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The self-conscious human being
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Swami Suddhananda |
Now let us get back to the body, the sense organs,
the brain and the consciousness. In the presence of the
consciousness, the perceptions take place through the brain, sense
organs and the body. Suppose nothing is named for us and the human
body is as static and rotating like a radar, then only all
perceptions shall take place, as long as the body radar is
functioning with the brain motor fitted into it. Either of the one
is destroyed, then there shall be either dismal functioning or no
functioning. One machine is dead.
But the engineering of the Cosmos seems to be a
little more intelligent, where the robots - the human beings - are
not only conscious, but also self-conscious. That arrangement is
provided and that is the greatest doing and undoing of the human
beings.
The experiences are gathered from the childhood
onwards and are recorded in the brain. The child behaves just like
any other animal – totally instinctively without being aware either
of his own individuality or the body. But that innocence, instinct
or ignorance doesn’t last long.
Now, when the body is hungry, just not any type
of food shall do - but the food must have a definite taste, colour,
warmth and aroma and crispness too!
Here exactly is the beginning of the complication
or may be the culmination. The moment the ‘individuality’ shoots in
as ‘I am hungry’ and ‘I want this and this variety of food, etc.,
etc. No more the hunger is appeased. It is not the thoughts that
need to be satisfied. If the hunger is to be satisfied, just two
pieces of bread are enough, but if the thoughts are to be satisfied
the whole creation is not enough. The poor body or the poor little
stomach has to accommodate to the needs of the mind and naturally
man eats and overeats. In the process, the human beings become the
only species in the animal kingdom where we see either the oversized
or under-sized people – rarely a trim body!
As even food is for the stomach, which has to be
satisfied through our tongue and in the process the various tastes
are recorded in the brain, of course, all out of a definite need for
survival, all other experiences like sound, touch, forms or colour
and fragrance are effortlessly experienced.
They certainly add to our living in a lovely and
lively world, but certainly sounds, forms, colours, touches like
hard and soft, warm or cold and the fragrance do not keep the human
beings alive. Yet they add to the living and when the individuality
comes up as ‘I experience’, ‘I see’, ‘I hear’, etc., now no more the
experiences happen effortlessly but I, the individual, try to create
a world of my own to suit my thinking and I love to live around –
definite sounds – like Carnatic, Western, classical, old movie songs
or Vedic chantings, definite touch like hard or soft bed, cold or
hot water, definite forms like – bright colours or of different
shades of colours, definite tastes like south Indian, north Indian,
Chinese or French cuisines, alcohols or wines or soft drinks and
definite fragrance like a particular flower or a particular perfume
etc., etc.
Now if one sits down to think how many types of
sounds, touches, forms and colours, tastes and fragrances make this
creation – that itself is good enough to drive the man crazy, but
the poor or strong individuality strives all along to satisfy his
own thoughts. That ‘I’ or the individuality who owns up all the
recorded experiences is absolutely unessential, a false entity, an
outsider with nowhere to go. All experiences were gathered in its
absence and suddenly it comes from nowhere to own it up all and run
the show with such feelings that as though experiences must be
gathered for its sake and ‘it’ can create its ‘own’ world, while all
along carving out a portion from the vast creation, which anyway was
there, in ‘its’ absence and shall continue to be there also in it is
absence. And that’s the one, the ‘I’, the ‘individuality’ which is
now afraid of death and dismissal. Nothing happens because of the
‘I’, the individuality, yet it seems to have taken up the whole
thing – just like a mafia gang, a fanatic religious sect, a
professional politician or a despotic ruler.
The country was prosperous, the business
prosperous or the people were cultured even in the absence of this
gang. Suddenly, from nowhere, a group comes and tells them, “for the
efficient business management and protection, we shall be there to
help you; to take care of your soul we shall pray for you; to look
after your needs the government machinery will be there”.
Don’t we feel and don’t we know that the world
shall be far better in the absence of such unwanted, self-imposing
horrors of men? So also, within our thoughts – the records of all
experiences through the brain, sense organs and the body in the
All-Pervasive presence of the Consciousness – this unwanted intruder
is ‘I’, the individuality.
It need not be, therefore, the experiences to
take place. But now it has taken over and it wants the world to be
true to its thoughts, instead of the thoughts being true to the
present experiences of the world!
That does not mean we can allow ourselves to
continue in a primitive world of no better arrangement. No, never!
Our thoughts must be there and we should be able to think further
and see the physical realms in our thinking, to make the world a
more beautiful place to live in. It is more for the world’s sake and
in the process, for my own sense organs and mind to revel in them.
Really things must be done totally out of a fulfilment but never out
of a need as there is no individuality there, either to revel in it
or regret it. Naturally, it calls for a mind highly sensible that
never thinks in terms of destruction or harm to others.
Thus, we can see our disappointments, our
dejections, our whims and fancies, our needs and fulfilments are as
meaningless as the ‘I’, the individuality. Hunger is natural. Food
also is available in the world. If somebody does not get it, it is
because either somebody else has grabbed it all or this man has
moved away from natural surroundings, where it is easily available.
One interesting observation, as my guru used to
say: this creation is like a five-star, establishment, perhaps an
all-star guest house. As even in a five-star guest house every need
of the guest is provided for, in this vast creation everything too
is provided for.
