The Science of the Inner Life 1- 4 & 5. by Swami Krishnananda

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Friday, December 24, 2021. 8:00. PM.
1.INTRODUCTION : 4 & 5.

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4.THE SOUL AND ITS CHARIOT :

The conscious principle within is the lord of the chariot. The body is the chariot, the intellect is the charioteer or the driver, the mind is the reins, the senses are the horses, the objects of the senses are the roads. This chariot is useful either to drive down or drive up. The body is dragged by the horses of the senses in different directions. The driver is responsible for the movement of the chariot, and this is the intellect, which can either understand or misunderstand, and consequently either ascend with the chariot to the Abode of Vishnu or fall down to the mortal state. Whatever is done through this body, consciously, is done, ultimately, by the intellect. It is the principle of egoism, desire, activity, birth and death. It is the factor which brings pain and pleasure, unity and separation. The doer or the enjoyer is a strange mixture of consciousness, mind and the senses, because, independently, none of them can be either a doer or an enjoyer. This shows that doership and enjoyership are illusory; their constituents have no independent existence. The knowledge of this chariot and its contents is to be obtained before attempting to drive the chariot. One whose intellect is bad and uncontrolled, whose mind is weak and impure, cannot control the horses of the senses, and they will run riot in different directions. He does not attain to the Supreme, but enters Samsara. One whose intellect is steady and brilliant, and whose mind is strong and pure, can control the horses of the senses, and drive the chariot to the supreme state of Vishnu, and is never born again, having reached the Highest Consummation of life.

5.THE GRADATION OF THE CATEGORIES :

The objects of the senses are grosser than the senses, which, again, are grosser than the subtle rudimentary principles which actuate the senses. The subject which is characterised by the senses is always superior to the object which is bereft of consciousness, because the subject is subtler than the object. Only that which is subtle can pervade and comprehend what is gross. The mind, however, is subtler than even the subtle principles which preside over the senses, because the mind is the synthesising agent and the real operator behind the diverse sense-functions. The mind is nearest to consciousness and, hence, it has the greatest power over all that is an effect and that which is inferior to the mind in subtlety. The mind is naturally fickle in character, and hence, it is not useful to the individual in acts like steady knowledge of anything. The intellect is subtler than the mind, and it is free from the fickleness which the mind is infected with. Intelligence in its aspect of determination is found only in the Buddhi or the intellect. The highest faculty of knowledge in the individual is the intellect.

The intellect, however, has certain defects, in spite of its being the most precious possession of an individual. The intellect always functions on a dualistic basis. It can have no knowledge except by connecting the subject with the object. Unfortunately, contact is not the way of acquiring perfect knowledge of anything. This means that the intellect cannot have perfect knowledge, unless it ceases from working on the basis of duality. With duality there is no real knowledge and without duality there is no intellect at all. Therefore, perfect and complete knowledge is not given to the human being. It is only the cosmic intelligence or the Mahat-Tattva that can have complete knowledge, because it is free from the perception of duality. It is the collective totality of all principles of intelligence in the universe, and, therefore, outside it there is nothing. The cosmic intellect is not the understander of anything external to it. But it knows itself as complete in itself. Thus, the Mahat is superior to the individual intellect. The Mahat is characterised by omniscience, and omniscience necessitates the acceptance of a cause of omniscience. This cause of even the Mahat is called the Avyakta which is superior to the Mahat. The cosmic intellect exists buried in a potential condition in this Avyakta. In fact, the Avyakta is not an existent something but only the possibility and the explanation of the appearance of the Absolute as cosmic intelligence, etc. Superior to the Avyakta is the Purusha. The Purusha is the same as Brahman, beyond which there is nothing. This is the Supreme Goal.

The Purusha is described as the supreme destination of all the individuals. The word 'destination' may give rise to a doubt that it is possible for one to move towards the Purusha, even as a person may move towards a town or a village. In the case of movement towards a place, destination has got its literal meaning, but, in the case of the attainment of the Purusha, it has only a figurative meaning. The Purusha which is to be attained is not different from the one who attains it. It is the knowledge of the Self which is signified by the word, destination. Movement is an action, and knowledge is not action; in movement we have to do something; but in knowledge, we have to do nothing. A literal movement towards the Purusha is not possible, because external to the Purusha there is nothing. Movement is the function of the Pranas, the senses, the mind and the intellect. But knowledge is not the property of any of these. Hence knowledge is different from movement or any kind of action. If one can go to or move towards anything, one can also come back from it. Action always implies reaction. But the Srutis declare that there is no return to mortal experience after the attainment of the Purusha. This shows that the attainment of the Purusha is the same as existence which is eternal, and not an act which is temporary. The Sruti says, "They go by the pathless path", which means that the path to perfection is not like a lengthy road situated in space but a state of consciousness within. It is quite obvious that one cannot have the awareness of oneself through any amount of external struggle, even as a sleeping person cannot know himself except by waking into consciousness.

The Atman is subtler than every conceptual being. Therefore it does not shine before the organs of knowledge. The cognitive organs can know only what is grosser than themselves and not what is subtler. This Atman is beheld only by the subtlest condition of the intellect, viz., the steady intelligence of a Sattvika character in which alone the consciousness of the Self can be reflected. The Atman is known only by the most careful seers who have the subtlest sense of perception and the most acute and penetrating intelligence freed from the shackles of desires and actions. In fact, even the principle of the creator of the universe, himself, is an object when compared to the Brahman-consciousness. Therefore, even the creator is less than Brahman. The knowers of the Atman constitute only a minority of the individuals, because of the difficulty of the transfiguration of oneself from mortal experience in the world to nonrelational Absolute-Experience. The principle which is nearest in subtlety to the Atman knows it the best and those that are subtler know it better. The senses have the least knowledge of the Atman. The mind has a better knowledge of it. The intellect knows it still better. The cosmic intellect supersedes even the ordinary intellect in knowledge. It is the cosmic intellect that has omniscience, because of freedom from the obstructions of objectivity. The state transcending omniscience is the Absolute or Brahman.

NEXT : 6. THE PROCESS OF WITHDRAWAL

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