REFLECTIONS ON HUMAN LIFE AND MIND

Reflections on life and the mind prompt a question, "Who am I?." "I-AM-WHAT-I-AM," an aphoristic statement by sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda. He says that the maxim is that our lives and minds, in some way or another, are caged or moulded by our bigoted ideas and prejudices. They are also tremendously conditioned by our worldviews, religion, customs, culture, and linguistic backgrounds into which we are born. All these have no connection with the truths of life. Usually, we do not want to know the truth as it is. As long as our individuality is pre-oriented into a specific family, culture, tradition, morality, and worldview, we cannot break free from this habit. Aspirants must insulate themselves from preconceived and prejudicial notions of life. They need to meditatively search the knowledge of Brāhman (Cosmic Self, or Absolute Existence) through Self-knowledge and realisation. They need to imbibe the virtues by exercising tremendous control over the mind through dispassion, detachment, forbearance, and equanimity. The Srimad Bhagavad Gita (6.6.) clarifies the importance of elevating oneself through the power of one's own mind and not lowering oneself, as the mind can serve as both a friend and an enemy. The Bhagavad Gita (6.40-6.44) stresses that those who pursue the spiritual path do not encounter annihilation in this life or the afterlife. Malevolence never defeats a person who seeks self-realisation. The unsuccessful yogic practitioners, as per the Bhagavad Gita's postulation, following death, ascend to the realms of the virtuous. After living for a long time, they reincarnate into a family of devout and wealthy individuals on the worldly plane. If they had cultivated dispassion through extensive yoga practice, they were born into a family possessing divine wisdom. Such a birth is exceedingly challenging to achieve in this world. The Bhagavad Gita says that by taking such a birth, they reawaken the wisdom of their previous lives and strive even harder towards perfection in yogic practice. Indeed, they feel drawn towards self-realisation, even against their will, because of the strength of their past virtues from previous births. Such seekers naturally rise above the ritualistic principles of the scriptures.

1. Outline

 Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha 3.40.8-3.40.10) makes it absolutely clear that one is not a corporeal body caged in a material frame but rather a subtle spirit. Once one understands this eternal reality, nothing can hinder their journey towards self-realisation. If a person perceives their original spiritual state as comprising the superior half of their body (body, mind, intellect, and spirit), they can navigate any journey as a spirit. But if they rely on their subsequent half of the material body, they can't go beyond it in the form of their intellect. It is because, as Sage Vasistha emphasises (Yoga-Vasistha 3.40.11), the air never rises upward, nor does the flame of fire ever go downward; so it is the nature of the spirit to rise upward, as is that of the body to go downward, but the intellect is made to turn in the way in which it is trained. As is one's knowledge, Sage Vasistha stresses (Yoga-Vasistha 3.40.13), so is his thought, and such is the mode of his life; it is only by means of ardent learning based on the practice of yogic meditation that the mind is turned to the right course.

The knowledge of truth, Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha 3.40.14) contends, can have a course correction of the false belief of rope as a snake, bend of the mind, and conduct in life. It is one's knowledge that gives rise to his thoughts and the thoughts that direct his pursuits in life; this is a truth known even to the young and to every man of sense, avers Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha 3.40.15). In reality, Yoga-Vasistha (3.40.16-3.40.17) says that the Ātman, which looks like a being seen in a dream or made up in the mind, is made of air and vacuum and can't be stopped anywhere along its path. However, the intellectual body, which all living beings possess in every place, is known both by consciousness and by the feelings of our hearts. The intellect rises and sets in turn, guided by the divine will. At first it was produced in its natural, simple, and intellectual form, and then, being invested with a material body, it made the person's unity out of the duality of its spiritual and non-spiritual essences.Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha 3.40.19) aphoristically states that in the earthly dimension one's body is composed of the triple vacuity of the all-pervasive three airy substances—the spirit, mind, and space—and its non-pervasive material body receptacle. The intellectual body of beings, according to Yoga-Vasistha (3.40.20-3.40.21), is like the air, present with everything and everywhere; just as one's desire for knowing extends over all things in all places and presents them all to one's knowledge. It abides in the smallest particles and reaches to the spheres of heaven; it reposes in the cells of flowers and delights in the leaves of trees. According to Yoga-Vasistha (3.40.26), it is the nature of an uninterrupted understanding and looks calm and serene. It has had its intellectual form since before the visible world was made, and because it is as complete as nothingness itself, it knows the natures of all beings.Sri Rama (Yoga-Vasistha, 3.40.28) raises certain queries about the powers of the mind, from all pervasiveness to nullity. Sage Vasistha thoroughly discusses the queries, and Sri Krishna subsequently addresses them in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita (4.42, 6.6). Sage Vasishtha (Yoga-Vasistha 3.40.29) replies that individual minds are endowed with these faculties, except for all such individualities whose minds are engrossed with the error of the outer world. All the worlds are either of a longer or shorter duration, and they appear and disappear at times; some of these vanish in a moment, and others endure to the end of a Kalpa (one day in the life of Lord Brahmā, it is equivalent to one thousand catur-yugas). But it is not so with the mind, whose progress I will now relate to you. For those who have conquered the mind, it is their friend. The Srimad Bhagavad Gita (6.6.) asserts that for those who have not conquered their mind, it functions as an adversary. The Bhagavad Gita (4.42) continues to emphasise, therefore, with the sword of knowledge, cut asunder the doubts that have arisen in one’s heart and establish oneself in Karma Yoga to utilise both wisdom and faith to cleave out the doubts from one's mind. Arise, stand up, and take action! There is an insensibility, Yoga-Vasistha (3.40.31-3.40.33) says, which overtakes every man before his death; this is the darkness of his dissolution. After the shocks of delirium and death are over, the spiritual part of every man is regenerated anew in a different form, as if it were roused from avidya-trayam (three states of insensibility): trance, reverie, or swoon. The Yoga-Vasistha (3.40.33) says that after the world is destroyed so that it can be rebuilt, the spirit of God takes on his three-part form as Brahma and Virat. Similarly, after death, each person receives the three-part form of their spiritual, intellectual, and physical being.