Each of the natural urges has a natural
fulfilment, provided for by nature or God. Man has ears to hear and
there is sound available. There are eyes, and forms and colours are
provided. There is a tongue and there is taste and there is hunger
and there is food. There is a nose and the fragrance is provided
for. Whoever has brought about it, has certainly taken care of all
the needs thinking that man shall enjoy his stay here. But, oh, man!
How capable he is! Under the reeling spell of ‘I’, the
individuality, and it is thoughts, he wants to grab more than the
body can accommodate, more than the hands can hold, more than the
legs can cover in a stride! If God created man, man created the rich
and poor!
Man is moving away from the natural surroundings
of riverbeds, jungles, seashores and mountains to a concentrated
population of a megalopolis, where there are concrete jungles, food
coming out of cans, water coming out of tap, light coming from
switches, milk coming from bottles and mutton is a vegetable wrapped
in papers! Can a man have more wrapped up thinking! Even as a child,
we are moving away from Nature and these essential things are no
more available for anyone, plenty and free as in a jungle or in an
agrarian economy, but only for dollars, pounds and rupees.
So, man! If you want any essential thing, have
money and all doors shall be open for you! All foodstuffs are yours,
all vehicles are yours, your mansion is well-lit and certainly money
lights it all up! Then naturally what exactly one should pray to? It
is money. No more the money is an inanimate thing, but an all
powerful Being, who we pray to! But the paradox is that the money
itself is just a servant. The moneyed man wants food from the field
and electricity from the river waters! Money cannot bring light as
even it cannot bring darkness. But in today’s world, it seems as
though it is happening. Man is reeling under hunger and thirst, all
because money has become more important in today’s civilisation.
Money is the new God. Economy is God and to keep it floating,
millions of tonnes of wheat can be dumped in the sea and the world
market is kept balanced allowing the hungry man to go down the
drain!
Economists and politicians are the new priests
converting every other man to their type of ‘ism’ or if it is
already a professed faith or religion, it goes to the mass with the
money in hand – to convert them all. Money or the economy has become
man’s religion and those who uphold it with free enterprise system
are called capitalists, and those who prefer to satisfy the
fundamental needs of the man first by providing food and shelter are
termed Communists.
In the capitalist system where there is freedom
of thinking, the common man is neglected, unable to keep pace with
the oil barons, steel magnates or sophisticated professionals. And
in case of the Communists, certainly they strive to bridge the gap
at the physical level. But there the ideal of equality is extended
to the thinking which creates havoc as there is no limit to thinking
and man shall not be really free unless he is allowed to think
freely.
And between the two competing factions, now the
world shall face yet another faction – the so-called religions where
God is ‘a’ form, or ‘a’ person’, the creator, not the Creation
itself, and they shall be the fanatics who shall destroy both the
subtler religious thoughts of man as well as the importance that is
laid on the material thinking.
The tragedy is they shall use the material
prosperity to destroy the world as even they are destroying or
distorting God, the Reality, the Truth, in the name of a personal
deity with a fanatic adherence to one and only form or, as some do,
by denying ‘God a form’.
The world shall not be safe in either of the
hands. It shall be safe where either all people ‘know’ or
‘understand’ the true nature of God, which is the truth or meaning
of ‘I’, the individuality, or in the hands of a set of people who
have known the truth of themselves and rule the world – not to gain
anything more or to lose anything. They are full and complete in
themselves, and they know that to be the truth or the essential
nature of all. Therefore, there is no necessity of war,
subordination, colonisation and warring factions.
Every man must live and must live to understand a
greater purpose of life than just to strive for food and more food,
either for the stomach or for the eyes, ears, skin, tongue and nose.
The thoughts play havoc not by themselves, but in
the presence of ‘I’, the individuality – who wants every experience,
demands every experience. First experience of our life was always
because the object was available, not because ‘I’, the
individuality, demanded it.
First, ‘I’, the individuality, was not there. The
thoughts of the object of experience can also not be there without
experiencing it in one way or the other – i.e., by seeing something
or listening to something, etc.
Thus, thoughts by themselves cannot create
problems especially so in relation to thoughts of sounds, touches,
forms or colours, tastes and fragrances, as the fulfilment of such
thoughts do not contribute to our remaining alive here even though
they make the living a little more lively.
Thus, hunger is a natural, gross, physical demand
at the level of the body and we cannot overcome it without
fulfilling the demand for food. If by chance any one had done it, he
may be exceptional, but certainly, the world is not meant to be that
way. Now the body must have food. The food must be for body’s sake,
but not for thought’s sake.
Many varieties of thoughts shall be there
suggesting the varieties of food that can satisfy our hunger. Those
thoughts are fine. May be we are more informed. Nothing wrong in
knowing about varieties of food neither it is a crime for the
thoughts to come up when hunger also comes up. Rather we should know
all about our body, its various needs, the types of food necessary
and the simplest as well as the sophisticated way of finding it out.
And then decide to choose the effortless way for feed the stomach.
But when the body needs less fat, less protein, the man is busy
satisfying his thought by eating oily and fatty food and ends up
with various disorders of the body.
(To be continued)
Swami Suddhananda
Samvit Sagar Trust
Tiruvannamalai
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