An Essay on Biography of a Thought by Swami Atmanandaji

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

This article by Pujyaswami Atmanandaji provides insights

on 'thought.' I also recommend other Vedanta articles of Swamiji who

is a disciple of Pujyaswami Chinmayandaji. Swamiji is the founder of

Vedanta Mission, situated in Indore, Madhyapradesh, India. This

Ashram is serving the public since 1995 and this list gets his

blessings. As some of you may know that Swamiji was a member of this

list during the year 1999 and afterward, he started a new list in

. I want to thank Swamiji for permitting me to post

this article to the benefit of the list members,

 

Warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

 

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Biography of a Thought

Swami Atmananda

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……… Thought is `the' most potent, important and also the most

beautiful creation of this universe. Rest is all its play. Thought is

our capacity to be aware of something – subjective or objective.

Awareness of any thing is thought. The physical organ which

facilitates the manifestation of these thoughts is our brain, while

the constant `flow of thoughts' is called - mind. Man is what his or

her mind is. All our interests, knowledge or experiences are

different facets of this mind alone. The Upanishads thunder that

bondage & liberation too are caused only by an ignorant & an

enlightened mind respectively, and not by anything else whatsoever.

 

……… To understand thought is to understand the secret of this entire

creation, and even that which lies beyond all manifestations. To

understand thought is to understand our self – because our present

identity is nothing but a product of our minds – a mere thought, and

so is this big creation too. It is also a product of our minds – like

the dream world, but with some slight difference. Creation is

available for experience only when mind is and fades away into

oblivion when the mind goes into unmanifest state. It will thus not

be an understatement to say that to understand thought is to

understand life.

 

……… Before the birth of any thought exists only the potential

thinker. To be more precise let us say that before the thought of

an `object', exists the thought or awareness of `I' the subject. All

the `objective thoughts' are created & sustained by this thinker. The

moment this `thinker' is not around all thoughts disappear. This is

what we experience in our deep sleep state. Once the thinker

manifests all thoughts are possible. The thinker out of its free will

or conditionings turns its attention on any object, and then we

have `thought' of those objects. Every thought is thus awareness

exuded by the thinker plus the info about the object of knowledge.

Awareness conditioned by the info (like its name, form etc) of any

object is a thought.

 

……… Every thought, thus, has two inherent components :

the `awareness' component & the `info of object' component. Out of

these the awareness aspect is constant in every thought, while the

data aspect keeps changing. Awareness is the very nature of thinker,

and like a focus light it just has to turn it on to any object and a

thought is thus born. When we maintain awareness of an object for

some time then we have the flow-effect, and this flow of thoughts is

what is commonly called the mind. If the flow of thoughts is steady

then we have a steady mind, and if the thoughts pertain to different

objects then we have an unsteady mind. When the thinker exercises its

freedom to decide between any options, then the mind is steady, but

if it cannot decide then we have a vacillating condition. Alongwith

our capacity to be conscious of any object we also have the great

capacity to feel. This is not an independent thought as such but an

added component in any thought. Feelings provide impetus to every

thought, and are also the heart of any cherished experience.

 

……… As every thought depends on us, the thinker, therefore we are

their masters. We sustain them, and in principle have freedom to

subside them as & when we wish. However this freedom may not be

experienced by most of us. This is because while going through our

various experiences of life, we unconsciously bring about lot of

conditionings, which are encapsulated feelings about various things -

in our memory bank, and these have the power to bring about related

thoughts. Depending upon the type & intensity of conditionings we

have the whole gamut of thoughts flooding our minds. Whoever knows

the secret of the process of conditionings knows that we are still

the master, but those who are not aware of this remain a helpless

spectator of flooding thoughts, thus bringing about a vacillating &

disturbed state of mind. To be free of our own conditionings is what

the real freedom is all about.

 

……… The thinker also is a thought. Here also there is the constant

component of `awareness', plus the variable component of `our

perceptions' about `I' the thinker. These perceptions aspect

constitute the so called `identity' of a person, and it plays a very

important role in the whole scheme of things. The awareness aspect

both in the subject & the thoughts of the objects are one, and if we

look at the world from this aspect there is just one all-pervasive

timeless self-effulgent existence. The second component is the one of

change. Whoever directly percieves both these inherent components of

a thought shakes up the very basis of his or life. Not only the world

around is seen with the constant component, but the `I' too is seen

as the eternal, all-pervasive awareness, which keeps changing its

various roles. The changed roles does not effect the basic me, and

thus it really doesn't make any difference. I see myself as the self

of all. I see myself as the very substratum on which this entire

world of change (the transient component) is dancing. This is what

self-realisation is all about. This is what moksha is all about.

Freedom from all limitations, awakening to a timeless state of

Brahman.

Source: http://www.vmission.org/vedanta/articles/thought.htm