Atma Chittam

You may have gotten angry many times, but do you stay angry forever? The Shiva sutra, ‘Atma Chittam’, conveys something very important. Day, night, clouds and colours all appear in the sky, and later disappear. Similarly, the mind imagines many things, which disappear just as they came.

Just as light fades in the evening, anger also fades. It is the same with envy. There is a limit to everything. When one thought arises, another falls away. Where does it go? All is in our mind. That mind is the Self. Clouds may cover the sky, but the purity of the sky remains untouched. Whatever may be the state of mind, the Self is pure. There is no such thing as a bad Self. As anger is a quality of the Divine, it is also a quality of the Self ! That is why it is said, ‘Atma Chittam’ —the mind itself is the Self. The mind is part of the Divine.

When we say ‘Do your sadhana,’ it means sadhana needs to be done daily. This is because there are millions of cells in our brain. Some work today, and others work tomorrow just like workers do shifts in a factory. The factory is running continually, but the workers have shifts — they come, work and leave. Similarly, in our brain neurons work in shifts.

Some neurons are trained today, others will get trained tomorrow and others will be trained the day after tomorrow. Through this process, one day you will reach perfection, siddhi. This will happen only if japa chanting or meditation is done regularly.