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48 THE PATH OF LOVE
experience of its real, original state, the mind must go. As long
as the mind is there, even though its outlook may undergo a
change, the real “I am God” state cannot be experienced. In
sound sleep, mind has temporarily ceased; but ego is there. The
impressions again make the mind wake up, and the mind again
makes the ego feel false. In innumerable lives and forms, the ego
is there. The mind is there also, but the mind’s impressions
change and so accordingly the body changes, and then its experiences
also undergo changes. Therefore, for the false “I” to
become real “I,” mind must go.
This grip of the mind has bound us so tight that the more
we try to escape, the more we find ourselves bound, because
mind has to be destroyed from its root. But who is going to
destroy it Mind has to destroy itself. Yet that is an impossible
task. The very process of destroying itself creates impression in
the mind of this effort at self-destruction, and so one gets more
bound. Says Hafiz: “You yourself are the veil, oh Hafiz! And so
remove thyself.” Now how to remove yourself The very process
of removing creates fresh sanskaras (impressions).
There is a story of four Iranis who heard about how the
soul leaves the body and how it goes to the sky, etc. One day,
being intoxicated with bhang,* they caught hold of a wheel of
a cart and went on pulling at it for a long time, thinking that
thus they would be able to detach their souls, but obviously this
didn’t help and they realized that they had injured themselves in
the bargain. There have been many attempts of this type to
destroy the mind, which is made up of impressions of every kind
– good, bad, low, high, etc. Thousands have thought of
* A native beverage.