THE HUMAN BEING

We have worked out a model for the Universe. Does this apply to a human being too? Can we understand the structure of human personality with this model of the Universe?

The answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ The human being is after all a part of the manifest Universe and so the same model is definitely applicable to all forms of manifestation and in particular, the living beings, and amongst them, the human being. Let us study this in a little more detail.

Every part of the living Universe has these three parts, a Body, Mind and an inner core which we will call a Soul. It is impossible to catalogue and describe the myriad varieties of living beings, from a worm to an ant to a lizard to a fish to a whale to a butterfly to an eagle to a cat or a dog to a tiger or a lion to an alligator to a tortoise to a monkey to MAN!

The Body of each of these millions of species is unique and specially designed to help the creature live and survive in the environment in which it lives. Some live exclusively on the sense of touch, some through hearing, some through smell, some through taste and many through sight. These bodies are exquisitely designed and complex in their own ways. This has been the subject matter of scientific study for quite some time. Study of these bodies has given man a lot of insight into his own bodily construction. Even now science is discovering new species evolving in the forests of Borneo and South America.

The Mind or Mental Subtle aspect of each form of manifestation varies from very simplistic ones to fairly complex types. The Mind of rats has been a favorite area of study for scientists in an attempt to understand the motivations of human beings. It is clear that birds have a unique mental sense that guides them in their flight patterns. Cats are known to re-discover their way home in the dark unerringly. Dogs understand contingencies almost in human fashion. Much of this mental aspect in animals is called ‘Instinct’ and is genetically embedded in them as part of a species-specific genetic programming. The emerging field of science called ‘Genetics’ has given us considerable insight into this aspect.

However, it is clear that in some ways, human beings seem to be unique. Sri Sankara has expressed this in his great contribution to Indian thought called ‘Viveka Chudamani’. He states there:
‘Jantunam Narajanma Durlabham’
meaning
‘Amongst living creatures human life is extremely fortunate.’

The title of his treatise itself gives us a clue as to the uniqueness of the human manifestation. The Sanskrit word ‘Viveka’ identifies the discriminative faculty, commonly called ‘Intellect’ as the special faculty that the human manifestation has been blessed with. Intellect bestows the ability to choose from various choices or alternative paths.

Linking this to our earlier discussion on the model of the Universe which we called the Pranava Model, it becomes clear that the human being is similarly bestowed with a three-in-one personality, a Body-Mind-Soul structure. We will examine this in detail in future blogs, but if we can appreciate the basic structure of human personality just now that will be great.

The Body lies in the Prithvi Tathwa. The Mind encompasses the Jala, Agni and Vayu Tathwas. The Soul lies in the Akasha Tathwa. The Body is the Physical aspect, the Mind is the Subtle or Mental aspect, and the Soul is the Super-subtle or Causal aspect.

Science knows all about the Physical aspect. The emerging field of scientific investigation called Psychology is beginning to understand the Mental aspect. The Soul is still not discernible to science.

So how can we say with such clarity that there are three aspects of human personality? Here the Vedas and Vedanta, and in particular, the Mandukya Upanishad, give the clue. The human being is stated to have three states through which he/she traverses everyday of their lives. These states are called:
Waking ....... Jagrutha
Dreaming .... Swapna
Deep Sleep .. Sushupthi

In English writings on this point, the term ‘Three states of Consciousness’ is often used. Western thought calls the Waking state as ‘Conscious’. Dreaming is called ‘Sub-conscious’ and Deep Sleep is called ‘Unconscious’. One of the definitive researchers in this field in Western thought was a remarkable man called Sigmund Freud. He was, by training a medical doctor, but took up the treatment of mental patients who seemed to be suffering from depression and hysteria. This took him into a study of Mind and its facets and he discovered the importance of dreams as a means of understanding the human Mind. Further analysis led him to conclude that there was possibly another level of consciousness beyond the dreaming state, and he called it the Unconscious. Freud was not aware of Eastern thought and the Vedanta. Indeed he was somewhat an agnostic himself and was not too involved in spiritual matters. He was hounded out from his native Vienna in Austria by the Nazis and took refuge in London. However he certainly revolutionized the appreciation of the human personality in the Western scientific world.


