There is constant growth of wisdom after the commencement of spiritual adoration, or worship.Scholars of great erudition have ascribed four stages to this process,
they are
brahmvitt, brahmvidwar,
brahmvidwariyan,and brahmvidwarisht.

The mind of an ordinary man is some how different to these stages.Brahmvitt is the mind that is embellished with knowledge of the Supreme Spirit (brahmvidya).Since at the beginning this wisdom is endowed With knowledge of God, it is called brahmvitt.

Brahmvidwar is that which has achieved excellence in such knowledge.Gradually, as evil impulses are subdued and the knowledge of God is enriched, this wisdom is said to be brahmvidwar.

As it ascends yet higher and gets more refined, it comes to be known as brahmvidwariyan. Rather than just achieving distinction in the knowledge of God, brahmavidwariyan is the mind that has turned into a medium for the dissemination of the knowledge and for guidance to others who wish to go along the way.At this stage, the sage who is blessed with knowledge of God also achieves the capacity to bring others on to the way of spiritual growth.

Brahmawidwarisht represents that last stage in which it is flooded with consciousness of the adored God. The highest point of wisdom is brahmvidwarisht, that state of divine inundation in which the spirit of God flows through it like a crystal current.

The mind has its existence until this stage, because the God who irradiates it is yet removed from it.The worshipper is yet within the bounds of nature and, although in an elevated state, he is still subject to recurrent birth and death.

When the mind (Brahma) dwells in celestial radiance,
the whole being and its current of thought are awake and alert.
But they are unconscious and inert when they are beset by spiritual ignorance. This is what has been described as brightness and darkness or day and night.These are but figurative renderings of different states of mind.

Even in this superior, Brahma-like state, blessed with knowledge of God and overflowing with his radiance, the relentless succession of the day of spiritual knowledge
(which unites the Self with the Supreme Spirit)
and the night of ignorance, of light and darkness, persists.
Even at this stage maya is still in command.
When there is resplendence of knowledge, insensate beings come to consciousness and they begin to see the supreme goal.
On the other hand, when the mind is submerged in darkness, beings are in a state of nescience (the lack of knowledge). The mind cannot then ascertain its position and the progress towards God comes to a standstill. These states of knowledge and ignorance are Brahma’s day and night. In the light of day the numerous impulses of mind are lit up by God’s effulgence, whereas in the night of ignorance the same impulses are buried
under the impenetrable gloom of insensibility.

Realization of the immutable, unmanifest God, who is indestructible and much beyond the unmanifest mind, is effected when the inclinations to both good and evil, to knowledge and ignorance, are perfectly hushed, and when all the currents of will-the sensible as well as the insensible-that disappear from view in the darkness of night and emerge in the light of day are obliterated.

An accomplished Soul is one who has gone beyond these four stages of the mind.There is no mind within him because it has turned into a mere instrument of God.
Yet he appears to have a mind because he instructs others and prompts them with firmness.But, in truth, he is beyond the sway of the mind’s operation, because he has now found his place in the ultimate unmanifest reality and won freedom from rebirth.
But prior to this, when he is still in possession of his mind,
he is Brahma and subject to rebirth.

Men who have attained to this state enter into and dwell in the Supreme Spirit from whom all mankind is born. The minds of such sages are mere instruments and it is they who are called “prajapati.”

Casting light upon these matters, Sri Krishn says in Bhagavad Gita:
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sahasrayugaparyantamaharyad brahmano viduh
rātrim yugasahasrāntām te’horātravido janāh

“Yogi who know the reality of one day of Brahma
which is of the duration of a thousand ages ( yug)
and of one night
which is also equal to a thousand ages
know the essence of time.”
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In this verse, day and night are used as symbols of knowledge and ignorance. Brahma comes into being when the mind is endowed with the knowledge of God (brahmvitt), whereas the mind which has achieved the state of Brahmvidwarisht marks the crowning point of Brahma. The mind which is possessed of knowledge is Brahma’s day. When knowledge acts upon the mind, the yogi makes his way towards God and the innumerable predilections of his mind are suffused with his radiance.

On the other hand, when the night of ignorance prevails, the mind and heart are swamped with the contradictions of maya between manifold impulses. This is the furthest limit of light and darkness.

