Acharya Mahaprajna
Pure consciousness is life's greatest blessing. There is no greater achievement in life than this. Any impurity in consciousness renders all achievements meaningless. The basic source of life's purity is the purity of intellectual awareness.
Levels of Consciousness
There are various levels of our consciousness, the most common being that of sensory consciousness or awareness through the senses. There is a special layer which helps develop the power of intuition, making prescience, future knowledge and secret knowledge possible. A more developed layer relates to the state of trans-sensory or super-sensory consciousness. It needs no external props or stimuli. The soul unfolds itself as pure consciousness. Guilt is absent from both intuition and super-sensory consciousness. However, common or sensory consciousness through which we get to know the external objects allows both possibilities of the presence and absence of guilt. Given a favourable environment, consciousness remains guilt-free, but in an adverse or unwholesome environment impurity infests consciousness.
Unsteady or Distracted Consciousness at Work
The entire thing has been very systematically dealt with in the science of Yoga, where various states of the intellect or the instinctive mind have been described. It can be dull or foolish, unsteady and fickle. Acharya Hemachandra and others have also discussed it. Today, if we look at society as a whole, we find that it is unsteady consciousness, which is mostly at work. A fickle mind is a sign of unsteady consciousness and the latter provides ample opportunities for distortions. The possibility of distortion is minimum or nil in a state of steady and concentrated consciousness.
The Reason Lies in Mental Distraction
If we analyse human behaviour on the twin axes of fickleness and steadfastness, we find that in the latter state not only guilt but all other abnormal mental states come to an end. The presence of fickleness and unsteadfastness is a fertile ground for abnormal states is consciousness, including guilt consciousness and it can lead a man stray. Thus the biggest cause of crimes is unsteadiness or fickleness of the mind. Unsteadiness admits of different degrees. It can be light, medium and intense. The first does not result in much harm, the second opens up increasing possibilities of harm and the third results in total harm.
Guilt Consciousness: Its Basic Reason
Use of intoxicants, depression, etc. are instrumental in accentuating crimes. Being better acquainted with them, we tend to pay all our attention to the instrumental factors and neglect the basic cause. By concentrating on the latter, we shall discover the ineffectiveness of the instrumental causes and will get greater success in transforming ourselves; the basic cause in unsteadiness of mind, which has to be overcome.
Let us study the present-day society. It abounds in fickleness. The reason is that the conscious mind is positioned not in the upper region of the body but near the navel. Diseases and mental aberrations are a direct result of the positioning of consciousness near the adrenal glands. It is the basic cause of criminality. It is vital to know where one's consciousness is positioned - upwards, in the middle or downwards. At present, it is active in the lower region, which is not characteristic of a good society.
Therefore, if we make a real effort to find out the basic cause of criminality, we will find that it lies in the downward movement of consciousness and in its staying there. Medical science tells us that the region below the navel is under the influence of the Pingala (in Yoga, the right of three vessels of the body running from the loins to the head). It adversely affects mental peace and the purity of consciousness. Herein lies the basic cause of criminality.
The Instrumental Causes of Crimes
Let us think about the instrumental causes. One of the important causes of crimes is under-develop-ment of the brain. People with damaged and retarded brains lacking the power to think are prone to criminal activities.
Mental agony also encourages criminality. The WHO set up a committee to probe into the problem of crimes and methods of taking drugs and intoxicants. The findings of the committee reveal how intoxicating drugs command a worldwide market. Of course, since antiquity man has been using intoxicants, because depression and intoxicants are close allies. Feelings of scorn, indifference, ostracism, indigence, anguish and agony are usual in social life. They create tension and distress in the mind. Man abhors tension and distress. He has found in intoxicants a way out. These intoxicants do have a certain effectiveness and afford temporary relief to the tense and distressed mind.
Widespread Use of Intoxicants
Not everyone who uses these drugs is insane or unwise. Both kinds of men - wise and unwise - use them. In one of the surveys made during the presidency of George Bush in America, it was found that some two hundred eighty million Americans were addicted to drugs, which included not only liquor but also such strong intoxicants as heroin and cocaine. President Bush made an appeal to renounce drugs and set up a fund of seven thousand eight hundred million dollars to fight the menace. Here was a national disaster of a great magnitude. Now it could not be said that all of these two hundred eighty million Americans were unwise or unintelligent people. They included innumerable educated people and intellectuals. Therefore, it cannot be said that everyone taking drugs is unintelligent, insane and mentally retarded.
