The Spiritual Reality
The physical body, being
outside as a part of the physical world, should be considered an object like
the other things of the world, and is constituted of the five elements. It acts
as a vehicle for certain powers that work from within and our actions are
movements of these powers (energy) called the prana or vital
force. But the prana is a blind energy and it
needs to be directed properly. We think before we act. The mind is, therefore,
internal to the prana. We engage ourselves in
systematic thinking and follow a logical course in every form of contemplation
and action. This logical determinant of all functions in life is the intellect,
which is the highest of human faculties, and it is inseparable from the
principle of the ego in man.
All these functions of the
psychological apparatus are, however, confined to what is called the waking
state. The human being seems to be passing from this state to others, such as
dream and deep sleep. Though we have some sort of awareness in dream, we are
bereft of all consciousness in deep sleep. Yet, we know that we do exist in the
state of sleep. This means that we can exist without doing anything, even
without thinking. The condition of deep sleep is a paradox for psychology and
is the crux of the yoga analysis. An experience, pure and simple, of the nature
of consciousness alone, is the constituent of deep sleep. In deep sleep, we
have consciousness not associated with objects, and hence we remain oblivious
of everything external. There is, at the same time, unconsciousness of even
one's own existence due to there being the potentiality for objective
perception. The result is, however, that the deepest in the individual is
consciousness, which is called by such names as the Atman,
Purusha, etc. This is the real Self.
There are realities within the
physical universe as they are there within the individual body. If the prana, mind, intellect, ego and
finally consciousness are internal to the bodily structure, there are also
tremendous truths internal to the physical universe. Within the five gross
elements there are five forces which manifest the elements called tanmatras, the essence of objects behind the elements. Sabda or sound, sparsa or touch, rupa or form, rasa or taste and gandha or smell are the tanmatras of Ether, Air, Fire,
Water and Earth respectively. These powers are subtle energies immanent in the
elements constituting the physical universe.
Modern science seems to
corroborate the presence of these, essences behind bodies. The world was once
said to be made up of molecules or chemical substances and then, atoms.
Research, again, proved that even the atoms are formed of certain substances,
which have the character of both waves of energy and particles of force. A
great physicist called them ‘wavicles' as they
flow like waves and sometimes jump like particles. These have been named
electrons, protons, neutrons, etc., according to their structure and function.
Their essence is force and there is nothing but force in the universe. There is
only a continuum of energy everywhere. The tanmatras of the
yoga system, however, are subtler than the energy of the scientist, even as the
prana is subtler than electricity.
Just as behind the prana there is the mind, behind the
tanmatras there is the Cosmic Mind.
Beyond the Cosmic Mind are the Cosmic Ego and the Cosmic Intellect, the last
mentioned having a special name, mahat. Beyond the
mahat is what is called prakriti, in which the whole universe exists
as a tree in a seed, or as effect in its cause. Transcending prakriti is the
Absolute-Consciousness, called Brahman, Paramatman
and the like. So, whether we dive deep here or there, within ourselves or
within the cosmos, we find the same thing - Consciousness. And the stages of
manifestation in the individual correspond to those in the universe.
The purpose of yoga is to
effect a communion between the individual and cosmic structures and to realize
the ultimate Reality. The yoga places before us the goal of a union wherein
infinity and eternity seem to come together. The aim of yoga is to raise the
status of the individual to the cosmic level and to abolish the false
difference between the individual and the cosmic. The cosmos includes us and
things. The individual is a part of the cosmos.
To regard the cosmos as an
outer object would be to defy the very meaning of the cosmos. To imagine
ourselves to be subjects counterpoised before an object called the cosmos would
be to stultify the comprehensiveness of the cosmos and to interfere with its
harmony and working. The yoga rectifies this mistake and hereby the mortal
becomes the Immortal. As the individual is a part of the cosmos, this
achievement should not be difficult. The individual is not separate from the
cosmic, but there seems to be some confusion in the mind of the individual
which has caused an artificial isolation of itself from the rest of the
universe. This confusion is called ajnana or avidya, which really means an
absence or negation of true knowledge. Here we enter the realms of depth
psychology.
Excerpts from:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?
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