Shri Atmananda's teachings - 4. Witness of thoughts (Tennyson quote)

[Guest guest]

Dear Ananda,

 

Thank you for that marvelous quotation from Alfred Tennyson:

 

"... a kind of waking trance, I have frequently had, quite up from my

boyhood, when I have been all alone. This has generally come upon me

by repeating my own name two or three times to myself, silently, till

all at once, as it were out of the intensity of consciousness of

individuality, the individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade

away into boundless being; and this not a confused state, but the

clearest of the clearest, the surest of the surest, the weirdest of

the weirdest, utterly beyond words, where death was almost a

laughable impossibility, the loss of personality (if so it were)

seeming no extinction, but the only true life ..."

 

 

Regardless of our verbose theoretical discussions, it is 'real-life'

accounts such as this of higher states of consciousness which mean

the most to me. Even if we interpret such states somewhat

differently - and it is not clear to me that we do - I can

nevertheless share your enthusiasm for these fascinating and vivid

accounts. I have no doubt that the experiences are real, and they

started with the Rishis, if not earlier. The rest of our discussion

is mere interpretation of these raw experiences.

 

Benjamin

[Guest guest]

Do Plants Have Soul ?

 

 

 

There is a difference of opinion among the scholars on the issue, "whether

plants bear soul."

Amongst others, motion and growth are the features of soul. My body cells make

me move and grow. Therefore, One can feel the presence of soul in me. Even if I

am unable to move, due to some incapacity like paralyses etc, you can say that I

possess soul because of growth. Hairs, nails and cells keep on growing. Same is

the case with plants. They do not move because of their natural feature. But

they do grow, respirate, excreate, reproduce therefore they can be considered as

bearing the soul.Then the querry will arise regarding absence of features like

repulsion, attraction, pains and sorrows in plants. It is true that plants can

not speak. It appears that they are continuously doing good to the society but

never speak about their contrib-ution. We can not deny it. A person sitting in

Samadhi, who has attained the complete state of a Yogi is not disturbed by any

good or bad news, not even by the pains and sufferrings of surgery by a doctor.

But you can not say that he is a soul-less

body. Mahatma Narayan Swami Saraswati was the president of SAPS in 1930s. He

underwent a major operation without anesthesia. The doctors were surprised. They

querried Swami ji about this. Swami ji replied,"A yogi has to control his prana

(breathing). He has to develop a sense of superiority over the body and its

organs. That is possible if you firmly believe that soul is the master and body

is just a servant. I am a soul, not a body. Body may feel pain or pleasure but

these are meaningless for me i.e. soul."To such a Yogi of high stature, who

don't feel any pain, pleasure, atraction or repulsion, you can not say that he

is soulless. Of course soul is there but like a tree, he is continuously

contributing for the well being of the society without showing such disturbing

features.Another important aspect - whatever we do is either due to natural

compulsion or due to greed (selfishness). An Indian Soldier kills a Pakistani

intruder because of compulsion to safeguard his country. We

breath and cause killing of minutest living creatures in air, that is also

under natural compulsion. We will have to breathe to survive. We have no better

alternative. If one kills an animal for his food, whereas he can have better

alternative remedies, he is said to have committed violence. If I eat vegetables

and fruits obtained from plants, it is not called violence, of course it has

caused the killing of living body. But this is under compulsion.Plants do not

speak, that is also under compulsion because they have not been provided with an

organ to speak. That is why they can not express all those things which a normal

human being or an animal can express. Science also believes that living kingdom

consists of (1) plants and (2) animals. Both have some common features and some

distinctive features.

— Vimal Wadhawan

 

 

 

 

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