Why do People Take Drugs?
The question why people resort to intoxicants has only one answer: quest of peace. Everyone wants to live in a world where all worries and difficulties can be forgotten. There was a time when LSD was the drug of choice for the purpose, since it created an illusion of heavenly joy. It is this illusion of bliss, which draws people to drugs. What can be better for a man suffering from acute stress and tension than such an illusion?
A State of Helplessness
There are innumerable cells in our brain. All our activities are influenced by the vibrations of the karma-sharir, i.e. the body made up of the combination of the eight kinds of Karma. These vibrations affect our mind. There are as many cells in the body as are the vibrations. In fact the human body is an intricate network of billions of neurons and cells. There are separate chambers in the brain for sensations of joy and sorrow. Drugs stimulate the chamber of the sensations of joy resulting in a feeling of heavenly happiness. One who experiences it once craves to repeat the experience and a time comes when the drug addict becomes completely helpless and finds it almost impossible to relinquish it. No one would be so unwise as to advise de-addiction if the feeling of heavenly happiness were permanent. But it is well-known that the results of drug addiction are disastrous.
Two Aspects of Thinking
Indian thought addressed itself to two aspects: one relating to an activity and another to its result. One thing may look very wholesome at first, but may yield a very unwholesome result. Another may appear very unwholesome in the beginning, but may give a very wholesome result. Here is an illustration: Ayurveda has intensively studied substances and their final effects on the users. Thus sugar creates acidity and the emblic myrobalan neutralizes it. Therefore, emblic myrobalan is given to those suffering from hyperacidity. Intoxicants have to be avoided simply because their effect on the users is extremely harmful. In fact all drugs known to produce intoxication have proved harmful.
The Effects of making Drugs
The ill effects of using intoxicating drugs include depression, inactivity, lethargy, confusion and nervous debility. Excessive intake of alcoholic drinks damages the liver. Use of tobacco poses the danger of contracting cancer of the lungs or cardiac failure. In fact, there is no intoxicant, which does not damage or destroy some organ of the body or the other. In practical life, however, use of intoxicants appears quite attractive. In this commercial age of cutthroat competition, unhealthy rivalry and publicity, altruism and human welfare have taken a back seat. The only aim seems to be to dominate the market by any means, fair or foul, promote more and more the consumption of goods produced and earn huge profits.
Crimes and Drugs are a Trade
Both crimes and drugs are big business. In mega cities like Bombay big companies, mills and property dealers take the help of mafia heads to promote their interests. No intelligent citizen ordinarily likes to violate the law and social order, but man breaks laws and transgresses social order when his consciousness gets contaminated. All social crimes like theft, dacoity, murder, rape, etc., are the results of contaminated consciousness. Uncontaminated and healthy consciousness can never resort to them.
A World-wide Problem
Anuvrat is faced with the question: how to prevent crime? Governments do it through penal provisions. States all over the world spend large parts of their budgets on it. In fact, maximum expenditure is incurred only on two heads: wars and prevention of crimes. The magnitude of the problem becomes clear by daily reports of smuggling of arms and contraband.
Efforts to Free People from Drug Addiction
It is impossible to draw people away from addiction so long as their consciousness is infested by it. Coercion and punishment cannot achieve the goal. Only organisations wedded to pure or uncontaminated consciousness can have the potential to start vigorous drives for preventing resort to intoxicants. Anuvrat also undertook the task of freeing people from drug addiction and its many campaigns in this direction yielded some results too. However, it was felt that it was a stupendous task. It becomes almost impossible for an individual to give up habitual crime and addiction. Special efforts are needed to rid people of these evils. Some programmes are underway in Rajasthan to wean away people from taking opium. Similar efforts are being made elsewhere too. Besides other methods, organization of special camps for the purpose is very essential, because such camps for teaching preksha dhyan generally prove very successful.
