"Is it only a thought?"

[Guest guest]

(Formatting did not come out on previous post so resending correct version,

hopefully. P.)

 

 

4th February, 1938

 

Talk 451.

 

Mr. S. S. Suryanarayana Sastri, Reader in Philosophy, Madras University,

arrived this night. He had a doubt which he said had been cleared on reading

Sarma's commentary on "Knowledge of Self". The doubt was:

 

How can the world be an imagination or a thought? Thought is a function of

the mind. The mind is located in the brain. The brain is within the skull

of a human being, who is only an infinitesimal part of the universe. How

then can the universe be contained in the cells of the brain?

 

Sri Bhagavan answered saying: So long as the mind is considered to be an

entity of the kind described, the doubt will persist. But what is mind? Let

us consider. The world is seen when the man wakes up from sleep. It comes

after the 'I-thought'. The head rises up. So the mind has become active.

What is the world? It is objects spread out in space. Who comprehends it?

The mind. Is not the mind, which comprehends space, itself space (akasa)?

The space is physical ether (bhootakasa). The mind is mental ether

(manakasa) which is contained in transcendental ether (chidakasa). The mind

is thus the ether principle, akasa tattva. Being the principle of knowledge

(jnana sattva), it is identified with ether (akasa) by metaphysics.

Considering it to be ether (akasa), there will be no difficulty in

reconciling the apparent contradiction in the question. Pure mind (suddha

manas) is ether (akasa). The dynamic and dull (rajas and tamas) aspects

operate as gross objects, etc. Thus the whole universe is only mental.

 

Again, consider a man who dreams. He goes to sleep in a room with doors

closed so that nothing can intrude on him while asleep. He closes his eyes

when sleeping so that he does not see any object. Yet when he dreams he sees

a whole region in which people live and move about with himself among them.

Did this panorama get in through the doors? It was simply unfolded to him by

his brain. Is it the sleeper's brain or in the brain of the dream

individual? It is in the sleeper's brain. How does it hold this vast

country in its tiny cells? This must explain the oft-repeated statement that

the whole universe is a mere thought or a series of thoughts.

 

A Swami asked: I feel toothache. Is it only a thought?

M.: Yes.

D.: Why can I not think that there is no toothache and thus cure myself?

M.: When engrossed in other thoughts one does not feel the toothache.

When one sleeps toothache is not felt.

D.: But toothache remains all the same.

M.: Such is the firm conviction of the reality of the world that it is

Not easily shaken off. The world does not become, for that reason, any more

real than the individual himself.

D.: Now there is the Sino-Japanese war. If it is only in imagination, can

or will Sri Bhagavan imagine the contrary and put an end to the war?

M.: The Bhagavan of the questioner is as much a thought as the

Sino-Japanese war. (Laughter.)

 

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