The Higher Mind and Mumukshutva: The Longing that Leads to Liberation

Question

You spoke about mumukshutva — the longing for liberation — and also mentioned the lower and higher mind. Could you please explain how both these—lower and higher—relate to mumukshutva?

Answer

We all know our own mind very well. Because we know it, we can easily divide it into two parts.

Let’s look at our own experience. Ten or twenty years ago, our mind used to stay busy only with trivial things — eating, sleeping, having fun. We had no concern for knowledge; we didn’t even know what true knowledge meant. That state of mind — always revolving around food, pleasure, and comfort — is called the lower mind.

As long as we remain in that lower mind, we can never attain anything higher.

But if, at some point, we come into the company of truth — sat-sanga — if someone guides us, or we read a good spiritual book, then our lower mind begins to move upward.
Moving upward means turning toward knowledge.

So, the fact that today we are here, listening to and reflecting on knowledge — this shows that our mind is no longer in its lower state. It has become the higher mind.

If our mind were still lower, we wouldn’t even care to sit here or spend time learning. The very urge to turn toward knowledge is a sign of the higher mind.

Now, from this higher mind, we have to go still higher. At present, there is still some impurity in the mind. So yes, it’s higher — but not yet in the Vijnanamaya Kosha, the sheath of wisdom.
When, through satsang and knowledge, the mind becomes completely pure, then we can say that we have entered the Vijnanamaya Kosha.

Question

And where does mumukshutva—the longing for liberation—fit into this?

Answer

Mumukshutva arises in the higher mind.

It means that as we keep studying and reflecting on knowledge, as we gather it within ourselves, a new inner longing awakens — a desire to truly attain Self-knowledge, the ultimate goal of life.

This is what mumukshutva means — the hunger for knowledge, the thirst to reach the goal, the deep wish for moksha.

And remember, moksha here doesn’t mean leaving the body or escaping the cycle of birth and death.
It means: “When will I realize my true Self? When will I become one with the Divine? When will I unite with the Supreme?”

So, the higher mind gives rise to mumukshutva, and that mumuksha energy keeps us inspired and moving toward our true purpose.

That’s the central message of the story:
Stay in the company of truth, let your mind rise higher; in that higher mind, mumukshutva will naturally be born — and that longing will lead you to your final destination.

Thus, Shabari in the story represents this very mumuksha-vritti — the longing within the higher mind for the realization of the Self.