2. Scriptures

The cause of all causes recreates the life forms after death by the reason of our reminiscence, as there is nothing uncaused, says Sri Rama during discourses with Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha 3.40.34). The Srimad Bhagavad Gita (8.5-8.8) equally affirms the same. It says that those who relinquish the body while remembering me at the moment of death will come to me. There is certainly no doubt about this. Upon relinquishing the body at the moment of death, one attains that state, perpetually immersed in such contemplation. Therefore, always remember me and also do your duty by fighting the war. With mind and intellect surrendered to Me, you will definitely attain Me; of this, there is no doubt. With practice, when you constantly engage the mind in remembering Me, the Supreme Divine Personality, without deviating, you will certainly attain Me. However, in the case of gods and others, Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha 3.40.35-3.40.37) elucidates that having obtained their disembodied liberation or videha-mukti at the universal dissolution, they could not retain their reminiscence to cause their regeneration. But because humans' spiritual and intellectual bodies are still there when they die, they don't forget the past and can't be freed for good like Brahma did, unless they reach a state where they don't have a body, which is possible for everyone in this life and the next. This can happen through yoga meditation alone. All other beings experience birth and death due to their reminiscence and their desire for disembodied liberation or eternal salvation. The living soul, according to Yoga-Vasistha (3.40.39), retains its consciousness within itself after its pangs of death are over but remains in its state of insensibility by virtue of its own nature, the universal vacuum, the reflection of the invisible divine mind. It is the parent of all that is dull or moving, which is produced by their reminiscence or absence, which regenerates living things and stops inert matter. The living being, Yoga-Vasistha (3.40.40-3.40.43), asserts, begins to have its understanding of what is called Mahat, or an intelligent being, which is possessed of its consciousness, or Ahankara. The elements, or the Tanmatras, in the voiduous ether give it perception and conception organs. This minutely intelligent substance is next joined with the five internal senses, which form its body and are otherwise called its spiritual body, or Ativahika or Lingadeha. Because this spiritual being has been connected to the senses for a long time, it starts to think of itself as a sensible being. When it imagines having a sensible form, it gives itself a body made of matter that is as beautiful as a lotus flower. Then, seated in the embryo, it reposes in a certain position for some time and inflates itself like air until it is fully developed in the womb, as a man dreams of a fairy form in his sleep and believes this illusion is a reality. He then views the outer world, where he is born to die, just as one visits a land where he is destined to meet his death; and there remains to relish its enjoyments, as prepared for him. But the spiritual man, Yoga-Vasistha (3.40.46-3.40.48), elucidates that he soon perceives everything as a pure vacuum and that his own body and this world are but illusions and vain vacuities. He sees nothing but a sad change in the nature of things, subject to decay sooner or later.

3. Remarks

An aphorism from the Brahma Sutras, Kritsna-bhavat-tu grihinopasamharah' (3.4.48),' states that the life of a householder is integral. Mind has to imbibe Self-knowledge and to become conscious of what is Absolute Truth,  or Absolute Reality.  In his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, the sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda explains how life is one big thing that includes doing your duties with complete devotion and being detached, calm, and forgiving. The integral life is a life of non-attachment on one side and freedom from hatred on another side while cohabiting with others. At the same time, he dedicates himself to uniting his mind with universal relations. The super-mental operation transcends everything the householder does in his social capacity in terms of universal relations. When a person centres their mind on the Universal Absolute, they transcend beyond being a superindividual and become a cosmic individual, also referred to as a Jivanmukta. Sannyasins are respected as God Himself, not because they have a shaven head and have put on the cloth but because their minds are centred on the Absolute Being. Swami Vivekananda in his commentary on this part of Brahma Sutras states that verily, on account of the householder’s life, including duties from all the other stages of life, with the enumeration of the duties of the householder. The Sutra says that in order to lay stress on the householder’s life, to show its importance, the Sruti ends there without referring to Sannyasa, and not because it is not one of the prescribed Ashramas. The importance of the householder's life stems from the prescribed duties of other Ashramas, such as study and sense control, in addition to his own. It includes more or less the duties of all Ashramas. The sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda in his commentary on this part of Brahma Sutras highlights four gradational achievements or attainments conceived in ancient India for the development of the person. The first step involves energy conservation, known as Brahmacharya. The study of holy scriptures, service to Guru, and maintaining self-control are the duties at this stage. The scriptures emphasise duty as the ultimate purpose of life. The fulfilment of the means of personal and social relationships is the duty of a householder. All that the Brahmachari (celibates) did in his individual capacity and all that the householder did in his social capacity are all transcended in the super-mental operation in terms of universal relations. Truly understood, the ideal householder's life is almost a miracle. He conserves energy, like the Brahmachari, in a more widened way. The self-restraint of the Brahmachari is personal and individual. The householder's self-restraint is more difficult because he has to maintain self-restraint personally on the one hand and also be restrained in family relations and the wider human society by restrained behaviour of non-attachment, coupled simultaneously with duty towards everyone in every field of duty.

-Asutosh Satpathy