Sigmund Freud ( 1856-1939)

For an interesting read please visit

http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/freud_mohan.htm

In Indian thought, however, this structure of a three fold human being is considered normal. And this is clarified in the Mandukya Upanishad as the natural movement of a human being from a state (or Avastha) of wakefulness to dreaming to deep sleep. The waking state is what we are all very much aware of when we act and interact with the world outside.The dreaming state clearly defines that there is a Mind which is essentially devoid of any connection to Body. When a person dreams he/she is unaware of Body. He/she experiences a totally different world in the Mind during dream. The Upanishad thus proves that the Mind is independent of Body and the external world. Similarly in the state of deep sleep, the human being is out of touch with both Mind and Body. It lies in a state of ignorance of everything but in a state of Bliss (called Ananda). The Upanishad describes this condition or aspect of human personality as indicative of the innermost core of human personality and as characterized by Ananda. Western thought acknowledges the importance of the deep sleep state for human survival. It is a kind of built-in survival kit that refreshes and re-invigorates the human system and prepares him/her for another day or another task or project.

We will have to investigate the Mind and the Soul in some more detail in future blogs. Meanwhile let us re-state the structure of Human Personality as below:

Soul Deep Sleep Akasha Tathwa Ananda
Mind Dreaming Vayu/Agni/Jala Thought/Wisdom
Body Wakeful Prithvi Tathwa Action/Interaction

The human being starts life at birth with a large proportion of his/her time spent in deep sleep. He wakes up just for feeding and when a nappy is wet. As he/she grows up, more and more time is spent in waking. At some point in life he/she becomes aware of dreams and dreaming. The cycle is invariably:

Deep sleep - Dreaming - Wakefulness- Dreaming - Deep sleep

So we transit our three aspects everyday at least once and sometimes twice if we are able to indulge in a midday siesta. This cycle of transit through the three aspects of human personality is perennial and continuous all through life and till life lasts. This is another cycle!

The three aspects, that is, Body-Mind-Soul, impinge on and interact with each other. They influence each other a lot. The source of all life is embedded in the Soul. It is very important.
The Soul is called ‘Atma’ in Sanskrit. The Sanskrit word for Mind is difficult to explain. Sometimes it has been called ‘Buddhi’. Sometimes, as in the Purusha Suktham, it is called ‘Manas’. The Mandukya Upanishad gives a detailed description of the Subtle Aspect of the Human Personality that includes Manas, Buddhi, and several other facets. This matter needs a more detailed treatment which will follow in future blogs.

For our discussion which is mainly going to be in English, we will use the word ‘Mind’ with a capital ‘M’ to mean Total Mind or the complete Subtle Aspect.

This month we would like to remember the Buddha.

Buddhists the world over celebrate a festival called ‘Buddha Poornima’. This year it fell on Thursday, May 27. Buddha is named after the concept of ‘Buddhi’ indicating the importance He gave to the Intellectual and Discriminative Faculty of Mind to help achieve spiritual awareness. The picture displays the Buddha as shown at Sarnath near Varanasi (or Benares). It is at this place that He shared His discovery of the Truth for the very first time.

We look forward to your creative contributions and posts on this Blog. We wish you all happiness, peace of mind and prosperity.

Warm regards and God Bless

THE PRANAVA OR OMKARA MODEL

A Model is a pattern that tries to reproduce the inherent relationships in a concept. It can display the components in the structure and how they relate to each other.

We have already seen such a model in our third blog
( Manifestation ).

AKASHA
I
I
VAYU - PRANA
I
I
TEJA - AGNI - ENERGY
I
I
JALA - LIQUID
I
I
PRITHVI - SOLID

This displays in a very simple manner the way the Mahabhutas evolve from the previous one starting from the Akasha Tathwa ( the term Tathwa means ‘Principle’) and proceeding progressively through the Vayu/Prana Tathwa to the Teja/Agni/Energy Tathwa to the Jala/Liquid Tathwa and finally to the Prithvi/Solid Tathwa.

The Prithvi Tathwa Manifestation is truly the Material Manifest Universe which we deal with and relate to everyday of our lives. In some English writings on Indian concepts it is also called the Gross or Physical Universe. Our physical body is part of this Prithvi Tathwa Manifestation. The entire Universe which we experience everyday, the space, the sky, the clouds, the rain, the oceans, the rivers, the water that flows from the tap, the fire in our hearths, the light that glows in myriad lamps, the mushroom cloud of the nuclear bomb, the oil in the ground, the gas, the air, the wind and the world of earth, metals, plastics, plants, and so on are all components of this Prithvi Tathwa Manifestation. This Universe is called the Bhuloka ( Bhu represents material and loka means universe).

