PLAY OF THE DIVINE:- Atma chittam Your mind is your self. “Atma chittam” – your mind is your self. Do not leave your mind in search of the Divine. This mind also belongs to God, & the disturbances in the mind are also a play of the Divine. We should treat them as a play or entertainment. If you read any old purana, or ancient story, you find only anger & jealousy. Lakshmi got angry with Sarasvati. It was a fight between mother-in-law & daughter-in-law! Sarasvati is the daughter-in-law of Lakshmi. That is how we trap the Gods in the anger & hatred that is in us. All the puranas contain anger & hatred — whatever happens on earth also happens in heaven. Chandea stole the wife of Guru, also known as Brihaspati. A fight ensued between Guru & Chander. “Chandra” in Sanskrit means the mind, & “Guru” knowledge. Knowledge says one thing, & the mind says something else. That is why everyone knows that smoking is a bad habit, but people cannot stop. This sutra says something very important: “Atma chittam”— day, night, clouds & colours all appear in the sky & later disappear. Similarly the mind imagines many things, which disappear just as they came. You may have gotten angry many time, but do you stay angry forever? Just as light fades away in the evening, anger also fades away. It is the same with envy. There is a limit to everything. When one thought rises, 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. LIBERATION FROM LUST:- This one mind of ours sees theough the eyes, hears through the ears & tasted theough the tongue. The same mind feels experiences in each & every part of the body –hands, legs & other linp. Who is experiencing allthese sensations through the five senses? One mind experiences the world in five different ways, through the five doorways of the senses. From this arose the five elements, which can be experieced on the physical level. Similarly, the mind thinks with the intellect & stores impressions in memory. Ego is- “I should do this or that,” or “I should be likethis or like that.” This is how its ideas get expressed. Like this, the whole world is made up of twenty-four elements or principles. Some say it is twenty-four,& others say sixteen. The counts are different in the various shastras. But all of these elements continue acting by themselves. LIFE IS A PLAY:-NARTAKA ATMA :-The Self is a dancer. The in ner Self is the stage. The Self is like an actor or a dancer in a play. One who dances or acts in a play uses all sorts of gestures to express the navarasa, the nine lfavors of emotin. Have you noticed how a dancer expresses feeling? He expresses it so completely, with skill & art. If he needs to express anger, he will even use the red of his eyes to express it.