Hari
OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
We are now undertaking basic technical discourse on
Vedanta. The text forming the basis of these posts is 'Kindle Life'.
The
key points thus far;
There is aatman, the governer of all, within all,
separate from all, pure and everlasting.
There are material conditionings in which the
aatman becomes wrapped
These consist of three bodies (shtuula, suukshma
and kaarana shariira-s)
Each of which relates to one or more of the
pancha kosha-s, the five sheaths (annamaya, praanamaya, manomaya, vijnaanamaya
and aanandamaya)
We
took an overview of the first three of these.
Now let us pick up from the intellectual sheath विज्ञानमय कोष/vijnaanamaya kosha, in which we explore how
this differs from 'mind'.
Referring
to the diagram, it will have been noted that as we rise up the pyramid, each
kosha is 'in charge' of the koshas below it. We all have a concept of
intellectual pursuit being of a higher purpose and requiring 'braininess' - but
we often forget that we are all built with the capability and what matters is
how much exercise we give our intellectual 'muscle'. The Rsis worked hard at
defining the different functions of the 'mind' and the 'intellect'. Here are the
five basics;
Mind is the receptacle for stimuli presented by
the indriyas. Stuff comes in, it gets sorted into its relevant categories and
is passed on to the intellect for assessment and makes decisions as to
responses. Gurudev likens the mind to the receipts and dispatches clerk in an
organisation; it is not his job to take decisions on what is received, it is
only his task to stamp, deliver and issue.
The boss makes the choices and the boss is the intellect. This often
works at lightening speed. We can very often not be aware that we have given
any thought to something because the response has been so rapid. When we are
driving for example. The rabbit running out in front of us is seen (input), the
mind forwards the input to the intellect, which knows from experience and
learning that something in front of a forward moving vehicle is not a good
thing, so needs to make a decision in order to avoid damage to the object in
front; in doing this it may advise the mind to double check for other hazards
(walls, bushes, oncoming vehicles…) before deciding on the ultimate response
which may be any of swerving, braking or just keep going as there is no other
optimum choice. [NB we are not looking here at whether right or wrong, but the
process of each component, mind versus intellect.]
Secondly, remember that mind is a continuous flow
of thoughts. Here, again, we are reminded of the river analogy. Each thought is
like the drop of water in a river. Many
drops gather together, flowing on and on and soon build up a force to be
reckoned with. When there is no barrier, no control on the flow, things turn to
mud, to mayhem and varying degrees of inconvenience or disaster. The key
barrier to a body of flowing water are the banks against which it must run. The
intellect forms the banks of our mental river. Here we find the memory stores
of experience and knowledge which can guide the flow of thinking.
Thirdly, the mind is the seat of our emotions and
tends to sit in the small picture of our life, whilst the intellect can take a
wider view and develop ideas, come up with solutions in order to ease the
emotive quality, thus tempering the drain of excess feeling.
The fourth point is to understand the operational
stance of each. Mind can only operate
within the realm of 'the known'.
Intellect, however, can work additionally in the realm of 'the unknown';
it can investigate and quantify, coming up with something other than what is
physically present. It can contemplate concepts and work in the abstract. Mind
simply does not have the capacity to move beyond the physical whilst intellect
can travel to the far reaches of imagination.
Lastly, and related to the fourth, the quality of
each differs. Due to the river of thoughts, mind is always in a state of flux.
This toing and froing, instability, lends itself to doubt, fear and such.
However, intellect is stable, it takes thoughts and gives them purpose. If we
are in a state of indecision, we are allowing mind to govern; but the minute we make the decision we become more
secure. Decision is intellect. Getting to the decision is mind. Thus we can see
that intellect can be disintegrated into mind again, if a stronger intellect is
met and arguments put forward which question the decision. This is how we
learn!
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The
last of the sheaths is the bliss sheath and we shall look at this plus more
about the shariira-s next week.