Tuesday, October 03, 2006
The Second Consolidation
‘What impels us to sinful acts against our own will, as if by some higher force?’
[Gita Chapter III – 36]
We need another pause to recollect all that we discussed since the First Consolidation.
Our start point was a commitment to reduce the misery in this world. Our effort is directed at coming out of misery ourselves on a permanent basis. Our inherent joy would then have a ripple effect and we would become the cause of joy for others.
The Architecture of Mind
While the seed of misery is the mind, the root of misery lies deeper than the mind itself. The real problem is in the nature of the mind.
The mind as described in our scriptures is called antahkarana.
Antahkarana has three distinct components, manas (mind), buddhi (intellect) and ahamkaar (ego). Each of these components has its peculiar characteristic.
Mind has strong likes and dislikes. It is like a magnet with two poles – Raag & Dwesha. It forever seeks pleasure but hates that which does not leave a pleasurable experience. Raag is a force of attraction towards that which is pleasing while the other pole, Dwesha, causes repulsion for that which is unpleasant.
Buddhi has a single characteristic – avidya (ignorance).
Ego’s characteristic is Asmita (false identity).
Each of these characteristics, Raag, Dwesha, Avidya and Asmita are technically called klesha (stains).
Due to our being unaware of the ways of the mind, the kleshas take over; just like it happens in any office or work place, where, in the absence of higher directions or supervision, the subordinates start doing things as per their own understanding. The mind thus operates on its own, assumes control and the system goes into an auto-mode.
Taking Back The Control
The root cause of all our problems is avidya. Because of ignorance about being automatons we have been denying the manifestation of the negativities and defend whatever our auto-mind does for us. These are the manifestations of avidya and ego working in tandem. So the first thing is a little resolve:-
Not to defend what our mind is doing.
Not to justify its actions and thoughts.
Remain enthusiastically inquisitive to enquire beyond our current level.
Why People Behave The Way They Do?
Each human being is a peculiar combination, an individual on account of the three Gunas.
Prakriti or Nature, is woven in three threads, each thread representing a guna. The totality of the three gunas – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, remains constant, in harmony with the principle of conservation of energy. Each person has his peculiar and individualistic secret combination of the three gunas, a carry forward of the karmas from the past.
The three gunas are dynamic and are always competing for supremacy. When sattva increases the other two are correspondingly reduced, and likewise for the others. A state of equilibrium is, however, always maintained.
While the kleshas of the antahkaran (raag, dwesha, avidya, asmita) determines what a person would do in a given circumstance, i.e. determine the direction of his action, it is the guna which will influence the result of the action. For example, a child left unattended with a bowl full of chocolates will be driven by his raag to eat the chocolates, even though he may know that these chocolates are not meant for him. The predominant guna, from the sattva – rajas - tamo configuration, at that point in time will determine his response when asked who took the chocolates? A sattva - predominant personality will speak the truth with complete disregard to the consequences, a rajas - predominant personality will weigh the possible repercussions and articulate his response to minimize his risk. A tamo - predominant personality will not hesitate in telling a lie.
The gunas, in other terms determines the fruit of the action. The gunas drive the Karmic cycle.
The Long and Short of It
We have discussed only nine terms since our First Consolidation:
Antahakarana with three components – mana, buddhi and ahamkaara.
Each component had its peculiarity – raag - dwesha, avidya and asmita, which determine how a person will act in a given situation, in other words, these define a personality.
The individuality is determined by a peculiar combination of the three gunas – sattva, rajas and tamas, which keep the karmic cycle rolling.
Is it asking too much of ourselves to understand just nine terms?
If we can do it we can conclude that sattva prevails in us;
If we pend the effort to understand all this to ‘sometime later’, than it is indicative of rajas;
If we continue to live in the make believe world that we can do without this knowledge than it is tamas manifesting;
And if we hate enquiry into this field altogether it would reflect that avidya and dwesha, supported by asmita are at work.
[Note: If you can take the trouble of reading Gita Chapter XIV at this time, i.e. immediately after going through this blog, you can experience a high like never before. Gita will suddenly appear so comrehensible, like never before.]
Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamay
(May we move from darkness towards light.)
