Saturday, February 23, 2008
Chanakya wrote Arthashastra, in which he described various strategic placements of the troops to besiege the enemy. During battle, the Army would array its troops in a particular manner. We, too, in the field of spirituality and religion need some specific kind of strategic arrangement. The 'mohaniya karma' (deluding karma) renders our psyche unconscious or ignorant. It has its own strategic arrangement.
The aim of preksha meditation is to break the array of mohaniya karma and emerge from its trap. The two elements which besiege our consciousness are the 'feeling of ego' and the 'feeling of mine'. These two regulate the array. The entire strategic arrangement is built under the authority of these. The greater the feelings of ego, the more are problems and miseries.
The feelings of ego create their allies and form their own strategies. Attachment and hatred are born of them. When we are infatuated by someone, attachment develops and the feeling of hatred develops for one we dislike. Attachment and hatred have their own world and they, too, are the creators of their own world. The products of their creations are 'kashaay' and 'nokashaay'.
Anger, pride, delusion and greed are the creation of attachment and aversion, as also are fear, loathing, lust and sorrow. All are born of attachment and hatred. 'kashaay' literally means to paint in one's own colours. The hues of 'anger' or 'greed' may imbue one's consciousness and hence render it impure. A coloured glass prevents us from seeing the true colour, and makes the entire world appear to have the colour of that glass. The function of kashaay is to lend a colour to our consciousness. The existence of kashaay ensures instability and activity of the mind, speech and body.
The fundamental principle of preksha meditation lies in the world of emotions. The system of preksha meditation is not built upon the mind because the problems related to the mind are secondary; the prime factor is the emotional world. All knowledge depends on the world of emotions. Spirituality means to know the world of emotions. He who reaches up to his emotions is spiritual.
Mind, speech and body are all structures of the external world, but emotions are internal. This implies that the mind is regulated by emotions, not emotions by the mind. Our entire effort is not just for solving the problems of mind, but primarily for solving our emotional problems.