Reasoning is a very powerful tool used by our mind to know that which is not directly apparent to our senses. Can we use logic to know everything – even those that cannot be perceived by our senses?
Ancient Samkhya philosophers of India answered in the affirmative. They tried to explain everything that is around us as well as all that that is not directly apparent. While they accepted the Vedas as valid authority, they did not take recourse to them to arrive at their conclusions. They even said that the concept of God is not necessary to explain our world. Everything can be explained by reasoning alone!
I have discussed the Samkhya way of arriving at the conclusions in my book “Important missing dimensions in our current understanding of the Mind” in detail. Here, I will only summarize the relevant points. Their arguments were something like this.
1. All material entities can be traced ultimately to 3 basic Gunas namely Satwa, Rajas and Tamas. These three are the source as well as driving force behind all material entities.
2. Material entities are inert and insentient. They neither have a will of their own, nor can they experience pleasure and pain.
3. Their existence and functioning have a definite purpose.
4. Since they themselves are incapable of experiencing the pleasure and pain caused by them, there has to be some sentient entity that can use them.
5. This sentient entity cannot obviously be material.
6, Samkhya calls these sentient entities as Purusha or souls.
7. A living being is a combination of material entity and a soul which is not material.
Coming to our subject of interest, namely the Mind, the Samkhya view is something like this.
1. There is a gross body made up of gross organs. These organs mainly include sense organs like eyes etc., and action organs like hands etc. And a gross mind that is also deemed to be an internal organ – Antah Karana.
2. There is a subtle Mind comprising of
a) Indriyas that control the gross organs.
b) Manah that coordinates between these Indriyas and indirectly controls the gross body.
c) Ahankara that gives a unique identity to the living being. This is the so called ‘I principle’.
d) Buddhi that acts as a repository of knowledge, one that asserts discretion, and the one that guides the Mind in taking right decisions.
The soul interfaces with the gross and subtle Minds through Buddhi. Unlike the gross body and subtle Mind, the soul is non material and is sentient. The soul is the real user of the entire body/Mind paraphernalia.Body and Mind are just tools used by the soul. Depending on its choice, the soul can either choose to enjoy the world using the body and Mind, or use them to break free from all bondages.
Presence of the soul motivates the body to act since it does not have any free will. At the same time, the soul which is otherwise blissful and omniscient, gets influenced by the body/Mind and can get deluded.
When the soul is deluded, it arrogates all actions of the body/Mind as its own and experiences pleasure and pain. But when it decides to liberate itself from the clutches of the body/Mind, it shrugs off all influences as well as the lures of the body, and once again attains its ever blissful and omniscient state.
Samkhya calls this process of shrugging off as the ultimate realization. And the companion school of Samkhya, namely the Yoga charts a step by step methodology to reach that end.
Naturally, Yoga is a way of getting liberation from the illusive identity created by the body and Mind. It achieves that using first the body and ultimately the Mind. That is why it is said
“Mind is both the cause of bondage and suffering, as well as the means to put an end to all the suffering”.
As many people tend to interpret, Yoga is not about uniting anything with anything else, it is just a way of soul realizing itself. It is a way of coming out of all delusion caused by the body/Mind, that is the cause of all miseries.
Let us continue our discussion in the next episode.
A series revolving around Mind – Science of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Notions of reality, Mind modulation, Domains beyond Mind, and so on. © Dr. King 2019
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