Absence of Mind: God

Sage Vasishtha

VIROCANA continued:

Only by right exertion can dispassion be attained; there is no other means. People talk of divine grace or fate; but in this world we perceive the body, not a god. When people speak of god they imply what is inevitable, what is beyond their control and the events of natural order. Even so, whatever brings about total equanimity and the cessation of joy and sorrow is also referred to as divine grace. Divine grace, natural order and right self-exertion, all of them refer to the same truth; the distinction is due to wrong perception or illusion.

Whatever the mind conceives of through right self-exertion comes o be in its fruition, and when the mind apprehends such fruition there is experience of joy etc. The mind is the doer, and whatever it conceives of the natural order (niyati) creates and manifests. The mind is also able to run counter to the natural order; hence it may even be said that mind is the prompter of the natural order.

Even as wind moves in space, the jiva functions in this world, doing what has to be done within the natural order, though such action appears to be selfish or egotistic. Prompted by nature, he seems to move or stand still - both of which are mere expressions or false superimpositions, even as the movement of trees on a mountain top makes it looks as if the peak is swaying.

Hence, as long as there is mind there is neither god nor a natural order; when the mind has ceased to be, let there be whatever is!