Who is to be purified – mind or soul?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question? Who is it that is purified? Is it the soul that gets purified or the mind gets purified? We know that the mind is a thing not a person. So what do we mean when we say that the mind gets purified? Answer? The mind is like the software.
If we consider a computer system, the body is the hardware, the mind is the software and the soul is the user. Normally, if we consider a computer system that becomes dysfunctional, it becomes dysfunctional because the software gets corrupted. Similarly, it is our mind which gets corrupted.
The soul is always Satchidananda. In that sense, the soul never becomes contaminated. The soul never becomes impure.
Although we may sometimes use the word Shuddha Atma or Atma Shuddhi. Atma Shuddhi is a conventional use. Technically, there the word Atma would refer not to the soul but to the mind.
It is the mind that is to be purified and it is the mind that gets purified when we practice some purificatory process of yoga. Now, the important thing to recognize is that in the conditioned stage, the soul and the mind are very close to each other. And the mind keeps proposing, do this, watch this, touch this, eat this.
And the soul, to the extent the soul is impure, the stronger the impurity means, the lesser is the distance between the soul and the mind. As soon as the proposal comes, the proposal offered by the mind, the soul immediately accepts it. That means that the impurity is very strong and the impurity is therefore very forceful.
So, when we practice Bhakti, by such practice, firstly what do we do? We try to, with our intellectual analysis, create a distance between us and our mind. We understand that the mind is different from us and we remind ourselves of that. Therefore, when the mind starts proposing something, if our intelligence is impure, then the intelligence will immediately start scheming how to fulfill that impure desire that has been proposed by the mind.
But if the intelligence is purified, that means, the intelligence is like the antivirus software. The virus is also present at the software level itself. And the antivirus is also present at the software level.
Sometimes some viruses are so insidious that they may disable even the antivirus. And then they will corrupt the whole system. But if the antivirus is strong, if the antivirus is updated and it is good quality, then it can detect and restrict the virus and then it can eliminate the virus also.
Similarly, if our intelligence is strong, then the intelligence will help us identify the mind and at least some distance away. This is the mind’s proposal. Should I accept it? Should I not accept it? No, I don’t want to accept it.
Once we understand it, I don’t need to accept this proposal of the mind. Then after that, sometimes if that proposal is not very forceful, then we might ourselves by our determination resist it and reject it. But sometimes that proposal may still be very strong.
So by the intelligence, although we can detect it, we cannot resist it. Just like sometimes some antivirus may be able to detect a particular virus, but that virus may be a mutant, a variant of an older virus and that particular antivirus program may not be equipped to remove this latest version of the virus. Then that antivirus program may give us a notification.
This virus is there and then it may say please update this virus, please update the antivirus program. Then when we connect the antivirus to the net, then whoever is the producer of the antivirus, they have developed a patch to remove this. They have developed an update and when we download that update, then that removes the curve software.
So like that, just as the antivirus inside us needs to connect with the global antivirus company, similarly we or our finite intelligence sometimes needs to connect with the infinite intelligence of Krishna. And for the antivirus, the connection happens simply through connecting the internet. But for us, the connection happens through the practice of bhakti.
So when we use our intelligence to identify that the mind is proposing this and although we can’t resist it at that time, but instead we can just redirect and connect ourselves with Krishna. And as we connect with ourselves with Krishna, we get inner strength, we get higher at least. And then we can reject the mind’s proposal.
So the soul is always pure by the study of the Bhagavad Gita and by the practice of sadhana bhakti. Our intelligence becomes pure first and then when the intelligence is pure, then it restricts the mind, it redirects the mind towards Krishna and gradually the mind also becomes purified. So in fact when the subtle body which is centered around the mind gets purified, then we also get purified and then we become ultimately liberated.
Liberation happens for the soul when the subtle body becomes purged, purified of all contaminations. Thank you.