Sri Arunachala Ashtakam - Verse 5

This post is prompted by the query put up by Anonymous as a comment to the previous Ashtakam post. He or she wants some ideas on Bhagavan’s statement in verse 5 of the Ashtakam that “the (impure) mind is worked against the wheel of the (pure) mind to free it of its flaws”.

Here is verse 5 in full from the marvellous “Parayana” book, published by Sri Ramanasramam: 

“As the string in (a necklet of) gems, it is Thou in Thy unity who penetratest all the diversity of beings and religions. If like a gem when it is cut and polished, the (impure) mind is worked against the wheel of the (pure) mind to free it of its flaws, it will take on the light of Thy Grace (and shine) like a ruby, whose fire is unaffected by any outward object. When once a photographic plate has been exposed to the sun, can it receive impressions afterwards? O benign and dazzling Aruna Hill! Is there anything apart from Thee?”

Most translations of this verse, as above, add ‘impure’ and ‘pure’, or ‘gross’ and ‘subtle’ or some equivalent terms within brackets before the word ‘mind’ appearing twice in the line under consideration. In the original Tamil however, Bhagavan simply states: ‘… if the mind is worked against the grindstone of the mind to free it of its flaws …’.   

Again, in my humble opinion, this verse has several layers of subtle meanings built into it. At one level then, if we consider just the literal ‘the mind being worked against the grindstone of the mind’, the verse is saying: that the one tool we have is the mind, which usually is working away on the matters of the world; but if we turn it within and have it attend to itself, i.e. to watching the source of thoughts which constitute the mind, or to watching itself (thus mind worked against the wheel of the mind), it will be freed of its flaws and shine as the Self. This then is the call to Vichara, the enquiry ‘Who am I?’. The same idea, more or less, is recorded by Sri Muruganar in verse 962 of Guru Vachaka Kovai: 

962:   To remove the impurities of the mind the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ should be practiced resolutely. By grinding [the mind] through repeatedly rubbing it against the grinding stone of ‘I am’, the light of the sun [of the Self] is kindled and flares up within. You should know that this is true jnana declared by the [Islamic] statement ‘Ana’al haq’ [‘I am the reality’].

[from “Guru Vachaka Kovai”; Pg 420, David Godman’s book]

Another layer of meaning gets added if we consider that the statement is actually saying that the ‘impure’ mind is worked against the wheel of the ‘pure’ mind to free it of its flaws. Personally, I think that this is not unreasonable, given the imagery of a traditional method of cutting and polishing gems employed in the verse; it is the rough, thus impure gem, that is worked against the grindstone, itself studded with miniscule bits of harder, thus purer gems.

So what is a ‘pure’ mind and an ‘impure mind’? We enter doctrine again. And Bhagavan Himself gave the precise definition of a ‘pure mind’ as ‘Isvara’ or God; and ‘impure mind’ as the ‘rajasic or active mind or the ego’. The fascinating exposition is contained in Talk 323, in “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi”. Talk 323 is one of the longest “Talks” in the book and contains Bhagavan’s explanation of another enigmatic Ashtakam verse, verse 6. Therein, just by the way, Bhagavan explains these 2 terms as well. The relevant extract is:

“… In broad daylight a rope does not look like a snake. The rope itself cannot be seen in thick darkness; so there is no chance of mistaking it for a snake. Only in dim light, in the dusk, in light darkened by shadows or in darkness lighted by dim light does the mistake occur of a rope seeming a snake. Similarly it is for the Pure Radiant Being to rise up as the Ego - it is possible only in Its Light diffused through darkness. This darkness is otherwise known as the Original Ignorance (Original Sin). The Light passing through it is called Reflected Light. The Reflected Light on its own merits is commonly known as the Pure Mind or Isvara or God. Isvara is well-known to be unified with Maya: in other words the Reflected Light is Isvara. The other name - Pure Mind - implies impure mind also. It is the rajasic or active mind or the ego …”.

Now if we look at the structure of the Ashtakam hymn, verses 3 and 4 have the theme that Sri Arunachala, though formless otherwise, when considered with form is God in the guise of the Holy Hill: “When I approach Thee regarding Thee as having form, Thou standest as a hill on earth …”. And thus verse 5 coming next carries on with this ‘form’ theme a bit, telling the devotee that he can either work his mind against itself, i.e. vide Vichara and the process of Self-enquiry, OR he can work it against Lord Arunachala in the form of the Holy Hill. So if the devotee is inclined to work his sadhana ‘with form’ he has to surrender his ego to (or grind his ‘impure mind’ against) the ‘Pure Mind’, Isvara, Lord Arunachala (the grindstone) and thus free it of flaws; and thus expose the ego-mind to the bright sun of the Aruna Hill, in an act of full surrender, and be like the photographic plate wiped clean permanently.

In my humble opinion, both options are deliberately built into the verse by Bhagavan and come forward equally, depending upon the viewpoint of the devotee. Also, since both options are intrinsically contained in the same one statement in the verse, Bhagavan is also saying in a subtle way that the 2 approaches are essentially the same.

Lastly, it may be clarified that no new method of doing Vichara is suggested in this verse. Some may feel that ‘working the mind against the mind’ may point to a different technique altogether, rather than the ‘Who am I?’ enquiry. Not at all. If the formless approach is taken, then it simply implies the doing of Vichara as normally done.

As always, happy to read additional ideas from readers below.