Acharya Mahaprajna
The Daily Rising Kashmir
The inner realm needs to be known to enjoy peace in life
Physical and mental health can be viewed externally, but emotional wellbeing is an internal matter. Many things going on inside us are known to us. We do not know much about what is at the root of such things. The principle of Prekshadhyan is to see the soul by the soul. It simply means - have an internal trip and see the goings on there.
We have put a lot of burden on the mind - a lot more than what it can bear. Who is putting this burden on the mind?
A close examination of the above question will open window to the inner world and thence on to the vast world of inner happenings. We presume that X is good while Y is bad; one thing is agreeable, another disagreeable, and A is a friend while B a foe. Who makes these presumptions? It is not the function of the mind, for its functions are confined to remembering, imagining and thinking. Where does the presumption come from? Its source is the world of our emotions. We have not paid as much attention to the world of emotions as we have to that of the mind. The real agent or source lies in the emotional world.
The original source is the soul. It is the soul’s animation that flows out. Around the soul the first circle is that of the karma sharir (a body made up of the combination of the eight kinds of karma) from where the vibrations emanate. One of the circles is that of sukshma sharir or tejas shaier (made upon the aura and light radiation). In it the vibrations coming from the karma sharer take shape and turn into psychic colours and a stream of emotions, which enter the hypothalamus, a part of the brain. Only after that do they affect the mind. The mind in itself lacks animation. It is the emotion which animates the mind. Prekshadhyan has considered at length the difference between the mind and the subtle or activating mind. The mind is lifeless. It cannot be a director. It is directed by emotions. Emotion is an instinctive awareness. The vibrations of instinctive awareness together with those of the sukshma sharir become emotions which direct the mind.
These days a lot of emphasis is being put on psychiatry. Medical Science does not give as much importance to the psyche as to the mind. Carl Jung gave more importance to the former. It opened a new chapter in psychology. Both the Jain philosophy and the Patanjali Yoga philosophy also put a lot of emphasis on psyche. Anger, conceit, deceit, crookedness, fear, greed, hatred and lust are all parts of human life. They dwell inside a man and are not visible externally. These feelings are active in the psyche and manifest themselves through the medium of the mind. The expression ‘mental feeling’ is indicative of the fact that the psychic drives force themselves on the mind and are experienced as mental feelings. Both literature and poetics deal with them comprehensively.
Our life is an endless struggle. In another context, Charles Darwin used the expression ‘struggle for survival’. That struggle takes place externally, but even in our inner world, there is a constant struggle. According to the Philosophy of Karma there are two words: Audayik Bhav and Kshayopashamik Bhav. The latter means ‘constant struggle’, where the former increases self-conceit, anger, simulation and dissimulation, jealousy etc. Its only function is to nourish these perversions or distortions. The function of Kshayopshamik Bhav is to assuage or remove these perversions, not only to suppress anger, self-conceit etc., but also to encourage and nourish modesty, uprightness etc. These two tendencies are always at war with each other. While one of them is the soul’s pure stream, the other is its karmic stream. Both are working within us all the time.
People ask, ‘Why should we practice prekshadhyan? We should do it because we have to strengthen that stream or inclination of the soul which has in it peace, non-violence, reconciliation, integration, friendliness and coexistence, and have to weaken that stream or inclination which produces disquiet, wars, terrorism, agitation. Modern thinkers hold similar views. The United Nations Organisation says in its Constitution, ‘Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.’ These words have become very famous. Some two thousand five hundred years ago, Mahavira also revealed the same truth. He said that weapons are often kinds, the tenth among them is the inclination of the self. Wars, conflicts, violence are first born inside us and it is only later on that they manifest themselves externally.
The external world is manifest, the inner one is non-manifest. According to the Sankhya Philosophy, the earth is odorous. Where is the odour? Well, the earth does have an odour, but it is not manifest. If water is poured over it, fine scent comes out of it. The world of our mind is manifest while that of our inner feelings is non-manifest. Most of the things first happen in the inner world and then manifest themselves. It is like the foetus, which is growing inside the womb before being delivered. Our sense organs function externally and so we give importance to external events and disregard the inner happenings. One who has tried to understand the theatre of inner happenings (hypothalamus, in the language of medical science), is fully knowledgeable about what is happening and where. However, it is not enough to know. What matters is bringing about a transformation.