No one relishes the state of mind in which there are highs and lows. Rather, what everyone keeps seeking is a state of total freedom or perfect bliss. This state is most commonly found in deep sleep, where for some time one is uninvolved with mental states, relationships or the senses and their objects. Since no one can sleep all the time, a person is urged from within to find some solution in the waking state of consciousness.

However, without a Guru, or guide, one will never obtain the information through which full freedom can be attained.

The cause of human suffering and degeneration is the unevolved condition of the human mind, in which feelings of fear, despair and arrogance arise, along with a bit of hope and love.Because of this unevolved condition, a person begins to fight with his own mind. Therefore, the information given by an enlightened being, or Guru, is that for some time, the mind must be gently released from its relationship with objects.

It is the mixture of the mind with various objects that creates human suffering, and meditation is the most effective means of consciously disengaging the mind from its objects. How? In meditation, the mind becomes settled, and peace comes. Why? Because at that time, the senses are not directly engaged with their objects. Generally, a human being is poorly placed in that his mind helplessly follows his eyes, ears, and all his senses towards their objects. But Guru says, "Embrace the mind and love the mind, and then you will not be bothered by your own mind or anybody else's. In this way, you will not hate any person, including yourself.

If you study the mind, you will notice that various changes are experienced whenever the mind associates with its senses and with forms. This is because things, senses and the mind all exist in the field of change. But the same mind also believes in and hankers for something which is unchanging. Therefore, to create a situation where the mind can be free from the distraction of the senses, we give it a very beautiful and lyrical thought with which to associate. We love the mind, please it, and help it by giving it that thought which leads it to the unchanging source of all changes.

Up to this time, the mind has been busy flirting with all forms just to know its own source, the unchanging reality that is its own state of peace. But if the mind remains busy associating only with objects, it will only know the field of change. Thus the mind will remain uneasy, restless, and dissatisfied, identifying itself with all the changes and saying, "I am changing." Once we have understood this tendency, we can easily follow Guru's knowledge and advice and begin to whisper "Amaram Hum, Madhuram Hum," the symbol of the unchanging existence. This mantr is a sound that releases the mind from the objective field of change and attaches it to its own unchanging source or truth which is "I am immortal and I am blissful; I am the Self, ever free."

 Guru's information is twofold. To the mind, he says, "You are immortal and blissful," and to the Self he says, "You are always free." Whenever the Self regains its original voice, the Self, as Guru, gives the mind this same information: "You are immortal and blissful, the very state of freedom." Thus the mind is sent back to embrace the Self, which is its own true nature. Later, when the mind returns to its ordinary function of relating through the senses, it returns with the knowledge of its true Self, the very essence of bliss, perfection, freedom and immortality. During the period of meditation, the mind comes to know itself as the unchanging Self, without beginning and without end: perfect freedom.

In the waking state, the mind can only know itself as a constantly changing entity, with a definite beginning and a definite end. This is the mental state of duality. However, with each meditation, the mind ascends through a doorway that is so fine that even the senses cannot pass through, and reaches its own home, the infinite and all-permeating source of all. With this knowledge, and with the repeated practice of meditation, the dualistic sense of the mind is transformed into the vision of Oneness.

The one who emerges is a free being, one who has escaped the grip of the senses. With practice, the mind of such a being becomes fully evolved or developed, irrigated by the vision of Oneness. Thus the mind flourishes, knowing its true nature, now and always, forever free.