Concentrate on the Ear
One of our important physical organs is the ear. In the context of preksha dhyan, it is called the centre of vigilance. It is the biggest centre of alertness. Ordinarily, people use it for no other purpose than to prop spectacles. Ear-pulling is now no more than an idiom. In good old days, teachers invariably pulled the ears of erring pupils, but it too is now no longer in vogue. In fact, a teacher would run into all sorts of troubles if he were to resort to ear-pulling. Anyway, the ear is a very important psychic centre in our body. Concentration on this centre is a sure way of ridding oneself of addiction to intoxicants. We will not have to be told to leave liquor, cigarettes or other intoxicants. A chemical process will set in motion by concentration on the psychic centre located in the ear, whereby addiction to intoxicants will automatically vanish.
In the Absence of an Alternative
One of the intoxicants is morphine. Even the medical profession uses it as an analgesic. Recent discoveries have revealed that our body itself produces a chemical called endorphin. As long as endorphin is being produced there is no need of morphine. It is evident that no one wants to live in pain, under distress and tension. One seeks relief from the above conditions and for that he tries to find out an alternative. In the absence of something better, he opts for the alternative of taking intoxicants. Similarly situations arise when major surgery is performed under the influence of anaesthesia whereby artificial insensitivity is induced and the sensations of pain are blocked from travelling to the brain. The patient experiences no pain. Even sleep is intoxication of a sort. Lord Mahavira has treated sleep, sensuality and pugnacity as spiritual apathy or lack of spiritual vigilance.
Method of De-addiction
Crime and drug addiction have their best antidote in an alert consciousness or spiritual vigilance. In this case it means being oblivious of everything and everyone except the ear. When consciousness is directly and exclusively concentrated on the ear, it will be thoroughly purged leading to spiritual awakening, which is the best way of being de-addicted. To repeat, there is only one way to freedom from crime and drug addiction - spiritual vigilance. Indian method of spiritual accomplishment introduced a practice called Ajapajap i.e. silent non-verbalized repetition of a mantra. While undertaking a repetition of mantra, a stage may come when the practice becomes a part of breathing by inhering in it. With the attainment of such a culmination, no conscious repetition of the mantra is necessary any more, for having merged with breath, it goes on incessantly not only when one is awake but also when one is asleep.
An Easy Exercise
One of the exercises of prekshadhyan is called bhavkriya. Whatever we do, we should do in a state of complete awareness. Meditation can last an hour or two, but bhavkriya can go on day and night. All that is required is that no action or activity should be undertaken in a state of spiritual apathy. Whatever is done should be done in a state of spiritual alertness. Crime and drug-taking belong to the state of spiritual anaesthesia. So what we need is a programme aimed at ensuring spiritual vigilance in every individual. Only then shall we be able to solve the present crisis, for it is a course of action, which admits no alternative if we want to seek a permanent solution to the problems of crime and drug-addiction. Homeopaths, acupressurists and ayurved practitioners prescribe ways of getting rid of drug-addiction. But the exercise of spiritual vigilance is so simple that by adopting it, one can transform consciousness without the aid of medicines or physicians.
Moral Blemish Removed
Once during one of the prekshadhyan camps, there came a handsome young man from Assam and joined the camp. After practising dhyan for three days, he said, 'Maharaj, I was a hard drunkard, but today I do not know what has happened so that I have developed an aversion for alcohol and have resolved to give it up for ever.' Later on, his friends expressed their amazement at such a radical transformation of a man who was an incontinent addict to alcohol. Later still, his grandfather came and told us that the young man was, before joining the camp, a dark blot on the family's fair name and that they were extremely grateful to us for removing that dark blot. We were unaware of his addiction, nor did we ask him to give it up. Like all other participants, we had asked him also to concentrate on his ear and it brought about such a major transformation.
The Best Method
An important exercise for transforming consciousness is focussing total attention on the psychic centres. We should dislodge the consciousness from near the navel and let it move upwards respectively to the Centre of Bliss (Thymus). Centre of Purity (Pharyngeal plexus), Centre of Vigilance (Sense-organ of Hearing), Centre of intuition (Pituitary), and Centre of Wisdom (Cerebral Cortex). As consciousness moves higher and higher, the propensity for crime and drug-taking shall come to an end. We should find a way of uncovering and purging our consciousness, so that it settles in the upper region. This is the best method of ridding consciousness of criminality.
