An Offering at His Feet
To Sri Krishna,
On this Janmashtami,
I bring You not flowers,
not words perfected,
but this restless mind—
the very mind You ask me to befriend.
May these thoughts,
these questions,
this seeking and this surrender
become an offering at Your feet.
You who were Arjuna’s charioteer,
be the charioteer of my mind too.
Guide it gently.
Hold it lovingly.
Turn it inward.
Until the seeker discovers
that the Guide was never elsewhere—
that the Light I was seeking
was the Light by which I was seeking.
To You, within and without,
I offer this humble conversation.
Sri Krishnaarpanamastu.
Prelude - Befriending the Mind
आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धु:
It is said that to develop friendship with another,
the two must spend time together— quality time,
getting to know each other’s nature,
with mutual understanding, patience and care.
Perhaps the same is true of the mind.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna tells us
that the mind alone can be our friend
and the mind alone can be our enemy.
We often try to lift the mind
by the force of the intellect—
commanding it, restraining it,
pushing it towards what we believe is right.
But can a mind truly be transformed
by being constantly fought with?
Perhaps not.
Perhaps the first step is simply
to befriend the mind.
To spend time with it.
To listen to it.
To watch its movements without immediately following them.
To understand its nature.
A mind to which we give no attention
runs away with us—
like a restless companion
who, unchecked, can become our worst enemy
and drag us towards our own undoing.
But a mind that is lovingly attended to,
gently understood and patiently guided,
can become our greatest friend.
There may be no better friend than the mind itself
when it turns towards its own source.
It can become the very instrument
that lifts us towards our true nature—
towards the Higher Reality.
Great souls have shown us this way.
Goswami Tulsidas ji,
in speaking intimately to his own mind,
befriended it, guided it, questioned it,
and through that intimate dialogue
gave the world immortal poetry.
And in the Gita,
we see the supreme example:
Sri Krishna—the awakened Intelligence,
befriending Arjuna—the bewildered mind,
not by suppressing him,
but by entering into dialogue with him,
understanding his confusion,
questioning his assumptions,
and gradually lifting his vision
from sorrow to clarity,
from confusion to knowledge,
from the limited self to the glory of the Self.
Inspired by this,
I too make this humble attempt—
to sit with my mind,
to speak to it,
to listen to it,
to understand it, and perhaps, in the process,
to befriend it.
What follows is not a dialogue
between two different beings.
It is a conversation
between the seeking mind
and the Inner Guide,
between the mind and the Light of Intelligence
that illumines it.
Prayer
सह नौ भुनक्तु| सह वीर्यं करवावहै
May we enjoy this inward conversation
May we come to know the mind
with greater tenderness and clarity.
And may this friendship
lead us, step by step,
towards greater brightness—
until the friend, the seeker, the mind
and the Light
are discovered to be
not two, but One.
The Conversation Begins -Turning Within
Seeker:
I have searched.
I have striven.
I have chased what the world promised—
pleasure, achievement, knowledge, fulfilment.
And yet,
everything I grasped slipped away.
Slowly I
see—
what is outward is fleeting,
what is acquired can be lost,
and what depends upon effort
cannot be the Truth that I seek.
So I turn
within.
There is
a voice here—
voiceless, yet impossible to silence;
silent, yet beyond all words.
To That I
bow. To That I surrender.
Guide:
Be still.
You have searched everywhere
except where the seeker truly lives.
Withdraw
from the noise.
Let the mind become quiet.
When the
seeking mind becomes still
and the inner Guide is heeded,
the two are no longer two.
The mind
opens.
The mind listens.
The mind merges into the Light
from which it arose.
Seeker:
यो ब्रह्माणं विदधाति पूर्वं
I bow to Thee,
O Inner Light—
the Light
that reveals the Self
as pure Intelligence,
the Light by which every thought is known,
the Light that gives names and forms
to the world of words and thoughts.
The Fire of Inquiry
परीक्ष्य लोकान् कर्मचितान् ब्राह्मणो
I have
examined this field of experience—
body, senses, memories, desires,
actions and their imagined fruits.
And what
have I found?
All of it changes.
Truth
does not need to be achieved.
Truth does not need to be manufactured.
Truth does not need my striving.
Then why
should I exhaust myself
chasing the unreal?
Let these
thoughts,
these restless fragments of the mind,
be no more than sticks
offered into the fire of inquiry.
The Quiet Mind
Guide:
तस्मै स विद्वानुपसन्नाय सम्यक्
Now you are ready.
To the
mind that has become calm,
dispassionate and inward-turned,
Knowledge reveals itself.
The mind
is not the obstacle.
The purified mind itself
becomes the means of knowing Truth.
Look
carefully.
Entering the Inner Cave
सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म ।
Where is
Truth?
Not
outside.
Not elsewhere.
Not in some distant attainment.
Enter the
cave of your own mind—
the sacred space where thoughts fall silent.
There,
know That which is
Existence, Consciousness and Limitlessness.
Seeker:
But what I see appears as many—
many objects, many thoughts,
many experiences, many selves.
Guide:
The Oneness
यस्तु सर्वाणि भूतान्यात्मन्यॆवानुपश्यति
Look
again.
There is
one Light
in which every thought appears.
And every
thought
appears in that one Light.
