We may know about the different stages of mind.
How mind differs at different level of spiritual elevations?
How mind of an ordinary man gets transformed with gradual advancement
through
spiritual austerities?

It initiates from the moment when the mind commences approaching the worshiped God.

Scholars of great erudition have ascribed four stages to this process.

If we recall them, they
are
brahmvitt, brahmvidwar, brahmvidwariyan, and brahmvidwarisht.

Brahmvitt is the mind that is embellished with knowledge of the Supreme Spirit (brahmvidya).

Brahmvidwar is that which has achieved excellence in such knowledge.

Rather than just achieving distinction in the knowledge of God,
brahmavidwariyan
is
the mind that has turned into a medium for the dissemination of the knowledge
and
for guidance to others who wish to go along the way.

Brahmawidwarisht represents that last stage in which it is flooded
with consciousness of
the adored God.

The mind has its existence until this stage,
because
the God who irradiates it is yet removed from it.
The worshiper is yet within the bounds of nature and,
although in an elevated state,
he is still subject to recurrent birth and death.

When the mind (Brahma) dwells in celestial radiance,
the whole being
and
its current of thought are awake and alert.
But they are unconscious and inert when they are beset by spiritual ignorance.
This is what has been described as brightness and darkness or day and night.
These are but figurative renderings of different states of mind.

Even in this superior, Brahma-like state,
blessed with knowledge of God
and
overflowing with his radiance,
the relentless succession of the day of spiritual knowledge
(which unites the Self with the Supreme Spirit)
and
the night of ignorance, of light and darkness, persists.

Even at this stage maya is still in command.

When there is resplendence of knowledge,
insensate beings come to consciousness
and
they begin to see the supreme goal.

On the other hand,
when the mind is submerged in darkness, beings
are
in a state of nescience (the lack of knowledge).
The mind cannot then ascertain its position
and
the progress towards God comes to a standstill.
These states of knowledge and ignorance are Brahma’s day and night.

In the light of day the numerous impulses of mind are lit up by God’s effulgence,
whereas in the night of ignorance the same impulses are buried
under the impenetrable gloom of insensibility.

Realization of the immutable, unmanifest God,
who is indestructible and much beyond the unmanifest mind,
is
effected when the inclinations to both good and evil,
to knowledge and ignorance,
are
perfectly hushed, and when all the currents of will-the sensible
as well as the insensible-that disappear from view in the darkness of night and emerge
in the light of day are obliterated.

An accomplished Soul is one who has gone beyond these four stages of the mind.
There is no mind within him because it has turned into a mere instrument of God.

Yet he appears to have a mind because he instructs others
and
prompts them with firmness.
But, in truth, he is beyond the sway of the mind’s operation,
because
he has now found his place in the ultimate unmanifest reality
and
won freedom from rebirth.

I bow down in lotus feet of revered Gurudev for such teachings to me.

_/l\_
Humble Wishes!!!