****************************************************************
[Gita Chapter III – 36]
We need another pause to recollect all that we discussed since the First Consolidation.
Our start point was a commitment to reduce the misery in this world. Our effort is directed at coming out of misery ourselves on a permanent basis. Our inherent joy would then have a ripple effect and we would become the cause of joy for others.
The Architecture of Mind
While the seed of misery is the mind, the root of misery lies deeper than the mind itself. The real problem is in the nature of the mind.
The mind as described in our scriptures is called antahkarana.
Antahkarana has three distinct components, manas (mind), buddhi (intellect) and ahamkaar (ego). Each of these components has its peculiar characteristic.
Mind has strong likes and dislikes. It is like a magnet with two poles – Raag & Dwesha. It forever seeks pleasure but hates that which does not leave a pleasurable experience. Raag is a force of attraction towards that which is pleasing while the other pole, Dwesha, causes repulsion for that which is unpleasant.
Buddhi has a single characteristic – avidya (ignorance).
Ego’s characteristic is Asmita (false identity).
Each of these characteristics, Raag, Dwesha, Avidya and Asmita are technically called klesha (stains).
Due to our being unaware of the ways of the mind, the kleshas take over; just like it happens in any office or work place, where, in the absence of higher directions or supervision, the subordinates start doing things as per their own understanding. The mind thus operates on its own, assumes control and the system goes into an auto-mode.
Taking Back The Control
The root cause of all our problems is avidya. Because of ignorance about being automatons we have been denying the manifestation of the negativities and defend whatever our auto-mind does for us. These are the manifestations of avidya and ego working in tandem. So the first thing is a little resolve:-
Not to defend what our mind is doing.
Not to justify its actions and thoughts.
Remain enthusiastically inquisitive to enquire beyond our current level.
Why People Behave The Way They Do?
Each human being is a peculiar combination, an individual on account of the three Gunas.
Prakriti or Nature, is woven in three threads, each thread representing a guna. The totality of the three gunas – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, remains constant, in harmony with the principle of conservation of energy. Each person has his peculiar and individualistic secret combination of the three gunas, a carry forward of the karmas from the past.
The three gunas are dynamic and are always competing for supremacy. When sattva increases the other two are correspondingly reduced, and likewise for the others. A state of equilibrium is, however, always maintained.
While the kleshas of the antahkaran (raag, dwesha, avidya, asmita) determines what a person would do in a given circumstance, i.e. determine the direction of his action, it is the guna which will influence the result of the action. For example, a child left unattended with a bowl full of chocolates will be driven by his raag to eat the chocolates, even though he may know that these chocolates are not meant for him. The predominant guna, from the sattva – rajas - tamo configuration, at that point in time will determine his response when asked who took the chocolates? A sattva - predominant personality will speak the truth with complete disregard to the consequences, a rajas - predominant personality will weigh the possible repercussions and articulate his response to minimize his risk. A tamo - predominant personality will not hesitate in telling a lie.
The gunas, in other terms determines the fruit of the action. The gunas drive the Karmic cycle.
The Long and Short of It
We have discussed only nine terms since our First Consolidation:
Antahakarana with three components – mana, buddhi and ahamkaara.
Each component had its peculiarity – raag - dwesha, avidya and asmita, which determine how a person will act in a given situation, in other words, these define a personality.
The individuality is determined by a peculiar combination of the three gunas – sattva, rajas and tamas, which keep the karmic cycle rolling.
Is it asking too much of ourselves to understand just nine terms?
If we can do it we can conclude that sattva prevails in us;
If we pend the effort to understand all this to ‘sometime later’, than it is indicative of rajas;
If we continue to live in the make believe world that we can do without this knowledge than it is tamas manifesting;
And if we hate enquiry into this field altogether it would reflect that avidya and dwesha, supported by asmita are at work.
[Note: If you can take the trouble of reading Gita Chapter XIV at this time, i.e. immediately after going through this blog, you can experience a high like never before. Gita will suddenly appear so comrehensible, like never before.]
Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamay
(May we move from darkness towards light.)
****************************************************************
# posted by Abhay Gupta @ 9:18 AM 
