Part I — Waiting outside Eternity's door: the mind

Question: What purpose does the mind serve?

Sri Chinmoy: Our physical body is composed of five elements. These elements are not self-sufficient. They need something higher, something deeper, something more conscious to guide them, and that is the mind. In an ordinary being, if the mind does not function at all, he cannot sustain his own life. He becomes inert, helpless. Without the mind at all, one cannot function in the physical body. Having a physical body is not enough; a mind is also necessary.

But the mind is also not enough. The mind makes thousands of mistakes. The mind tells us to do something and when we do it, the body gets hurt. The mind has limits beyond which it cannot go without the help of the heart and soul. That is why I say that when the ordinary mind comes to the fore, you have to take it as a bundle of imperfection and throw it into the heart.

The heart is like a sea of purity. If I have an impure mind, I will try to catch the mind and throw it into the sea. Once it is inside the sea, it will be lost. In the illumination of the psychic sea, mental thoughts, impure thoughts, undivine thoughts, unlit thoughts, will all be illumined. Once the mind is purified, it becomes a real help for the soul and for the soul's mission. Otherwise, it will remain a constant frustration.

Existence, Consciousness and Bliss must go together for a perfectly divine human being. These are somewhat comparable to matter, mind and soul. In human beings, mind and matter are well developed right now. But the soul, the divinity in man, has yet to come to the fore. Only a very few human beings have developed an illumined mind. But it can be developed through our aspiration. Until this happens, man will be an incomplete and unsatisfied creature.