Beyond this there is neither ignorance nor knowledge, because the final essence that is God is now directly known. Those yogis who know this essence know the reality of time. They know when the night of ignorance falls and when the day of knowledge dawns,
and also the limits of the dominance of time-the point
to which it can pursue us.

The sages of yore described the inner realm as thought or sometimes as intellect.In the course of time, functions of the mind were divided into four categories which came to be known as mind, intellect, thought and ego, although impulses are in fact endless.
It is within the mind that there are the night of ignorance and also day of knowledge. These are the days and nights of Brahma. In the mortal world, which is a form of darkness, all beings lie in a state of insensibility.Roaming about amidst nature, their mind fails to perceive the radiant God.But they who practice yog have woken up from the slumber of insensibility
and
begun to make their way towards God.

According to Goswami Tulsidas in the Ram Charit Manas, his version of the Ramayana, even the mind possessed of knowledge is degraded to the state of ignorance by evil association. But it is re-imbued with light by virtuous company.This alternation of spiritual ascendancy and decline continues till the moment of attainment.

After realization of the ultimate goal, however, there are no Brahma, no mind, no night, and no day. Brahma’s day and night are just metaphors. There is neither a night nor a day of a thousand years, nor even a Brahma with four faces.

The brahmvitt, brahmvidwar, brahmvidwariyan, and brahmvidwarisht,
four successive stages of mind, are his four faces, and the four main divisions of the mind are his four ages (yug). Day and night abide in the tendencies and operations of the mind. Men who know this secret understand the mystery of time-how far it pursues us
and who can transcend it.

Sri Krishn then goes on to explain the deeds that belong to day as also those that belong to night: what is done in the state of knowledge and that which is done in the obscurity of ignorance?
He says:
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avyaktād vyaktayah sarvāh prabhavantyaharāgame
rātryāgame pralīyante tatraivāvyaktasanjñake

“All manifest beings are born from the subtle body of Brahma at the outset of his day and are also dissolved in the same unmanifest body at the fall of his night.’’
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With the dawning of a day of Brahma’s, that is, with the inception of knowledge, all beings come awake in their unmanifest mind, and it is within the same subtle, unmanifest mind that they lapse into unconsciousness. They are unable to see the Supreme Spirit, but they have an existence. The mind, unmanifest and invisible,
is the medium of both consciousness and unconsciousness,
of both knowledge and nescience (the lack of knowledge).
He adds further:
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bhūtagrāmah sa evāyam bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate
rātryāgame’vaśah pārtha prabhavatyaharāgame

“The beings who thus wake up into consciousness are compelled by nature to relapse into unconsciousness with the coming of night and they are then, O Parth, reborn with the advent of day.”
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As long as the mind persists, the succession of knowledge and ignorance goes on. So long as this continues, the seeker is only a worshipper rather than an accomplished sage.He adds further:
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parastasmāttu bhāvo’nyo’vyakto’vyaktātsanātanah
yah sa sarvesu bhūtesu naśyatsu na vinaśyati

“But beyond the unmanifest Brahma there is the eternal, unmanifest God who is not destroyed even after the destruction of all beings.”
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On the one hand, the mind that is Brahma is imperceptible. It cannot be known by the senses. On the other, there is the eternal, unmanifest Supreme Spirit who is not destroyed even with the destruction of physical beings, or of the invisible Brahma (mind) which gains consciousness with the arising of knowledge and sinks into unconsciousness with the setting of knowledge into the darkness of ignorance.

God exists even after the destruction of inclinations of the mind which wake up in the light of day and fall back into insensibility in the darkness of night. These upward and downward motions of the mind cease only after the attainment of God who is the ultimate abode. With the realization of the Supreme Spirit, the mind is coloured by him and becomes what he is. This is the point when the mind is annihilated and in its place
only the eternal, unmanifest God remains.

And finally Sri Krishn concludes:
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avyakto’ksara ityuktastamāhuh paramām gatim
yam prāpya na nivartante taddhāma paramam mama

“The unmanifest and imperishable God who is said to be salvation and after realizing whom one does not come back to the world, is my ultimate abode.”
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That eternal unmanifest state is immortal and that is called enlightenment (or attainment) of the supreme goal !

Sri Krishn says,

“This is my ultimate abode,
after attaining which one does not return to mortal life
and is not reborn.”

As expounded by
Revered Swami
Adgadanand Paramhans,
most revered Gurudev.

“Humble Wishes”