Talk 451.

[Guest guest]

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.)