G: I don’t feel very comfortable writing to you so soon after my previous email… impatience? No, I’m not doing it out of impatience, it seems to me…
S: Never feel bad about writing, we are always here to help if we can.
G: Anyway, I’ll get to the point: my mind is overwhelmed by voices of diminishment and the resulting depression. It happens when I’m alone, and I’m often alone. You told me, in our Zoom meeting, that it’s fortunate that I’ll soon be moving closer to my family, and I agree with you. But it takes a lot more to defeat those negative and depressing voices… right?
S: Yes, indeed. I spoke about this in my last email to you. Maybe you missed it, but it was actually the most important part of my reply to you:
The first thing to keep in mind is that you are not unique in this. Everyone in the grip of Maya has some version of this tape recording on repeat running in their mind. Shame—the idea that we are unworthy, unlovable, bad or whatever else—is a universal samskara. It is what we call ‘free-floating anxiety,’ and it comes with the idea that you are a person. The only solution to this agonizing mental/emotional fragmentation is to follow the steps above.
These are:
1. See the pattern objectively; accept it for what it is without blame or shame. Do not deny it. It will be the same version of what has been playing in the mind for a very long time.
2. See the gunas at work – rajas and tamas. Apply the guna teaching – see how each guna plays out in your story and which one (or ones) dominate. Discriminate between Consciousness, YOU, and the jiva.
3. Recognise that this is just a recording your mind made up based on ignorance that is simply not true. Not from the relative point of view as a jiva, and certainly not as the Self. These are the voices of rajas and tamas, fear and denial, and you do not have to listen to them.
4. Say NO to them!  You can do it – there is no law against it because the voices speak in the words that seem to describe you personally, but they are not personal!
5.  Ask yourself: Am I the witness of these voices, or am I these voices? Which one am I? You cannot be both. Visualize yourself switching the recording OFF. And keep doing this for as long as it is necessary. Aim for sattva with determination.
G: Grounding oneself in the Self, of course, and then using the tools of Vedanta.
Sundari: Yes, take a stand as Awareness, the witness of the one who apparently has a story of shame, low self-esteem, guilt, and the voices of diminishment.
G: 1) I ask you something: when you recommended to me – in addition to No skipping and No shortcuts – also Sweetness of the Heart, did you perhaps also mean something at the “mithya level”, that is, an attitude of clemency, of forgiveness of the jiva towards that child who grew up with so many voices of Diminishment in his head?
S: Yes. Any dealing with the jiva persona is at the mithya level because you are the Self, Satya, the one who knows the child and its history, the ‘adult’ and its story of psychological/physical suffering. To have and maintain ‘sweetness of heart’ requires compassion for the entity that was/is trapped in the suffering that mithya—the hypnosis of duality—imposes on the mind.
We repeat over and over that the essence of moksa is the ability to discriminate between satya and mithya, that which is real, meaning always present and unchanging—the Self, and that which is only apparently real, meaning not always present and always changing—the jiva. And to never confuse the these two orders of reality again. It is not about perfecting the person, though following dharma requires the cessation of all self-insulting habits and tendencies. Heeding the voices of diminishment is one that definitely must end.
Remember that as the Self, there really is only one reality as everything resolves/dissolves in you, Satya. The satya/mithya teaching is a tool to explain what mithya is—only apparently real—and to negate it with Self-knowledge. Not deny it. Just see it for what it is, and know that you are always the witness—purusha/Satya—of prakriti/the jiva—mithya. Whatever the jiva is experiencing, as hard as the karma may be, it is not who you are.
G: 2) Another question: to “drive” those voices out of your head when you can’t read, listen to, or contemplate Scripture, what should you do? Chanting mantras… singing… listening to pleasant music… 🙂
S: If you find you just cannot put karma yoga into practice and nothing else works, chanting identity mantras is a very good option, for several reasons. On the physical level chanting/humming (even if it is just OM) stimulates the vagus nerve, which runs through your vocal chords, and this stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. But most importantly, chanting identity mantras is employing  words in the service of truth about your true nature, at a frequency that stimulates sattva.
G: Luckily, Ishvara recently allowed me to download the Shiningworld satsangs in PDF format. It’s very important to me, as I can’t read the paper version. I’ll try to tag it to find Diminishment or something, but anyway, thank you so much for your attention to this email.
S: I will ask James to send you the files of his audio books.
G: I’ll add – regarding the company and relationships I’ll have living close to my family – a doubt I always have regarding the social life of a seeker.
Pros: Being close to them will ease my mental suffering.
Disadvantages: They are samsari, I won’t be able to share conversations about “satya”.
S: Spending time with family can be tedious at times, but look at it as an act of love. Don’t label them. See your family as the Self. You don’t need to converse with them about the Self. Just be who you are, they will see/feel/know it because the Self knows itself. When the heart is open and the sweetness is there, it broadcasts a frequency just like a radio does.
A pure heart is necessary for a pure mind, and both are necessary for self-inquiry to produce Self-knowledge. To have either requires cultivating sattva. We do this by applying vigilance to every thought and feeling that emerges from the Causal body and takes up residence in the heart and mind. Apply the process mentioned above. We must be ruthless about this because uncontrolled tamas attracts more tamas very quickly, as does uncontrolled rajas attracts more rajas. Before you know it, these two troublemakers are in the driver’s seat of the mind.
Cultivating ‘sweetness of heart’ which please note, always includes gratitude, not only makes us feel good because we like ourselves (and everyone else) more. Life becomes very grim when there is no sweetness and no gratitude available. But it also gives rise to peace of mind, sattva. And while feeling good, peaceful, sattvic is not moksa, it is the springboard for it. Freedom from those voices of diminishment and the whole jiva program will not occur in a mind run by tamas and rajas, enslaved to those inner demons.
So yes, pay attention to your heart as much as your mind, from the perspective of the Self. Do not allow those voices to be your judge and jury. Press the OFF button, one thought at a time. Vigilance is the price of freedom.
G: Thank you so much, dear Sundari. It is truly a great fortune to have met you and Ramji, and also the Shiningworld sangha that I had not sufficiently recognized and appreciated before.
S: I am happy to be of help. It is indeed grace that you found Vedanta, appreciate it’s value and being properly taught. Give yourself a pat on the back, you are doing far better than you give yourself credit for.
Much love
Sundari