The Light
does not reject a thought.
It does not cling to a thought.
It
illumines all.
When you
see that the entire world
of thought-projections
is nothing but this Inner Light,
where is the confusion?
Where is sorrow?
Choice
belongs to multiplicity.
When there is truly only One,
what is there to choose between?
Seeker:
Then what is this Light?
Guide:
दिव्यो ह्यमूर्तः पुरुष:
Formless.
Full.
Within and without.
Unborn.
Untouched by the outer sheaths.
Beyond thoughts
and even the seeds from which thoughts arise.
तत्त्वमेव त्वमेव तत्
Subtler
than the subtlest thought.
Beyond even the unmanifest.
It is the
essence of all.
The abode of all.
That
Truth alone is the mind—
and the mind, in its essence,
is That Truth alone.
Knowing as Oneself
Seeker:
How then shall I know It?
As an
object?
As an idea?
As another thought?
As something unknown
that I must discover?
Guide:
No.
You cannot know Truth
as something different from yourself.
It is not
an object of knowledge.
It is not a concept to be understood.
It is not another thought
to be held by the mind.
मनसैवेदमाप्तव्यं नेह नानाऽस्ति किंचन।
It is
known as oneself.
And when
That is known,
there are no words adequate to say
what has been known.
Seeker:
Then what happens to the seeker?
Guide:
The seeker dies
and rises again.
Again and
again,
whenever the mind sees itself
as separate from Truth.
Until
separation itself is seen
as another thought.
Then the
seeker is gone.
When the Seeker Disappears
Seeker:
And suddenly—
I see!
अहमन्नमहमन्नमहमन्नम्|
I am the
food
and I am the eater.
I am the
world of thought-perceptions
and I am the one who experiences them.
I am the
first-born thought—
the simple I am—
the navel from which the senses
and their worlds unfold.
Thoughts
feed the mind,
and the mind lives upon them.
But when
no more thought is offered,
what remains?
I consume
even the thought of “I”.
I dissolve the dissolver.
I remain—
the Pure Light.
The Fullness That Is
Guide:
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं
Know this.
The fullness you have sought
was never absent.
The Brahman
is full.
The mind, too, is full.
From the
Fullness
the apparent mind arises.
And when
the thoughts
that make up the mind
are dissolved back into That—
nothing
is lost.
Nothing new remains.
Only the Fullness remains.
Only Brahman remains.
No Confusion, No Fear! Only Peace!
आनन्दं ब्रह्मणो विद्वान्।
न बिभेति कुतश्चनेति।
Seeker:
Now there is no confusion.
For there is no second.
The thoughts that arise
are not other than Me;
they arise in Me,
shine in Me,
and dissolve in Me.
When the Source is known
as Fullness itself—
Complete, Whole, Bliss—
How can thoughts of difference arise?
And when there is no “other”,
what is there to fear?
What is there to regret?
Whom is there to compete with?
Whom is there to become?
Nothing is lacking.
Nothing is separate.
What remains is not merely
peace, bliss or fearlessness
as qualities to be gained—
Peace is My nature.
Bliss is My nature.
Fearlessness is My nature.
I am Complete. I am Full.
I am That.
Be As You Are
Inner Guide:
स्वस्ति वः पाराय तमसः परस्तात्
Now be as you are.
Be still.
Be free.
May you go beyond
the darkness of ignorance
and abide in the Light
that you have always been.
Auspiciousness be unto you.
A Final Salutation
Seeker: त्वं हि नः पिता
My salutations unto You!
You are my Father—
You who have taken me
across this ocean of ignorance.
You who showed me
that the shore I sought
was never elsewhere.
You who led me
from darkness to Light,
from confusion to clarity,
from seeking to Being.
To You,
my eternal Guide,
my deepest Friend,
I offer my salutations
again and again—
Now and forever.
Conclusion
Seeker:
त्वं हि नः पिता
My salutations unto You!
You are my Father—
You who have taken me
across this ocean of ignorance.
You who showed me
that the shore I sought
was never elsewhere.
You who led me
from darkness to Light,
from confusion to clarity,
from seeking to Being.
To You,
my eternal Guide,
my deepest Friend,
I offer my salutations
again and again—
Now and forever.
Conclusion
Guide:
भिद्यते हृदयग्रन्थिश्छिद्यन्ते सर्वसंशयाः ।
The knowledge of Truth
has cut asunder
the knots of the heart,
the doubts of the mind,
and the imagined bondage
of action and its fruits.
What remains
is unparalleled Peace,
unsurpassable Happiness,
and invincible Fearlessness.
There is
nowhere to go.
There is nothing to attain.
There is only That—
before
the first thought,
within every thought,
and beyond the last.
Seeker:
नाहं मन्ये सुवेदेति नो न वेदेति वेद च।
Then I did not find the Truth.
I only
ceased to look elsewhere.
I did not become the Light.
I only ceased to imagine myself apart from It.
न निरोधो
न चोत्पत्तिर्न बद्धो न च साधकः ।
न मुमुक्षुर्न
वै मुक्त इत्येषा परमार्थता ॥
I am That.
The Light alone is.
And in
that Light—
there is no seeker,
no seeking,
no path,
no destination.
Only One.
|| ॐ तत् सत् ||
– Priya Arunachalam
