By Shri Lakshminarayan Aithal
(Shri Lakshminarayan Aithal has served for over 3 decades in Swami’s institution and is the former Principal of the Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Institutions at Muddenahalli. Inspired by Swami’s direct message to study the Upanishads, he first learnt Sanskrit and then studied the direct works of Adi Shankaracharya and Swami. Sincere perseverance led him to the reality of Aham Brahmasmi and He realized and experienced Swami’s words: “I am God and so are you”. He shares the import of the Upanishadic teachings with us in this series of articles.)
(From the previous two editions, we began a new series of articles in this section entitled Vedanta Praveshika: an Entrance to Vedanta. This is a guided discussion on the essence of Vedanta which shows us how to deliberate and reach the conclusion that we are actually Premaswaroopas and not the mind-body-intellect complex.)
To know the body and organs we have the means of the mind. The mind knows all these objects and there, the mind may be the I-object. Naturally, this doubt may arise. Actually, this doubt is not suitable one. This is because-
I AM NEITHER MIND, NOR EGOTISM.
i) We think that ‘ I am stout, I am a white man, I am a youth, I see, I listen, etc.’
ii) We know that: ‘ It is my body, my eye, my ear, etc. ‘
iii) Body, etc. are the subjects of that knowledge and these subjects are separated from us.
For these reasons it is clearly understood that we are not body, etc. Similarly, we tell ‘ my mind’; therefore, the mind is also separated from me. We can know this by an example of a microscope. A microscope is an instrument to see subtle objects. Similarly, the mind is an instrument. The organs of sense are external instruments( Bahihi-karanaani); and the mind is an inner instrument ( Antah-karanam); and it means that the mind is an instrument of knowledge. An instrument is an inert object alone. We are living beings who use it. Not only that, the mind moves about here and there. When the mind is connected with the organs of sense, then only, we have the knowledge of external things. That is why, sometimes, though the eyes see or ears hear, we don’t understand anything. We tell like this: ‘What you have told? I have not understood clearly. I felt someone has come, it is not clear.’ In that case, the mind of ours has gone somewhere; that is why, we don’t have the knowledge of sound or the sight. Therefore, it is settled that the mind is separate; and I who am watching its movements, is different from the mind.
All right. We use to tell: ‘ I knew, I saw, I heard, etc.’ - in these cases, don’t we get the I-feeling? Is this I-feeling our real form? If this I-feeling is our real form, consideration of many people becomes the right understanding. They consider:’ I am the body and I know through the mind; I use the body and organs of sense. I am in this corner of the world.’ If this I-feeling is the real knowledge; how do we compare this with the previous statement? That statement is: ‘ I-feeling is not the real knowledge; and I am the Supreme Lord who is eternally pure, and who is Awareness and who is Liberated. This is the real knowledge.’ How do we compare these two statements? This objection is natural.
A relief for the objection may be given thus: We use this I-feeling in our daily activities. The I-feeling that appears is not our real form. The above mentioned inner-instrument itself appears in the form of ‘ I’. ‘ I am knowing this through the organs of sense’- this action of knowing is a change in the inner-instrument. The Vedantins call this change as the mind. The inner-instrument appears in the form of me. This change of the inner-instrument is called egotism. I and mind are the changes of the inner-instrument. Therefore, as the mind is separated from us, so the egotism is also separated.
A few points should be noted to know that egotism is different from our own form. In the wakeful state, sometimes, as the mind is not perceived by us, so the egotism is also not perceived. Really speaking, we always involve in the external affairs and the I-feeling never appears unless we purposefully investigate the egotism. Those who set themselves for the investigation of the Reality alone observe “ I-feeling and this feeling ‘. And they alone separate themselves from these feelings. The rest of the people don’t see the I-feeling. When we are absorbed in sleep we never even see the taint of egotism. Still, we don’t consider that we don’t have our own form in the deep sleep. Therefore, this I-feeling appears only in two states- wakeful and dream and the egotism is a means for our daily activities. It is concluded that egotism is separate from our True Form.
(This deliberation on how we are not mind, intellect or ego will be continued in the next few editions of Venugaanam.)
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