We were talking about the preset impressions that all of us are born with. Patanjali calls it Avidya or wrong knowledge.
How does this Avidya cause problems?
In the previous episode we saw how our notions of beauty and ugliness are not really based on reasoning. They are driven by deep rooted mental impressions. They can shift our focus from the real purpose of these preset impressions to the mere ‘baits’ that surround the core of these impressions.
If we could see through the baits laid in each case, probably we would not unduly get attached to someone merely because of our notion of beauty. We may see the real purpose behind these baits and avoid falling into the traps of ‘raga’ and ‘dwesha’.
‘raga’ is unjustified attachment to something that we consider pleasant. ‘dwesha’ is compulsive aversion to something that we don’t consider as pleasant. It could also be dislike towards something that comes in the way of our having what we are attached to.
So ‘raga’ and ‘dwesha’ ensue from ‘Avidya’ or wrong knowledge. It is not just about beauty or attraction to the opposite sex but also our unfounded attachment or aversion to anything in the world.
Avidya also has other aspects. It confuses the body to be our real self. The body is material in nature. It is transitory and perishable. Whereas our real self or the soul is non material and eternal. But we normally take ourselves to be the body.
So, whatever the body does, we think we are doing it. Patanjali calls it asmita – the wrong notion of ‘I’. Instead of identifying ourselves with the soul, we associate ourselves with the body, which is impermanent and prone to misery.
This misplaced ‘I’ binds us to various false identities and unending series of encumbrances. We take pride in what we do or acquire. We grieve when we fail. We slog to amass wealth, keep a family, maintain a position in the society, wield power and so on.
All our activities revolve around this misplaced self-identity. In reality, all these identities should have been associated with the body and not our true self or the soul.
Over attachment to the body makes us crave to continue to exist forever in this body or at least in a new body when we die. Desire to continue to exist is one of the strong desires in all beings that associate themselves with a body. Patanjali calls such a desire as abhinivesha.
Patanjali terms avidya, raga, dwesha, asmita, and abhinivesha as Pancakleshas or five hindrances that delude us from our true ever blissful state. They take us away from our real nature and make ‘us’ suffer.
All these five are due to the deep-rooted impressions in our mind that are hard to erase. Though samadhi succeeds in freeing us from these impressions momentarily, they overtake us once again, when we come out of Samadhi.
That is because the mind that was calm during samadhi will be back to action when we come out of Samadhi. The impressions were momentarily rendered inactive but not erased. They come into action once again when the mind starts functioning.
That is the reason why we revert back to our routine mixed state – happy sometimes, miserable at other times. We cannot sustain the peak blissful state whose glimpse we had in samadhi.
Before you jump to the conclusion that all these ideas are some kind of negative way of looking at things, let me clarify.
Unlike the Buddhists who considered these preset impressions as our enemies, the Vedic Indians did not consider them to be so. They considered them as a basic mechanism that helps us in our worldly endeavors if and when we choose to. Just discarding the body was never their purpose.
They said that one has two options – either to enjoy the world using the body and the mind, or to attain that blissful state that is beyond the body and mind.
Prudent approach would be to enjoy the world without losing sight of the real purpose and functioning of various ‘baits’ laid by the mind. That needs one to always be aware of one’s true nature – as a master of a tool and not subservient to the tool. In this case, the tool we are referring to is the body and the mind. And the soul is their master.
If you can keep that awareness, the preset impressions don’t threaten you and you would be ever blissful.
But that is easier said than done. The preset impressions are so powerful that they overtake you sometime or the other. So, how does one overcome them once for all?
We will see that 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, Swami Satyapriya 2019-2020
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