4th January, 1936

Talk 126.

Dr. Syed again asked: "Should anyone desirous of spiritual progress take to action or renunciation (pravritti-marga or nivritti-marga)?"
M.: Do you go out of the Self? What is meant by giving up? An American Engineer asked about sat-sanga (association with sages).
M.: Sat ^[?] is within us.
D.: In the book "Who am I??" you have said the Heart is the seat of the mind. Is it so?

M.: The mind is Atman.
D.: Is it Atman itself or its projection?
M.: The same.
D.: The Westerners look on the mind as the highest principle, whereas the Easterners think the contrary - why?

M.: Where psychology ends, there philosophy begins. This is experience; the mind is born; we see it; even without the mind we exist. There is everyone's experience to prove it.

D.: In deep sleep I do not seem to exist.
M.: You say so when awake. It is the mind which speaks now. You exist in deep sleep beyond mind.

D.: Western philosophy admits the Higher Self as influencing the mind.