When the Mind Becomes Pure…

When the Mind Becomes Pure…

“When the mind becomes pure, there is no need to chant mantras;
When the mind becomes pure, there is no need to raise the vital air;
When the mind becomes pure, there is no need to restrain the Vasi;
When the mind becomes pure, the mantra itself becomes perfected.”

These are verses attributed to Sage Agastya.

Here, the Tamil word “Semmai” carries meanings such as integrity, absence of mental distortion, harmony, greatness, purity, and beauty.

In other words, when a person, through the grace of the Guru, attains the ability to hold his or her form steadily before the mind’s inner eye, without interruption, the mind attains Semmai—purity and perfection.

Such a mind becomes truthful and upright.
free from constructing mental fortresses through external thoughts,
and has a harmonious state where the outer and inner forms are the same.

It becomes endowed with greatness, purity, and beauty.

This is Manach Semmai—the purification and perfection of the mind.

Once the mind has attained this state, there is no longer a need to separately chant mantras.

There is no need to raise the vital air through practices such as Pranayama.

Nor is there a need to restrain the Vasi through mantra repetition.

Why?

Because the word “mantra” also carries the meaning of creating or awakening a power within the mind.

When the mind has attained Semmai, and that inner power begins to express itself naturally, the external effort of thinking, “I must chant,” becomes unnecessary.

At that point, the Pranava Mantra begins to resound spontaneously and continuously throughout every atom of the body.

This is Ajapa Japa—

not a japa that is deliberately performed;

but a japa that is naturally and continuously happening by itself.

Therefore, when Sage Agastya says, “When the mind becomes pure…,” he is not rejecting external spiritual practices.

Rather, he is pointing toward the inner state of mental perfection to which all those practices must ultimately lead.

When the mind becomes pure,
The mantra becomes Shivam.
The vital air becomes Shakti;
Breath becomes divine.

And ultimately—

The state is revealed in which mantra, mind, and body are not separate from one another.

Śrī Gurubhyo Namaha. 🙏