Is Purity of Mind Needed for Self-Realization?

You don’t need the complete manonāśa - the dissolution (nāśa) of the mind - for awakening, that would be an impossible task. Moreover, through the first Awakening, most of your vāsanā-s will get eliminated because they cannot stand in the light of the Awakening. It is a process. For those for whom there is no gap of time between Awakening and Realization, it is because their mind was almost empty and pure, as in the case of Sri Ramana Maharshi. For some jñānī-s there is a short gap, and for others, it takes even several lives. Once there is Awakening, you don’t bother so much about coming back in the saṃsāra, because you feel that your life is completely taken care of, it is guided, protected. And again the saṃsāra is seen now as the very form of the Beloved, it is not seen as an adverse form.
Swami Atmananda Udasin is a teacher of Advaita (Non-duality) and the Spiritual Head of Ajatananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India. This video is an extract from an open satsang given in Rishikesh, India, on March 6, 2022.
www.ajatananda.org