Level of Inner Consciousness

The Daily Rising Kashmir

Problem of the life cannot be resolved, until the sources of consciousness aren’t cleansed

Scientists are carrying out experiments which can help people to free themselves from alcohol. Liquor is freely consumed but the effects have filled people's hearts with fear. The citizens of European countries, the U.S.A., Japan, etc. have become more vigilant about the consumption of liquor. On account of the ill effects of drinking, many people are trying to get rid of alcohol. They abstain from drinking because it is detrimental to health. Such abstention does not proceed from a spiritual outlook. It may sound somewhat surprising but when smoking was unambiguously declared to be very harmful for health and liable to cause cancer, it created a commotion among the public and in the United States of America alone twenty million people gave up smoking. How very vigilant are the Americans as regards their health! What to speak of spirituality, we are not even vigilant about our own life and health.

In a country like Russia where religion is taboo and where there does not exists any clear conception of it, ways and means are being sought to make people give up smoking and drinking. It is always very difficult to get free of any inveterate addiction. To begin with, a man takes intoxicating drugs for the sheer fun of it, later he becomes addicted to them. The consumption of liquor alone opens the door to all other addictions and these are freely compounded with other evils.

A scientist experimented with giving electric shocks on the ears of certain drug-addicts. These shocks were administered to 70 people. Of these, 50 people developed an allergy to liquor and cigarettes. The remaining twenty considerably decreased their intake of liquor and tobacco. This occurred due to the influence of the psychic centres. The psychic centres do influence an individual's urges and impulses. If an appropriate psychic centre is relined and cleansed, addiction to intoxicating drugs can be eradicated. Similar experiments have been successfully conducted in meditation camps.

When a man changes from within, he also changes outwardly. Let us thoroughly grasp the fact that no change can occur in man at the level of thought. If he could change through intellectual understanding, a man would undergo a transformation alter listening to one discourse. But it does not come to pass. The question arises, why? The, reason is that we are too much dependent on thought, on ideas, and have little inner faith. Intellectual under standing is never very deep. Until we break through to the consciousness within, no real change can be wrought. Character is formed by inner urges. Violence, untruth, and duplicity - all arise from within.

Here's an instance from the life of President Abraham Lincoln. When he was practicing as a lawyer, a client approached him and told him about his case in detail. After studying the case, Lincoln returned the file to the client. The client wanted to know why he was returning the file. He wanted Lincoln to accept his case. But Lincoln said, "May be I can win this case on some point of law, but it is a false case in point of fact. When I stand up in the court to speak, my conscience would reproach me, you’re telling a lie, Lincoln!' it would say. It might even impel me to admit that the case was false!"

 We have before us two levels - the intellectual level at which the case might be won, and the level of inner consciousness at which the case cannot be fought. There are two levels - the level of thought and the level of inward consciousness. Character is not linked with thought; it is linked with inner consciousness, with instincts and passions. Until these are purified, there can be no purification of character. Which means that until the sources of consciousness are cleansed, the problem cannot be resolved.

Man is a social animal. He lives in society. How many emotional changes he undergoes every day! Now joy, now grief, at times hatred, at other times fear and sometimes anger - all these passions manifest themselves. If they are not held under control, how can there be any development of character? This discipline comes from within; its external stations are particular psychic centres. In the terminology of meditation, these are known as the Centre of Enlightenment and the Centre of Intuition; in that of anatomy as the pineal and the pituitary glands. These are the centres which can be used for bringing about a transformation of character. The pineal gland controls the urges and passions. Let us utilize this governing centre fully. Thus we would come to realize how inner consciousness can be purified, and it would also establish the utility of practicing perception of psychic centres.