore enjoys parallel status with that of the Divine. Even though such a freedom is there many of us do not understand the same and funnily lead ourselves to be bound by its creations. The ideas which are its windows (its own creations) attracts us to look through them always. We like to live and die looking through the windows of the mind. This is how we instead of living in freedom prefer to suffer bondages which are our creation. Though our true nature is so near, by applying the telescope in the wrong direction find the same hazily far off from us and go on wailing through out the life. This is a stark and unpleasant reality but true nonetheless.

During meditation when Pranahuti is getting absorbed and the emptiness is getting filled there comes a stage when all thoughts are gone but awareness pure and simple stays. There I have invariably found a still ness that is remembered as a slight jolt. The ripples observed around the 'eye' of stillness leaves me dumb and awe stuck. Here on recall it is found the mind stopped functioning and with it are gone all ideas and beliefs, notions and aspirations; all mind stuff gone. The awareness of self is totally destroyed. Then emerges the clarity of vision. This kind of clarity is however temporary and we land back in the plane of individual identity patching up the damaged belief systems. This results in seeking for that state where the mind stuff is all but gone. This is the cause of restlessness even after vision of the absolute state. Repeatedly the vision is sought so that the belief systems assiduously developed and owned are given up in the void of being. This is a painful process of annihilation of the creations of the self. The great Master Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj blesses us as often as we seek such a state of void and vision of the absolute so that we move into the realms of the Divine where no individuality breathes. That is his love and blessings.

He has given us a path which takes us directly to this awareness of nothingness and to assist us has given us also many individuals who can put that mind in check and give us a taste of some moments without the mind. Those moments I prefer to call His grace.