Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

Good company, good contacts, good deeds and all such good
practices must be acquired in order to eliminate the vasanas.

As you keep on trying, eventually with the ripening of the
mind and with God’s grace, the vasanas get extinguished
and efforts succeed. That is called purushakaram (human
effort). How could God be expected to be favourable towards
you without your striving for it?” said Bhagavan.

Another person took up the thread of conversation and
said, “It is said that the whole universe is God’s chidvilasam
and that everything is Brahmamayam. Then why should we
say that bad habits and bad practices should be discarded?”
Bhagavan replied, “Why? I will tell you. There is the human
body. Suppose there is some wound inside it. If you neglect
it, on the assumption that it is only a small part of the body,
it causes pain to the whole body. If it is not cured by ordinary
treatment, the doctor must come, cut off the affected portion
with a knife and remove the impure blood. If the diseased
part is not cut off it will fester.

“If you do not bandage it after operation, puss will form.

It is the same thing with regard to conduct. Bad habits and
bad conduct are like a wound in the body; if a man does not
discard them, he will fall into the abyss below. Hence every
disease must be given appropriate treatment.”
“Bhagavan says that sadhana must be done to discard
all such bad things, but the mind itself is inert and cannot do
anything by itself — Chaitanya (Self) is achalam (motionless)
and so will not do anything. Then how is one to perform
sadhana?” someone asked. Bhagavan replied, “Oho! But how
are you able to talk now?” “Swami, I do not understand that
and that is why I ask for enlightenment,” he said. Bhagavan
replied, “All right. Then please listen. The mind which is
inert is able to achieve everything by the force of its contact,
sannidhyabala (strength of proximity) with chaitanya which is
achala. But without the aid of chaitanya the inert mind cannot
accomplish anything by itself. Chaitanya, being immobile,
cannot accomplish anything without the help of the mind. It
is the relationship of avinabhavam, one dependent on the
other, and inseparable. That is why elders discussed this
matter from various angles and came to the conclusion that
the mind is chit-jada-atmakam. We have to say that the
combination of chit (Self) and jada (inert) produces action.”
Bhagavan has written nicely about this Chit-jada-granthi
in his “Unnathi Nalubadhi”, verse 24, as follows:
The body does not say ‘I’. The Atman is not born. In
between, the feeling ‘I’ is born in the whole body.

Whatever name you give it that is Chit-jada-granthi (the
knot between the consciousness and the inert), and also
bondage.