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The Lord is in every heart, in the subtle as well as the gross form. So the Jnani, who has had a vision of the Atma dominating the Inner Stage, will never be affected by sorrow; it can never hold sway over him. The Atma is in the ant and the elephant, in the atom as well as the atmosphere. Everything is saturated with Brahmam. The seeker must divert his attention inwards from the external world; he must find out the origins of the agitations of the mind. This process will diminish and destroy the activities of the mind which make you doubt, discuss and decide. From that stage onwards, the exhilaration of being Brahmam oneself will be constant. This will stabilise the Sath-Chith-Ananda arising from that experience.

Such a Jnani can never be affected by joy or sorrow, however great; he will ever be immersed in the ocean of Atmananda, blissfully unaware of the world around him, far above and beyond its coils.

This is the discipline called Brahma-abhyaasa, that is to say, the ever-present exercise of remembering the basic Brahmam of the Universe, praying to the Form-ful Aspect of that Brahmam, speaking of His Glory, being in His Company and living always in His Presence. That is why the Panchadasi says, "Thath chinthanam, thath kathanam, anyonyam thath prabodhanam, ethath eka param thwam cha, Jnanabhyaasam vidur budhaah". "Thoughts dedicated to Him alone, speech devoted to Him alone, conversation centred on Him alone, this one-pointed existence is referred to by the wise as the Discipline of Jnana". This is the lesson taught in the Gita by Krishna. "Math chiththaa mathgatha praanaa bodhayanthah parasparam, kathayanthi cha maam nithyam thushyanthi cha ramanthi cha". "They fix the mind on Me, they survive only because they breathe me, they inform each other about Me, they talk only of Me, they are happy and content with these only". This ceaseless thought of the Lord is also referred to as Brahmachinthana or Jnaanaabhyaasa or Atmaabhyaasa.

The mind pursues exterior objects only either because of the pull of the senses or because of the delusion caused by superimposing on the external world the characteristics of permanence etc. So it has to be again and again brought back to travel to the correct goal. Next