Preksha Dhyana: Perception Of Psychic Colours: [0.2] Introduction

Sometimes a person behaves well—he thinks good and acts good. But sometimes he (the same person) behaves wickedly—evil thoughts and evil actions. This conflict goes on and on. And again, frequently we come across someone who earnestly desires to be self-controlled and changes his bad habits, who wants to be virtuous and determinedly get rid of his vices. He resolves to be good, takes vows not to go astrav and makes a determined effort to change his way of life. But alas! the vows and pious resolutions fail to make a significant change in his attitude and behaviour. The innate bad habits do not change nor does the ingrained viciousness disappear. Questions then arise: Why does this happen? Why is the same person sometime virtuous and sometime vicious? Why does one's mood, thought and behaviour change so often? Whv does self-control fail to make one a good man inspite of his earnest desire? Why can't the behavioural pattern of a man be changed by vows and resolutions? Psychologists have tried to answer these questions, but they are not able to give full satisfaction. This is so because psychology does not probe deep enough. The doctrine of leśyā ^[1] alone provides a satisfactory answer to this complex problem of human behaviour.

One would have expected that a strong will-power should be enough to eradicate bad habits from one's life-style and when this does not happen, one wonders why. The fact is that man's attitude and behaviour are not simple mental functions which can be regulated and changed at will or by will-power alone. The impulsive forces which demand appropriate action to satisfy the urge are not produced by the brain. A pious resolution may, therefore, repress or suppress an evil urge but is not potent enough to destroy it. And the repressed impulse simply goes 'underground' in the subconscious part of the mind, continues to fester there, and resurfaces with more vigour later on. Until one finds a potent weapon which can destroy the evil impulsive forces, one cannot achieve a lasting change of behaviour. Higher levels of consciousness achieved by perception of psychic colours (leśyā dhyāna) have the desired potency. Once the impelling forces of the evil urges are transmuted, there will be no need to resort to repression or suppression.

Modification of behavioural patterns of an individual can be brought about by modification of leśyā. Benevolent lesya transmutes the forces from vicious to virtuous, while malevolent leśyā does the opposite. Both are transmutation of impulsive forces and not just the regulation of behaviour. The transmutation is a phenomena of the micro-universe (bhāva jagat) where the emotion-producing forces are generated. Leśyā deals with the prime-mover of the primal drives. Change in leśyā, thus, can change the fundamental personality factors of a person. And when the attitude activators themselves are changed, attitudinal change automatically follows, and finally the behavioural modification takes place. It is clear from the above discussion that the fundamental change in man's behaviour does not take place at physical or mental level but at a very much more profound level where the emotions are generated. That is the level of leśyā. The question then is: How can one find and reach this level? What mode of transport could take one there so that one can achieve attitudinal change and behavioural modifications?

Naturally, the starting station of this journey is one's physical body and the transport is provided by the electromag­netic radiations, particularly that portion which is known as 'colour' (visible spectrum). Colour is known to exert profound influence on a person's attitude and behaviour. Perhaps no other primordial force has so profound an influence as colour. Its effect extends from the gross external personal behaviour to the subtle emotion-producing impulsive forces within and the range of its influence covers the micro-world of leśyā also. Colour reigns supreme not only over the entire physical universe but many facets of the psychical one also. By deciphering the secrets of colours and unravelling the mysteries of their profound influence on the mental states and behavioural patterns of a person, one can obtain a potent tool to purifiy the vitiated and distorted tendencies of man.

Earlier it has been mentioned that there are benevolent lesyas as well as malevolent ones. There are three dark leśyās: kṛṣṇa, nīla and kāpota and also there are three bright ones: taijasa, padma and śukla. the dark ones are malevolent and the bright ones are benevolent. Dark black, blue and grey are the colours of the three malignant leśyās. When a person is under the influence of these leśyās, his mental tendencies will be vitiated by cruelty, hate,jealousy and irrational fear. On the other hand, under the influence of three benign leśyās, the vitiated tendencies are purified and transmuted into compassion, love, fearlessness and bliss. Bestial urges would vitiate and distort one's mental state when he is under the dark black colour, the colour of malevolent kṛṣṇa leśyā. A hundred sermons, a thousand pious resolutions, diplomatic training—none of these would prevent him from behaving wickedly. The dark impelling forces would be so powerful that the reasoning mind would be unable to exert any control over his speech and action. The malevolent leśyā would first generate the bestial urges and instincts. Instincts would produce feelings and attitude. Finally they would demand an appropriate action. Thus the sequence will be: leśyā→urge or impulse→f'eeling→attitude→ thought→ action. It can be seen that whether one wants to or not, he is bound to behave wickedly. Subsequently he may regret his action and feel sorry for himself.

In short, so long as one is under the influence of dark black, blue or grey leśyās, he would continue to attract and assimilate from the environment radiations of corresponding colour. His reasoning would be overwhelmed by the evil urges and his thought, speech and action would also be wicked. On the other hand, when one has been able to transmute the malevolent leśyās and is under the influence of benevolent taijasa, padma and śukla leśyās, all psychological distortions—hate, fear, cruelty etc., would be eradicated. Ti ansmutaion of leśyā will result in the harmonization of neuro-endocrine secretions. This will immensely strengthen his capacity of rational thinking and conscious reasoning. There will not be any need for repression or suppression. Rational judgement, will resolve the conflict of instincts. Dangerous compulsive force would either be nullified or creatively utilised.

Concentrated perception of psychic colours (leśyā dhyāna) as discussed in the subsequent chapters is the means of transmuting leśyā. When kṛṣṇa, nīla and kāpota leśyās are transmuted to taijasa, padma and śukla leśyās, then and only then, one can achieve attitudinal change and behavioural modification.