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the wayward understand the stable? The Atma is everywhere at all times. It is like milk and its color. It is white, everywhere, at all times, under all conditions, as milk or as buer, cream or ghee. So too, the Atma persists unchanged, however many changes the thing motivated by it might undergo. The Atma contacts the senses of perception and affects the mind; it awakens the intellect to discriminate and decide upon the lines of action. The Atma activates the instruments of thought, speech, action, expression, and communication. The eyes see, but what force prompts them? You may have ears, but who endows them with the power of hearing? Words emanate from the mouth, but what urges us and frames the manner and content of the speech? That force acts like the cells in a torch that provide the bulb with the current to illuminate it. Doctors know that the body consists of cells, billions of them, alive and alert, busy and active. Each cell is motivated by the Atma; it is immanent, all over. The Atma is in each of them, as well as in every spot of space. When we realize it as such, it is experienced as effulgent, total, splendorous light—endless, incomparable, unique light. (SSB)
Weakness of the Mind
Sai Baba described (in Summer Showers In Brindavan, 1990) a number of weaknesses of the mind (distortions and defects) that limit its ability to perceive reality. These and the limitations I listed in chapter 5 show how ill-equipped the mind is to realize spiritual reality.
Distortions
Swami says that the mind is subject to a number of distortions.
• It is unsteady and wavering, causing its impressions to be distorted, as if they were seen reflected in a pool of agitated water. “To control this waywardness of mind, one
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