Guest guest Posted June 16, 2009 Report Share Posted June 16, 2009 Sad-Darshan Part 11 In today's sanga, we discuss the last two elements in the Vaisesika philosophy of substance -- Soul and Mind. The soul or atman is characterized as the eternal, all-pervading substratum for consciousness. According to Vaisesika philosophy there are two kinds of souls: individual (jivatman) and supreme (paramatman or isvara). The Supreme Soul is inferred to be the Creator of the World using the same kind of logical arguments we have seen with the nyaya philosophy. The Mind is considered to be the 9th kind of substance, the eternal sense faculty of the individual soul. Attention is required to prevent a jumble of information from the senses. That attention is supplied by the mind along with other functions such as thinking, feeling and willing. We must be careful to recognize that there is a potential for confusion here, because the Vaisesika philosophy collapses the subtle aspects of Mind and Spirit into one. The early 19th century German philosopher Hegel provides an interesting viewpoint on the existence of Mind. In his view, the senses perceive things as singular, whereas the ideas of "next-to" or "far-from" are not perceived by the senses, but are conceptual determinations supplied by Mind. Ancient philosophers were far more thoughtful about the subtle details of the Mind than today's naive realists. It is unfortunate that today's atomic theorists try to reduce all the rich, subtle experiences of Mind into a monochromatic slurry of particulate matter. ____________ _________ ___ SrimadBhagavatam Class 1.2.6 This sloka is an answer from Suta Goswami to the first of six questions presented by the Sages of Naimisaranya- -"The supreme occupation for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord." To better understand this principle in depth, Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaj looks into the meaning of several Sanskrit words. In particular, the word adhoksaje clarifies that we serve the Supreme Being who is above all sense perception and whose Being is the Unity which unifies all beings. Because we must not think of Krsna as just another living being, Srila Prabhupada chose to use the term Personality of Godhead, the Being of all beings. The second part of the lecture looks at the requirements for successful devotional service. Devotional service must be causeless and unbroken to shake-off the material existence. The two pathways, exploitation (pravrtti-marga) and renunciation (nivrtti-marga), are delineated and compared with bhakti where the senses are used in the service of the Lord. Finally, Sripad Maharaj teaches us that we must look at difficulties as coming from Krsna. Although there are times when obstacles should be removed, it is usually better to look at difficulties as a way to purify the heart.Lecture Recordings : http://mahaprabhu. net/satsanga/ 2009/06/ Get an email ID as yourname or yourname. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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