Is that all ? Does this understanding clarify everything about Manifestation ? What about the other stages of Manifestation? They are certainly embedded in the Bhuloka. The Prithvi Tathwa is a composite of all five Mahabhutas or elements. In some parts some Mahabhuta appears to be predominant and in some others some other Mahabhuta seems to be dominant. For example, in air the Vayu/Prana Thatwa is dominant. All the others are also present but we experience the Vayu Tathwa most. Similarly in the sky or in space the Akasha Tathwa is predominant. In fire or in a nuclear reaction, the Agni Tathwa is predominant. In a river the Jala Tathwa is predominant. It is said that there is so much of Prana/Vayu Tathwa in a fresh spring that to bath in that water is so refreshing. Similarly even the Prithvi Tathwa in the form of grass can exude Prana. For the health of one’s eyes, one is advised to walk on the grass in the early morning when it is covered with dew.

The presence of the various Tathwas is experienced with the help of the five sense instruments or organs, the ears, the skin, the eyes, the mouth and the nose. These sense organs have been deliberately presented in this order because the ears sense the Akasha Tathwa alone through sound, the skin perceives the Vayu Tathwa alone through touch, the eyes sense the Agni Tathwa alone through sight, the mouth experiences the Jala Tathwa alone through taste and the nose senses the Prithvi Tathwa alone through smell. The human body is fitted out with these five sense organs to perceive the presence of the five Tathwas in the Prithvi Tathwa. All the scientific instruments, the telescopes, the microscopes, and other equipment help us in relating and experiencing the five Tathwas as embedded in the Prithvi Tathwa.

However, the Universe is a kind of telescopic structure. It holds in itself all five Mahabhutas in various stages of manifestation. The outermost envelop is the Prithvi Stage of Manifestation, or the Material Universe. There are four other inner layers also present.

Think of a closed telescope. There are several layers enclosed in each other. When the same telescope is opened out, the left hand portion is equivalent to the Prithvi Tathwa or the Physical Universe. But enclosed in it is another Universe which is in purely liquid form. This Jala or Liquid Universe cannot be sensed by our sense organs or any of the instruments we have at the Physical level because the Jala Universe transcends the Physical level. And so is it with the Agni Universe and the Vayu Universe and finally the Akasha Universe.

So how can these levels be experienced ?
Let us look at another analogy. If I point my normal camera at the garden in the middle of the night I cannot get any picture. I need sunlight to pick up the forms and colors. However, if I aim an Infra-red camera at the same garden in the darkest of nights I can get a clear picture. Similarly, when I look at a suitcase I cannot see the contents. But with an X-Ray camera I can see the contents. So is it with Sonography. A radio or a cell phone enables one to communicate or pick up signals using the electromagnetic waves in the earth’s atmosphere. So it is apparent that a supra-sensory or extra-sensory instrument is required to experience ‘subtle’ objects. Similarly we need a special instrument to sense the other Tathwas.

The first such inner layer is called the Subtle Layer or the Bhuvar Loka. The Jala-Agni-Vayu layers together form the Bhuvar Loka. And the key instrument with which we are endowed is the Mind. The human mind is the sophisticated instrument with which the Bhuvar Loka can be sensed. Thus this Universe is called the Mental or Subtle Universe.

The most subtle of all the Tathwas is the Akasha Tathwa and the Akasha Universe cannot even be sensed by the Mind. The Akasha Universe is capable of being sensed only by the equivalent Akasha part of the human being. This Super Subtle Universe is called the Swa Loka. It is also called the Causal Universe.

Thus the new model of the Universe that emerges looks like this:

SWA LOKA - SUPER SUBTLE- CAUSAL
BHUVAR LOKA - SUBTLE -MENTAL
BHU LOKA - GROSS - PHYSICAL

The Manifest Universe is not one Physical Universe as is commonly thought. It is an encapsulation of three Universes in one. It is what one could call a THREE-IN -ONE Universe. This is depicted as the famous Omkara Symbol :
We discussed the three sounds which comprise the sound OM, that is, A,U and M. The Bhu Loka is represented by the sound A, the Bhuvar Loka is represented by the sound U, and the Swa Loka is represented by the sound M. So when the three sounds are repeated together as ‘OM’ and the symbol is thought of, then one can reach or communicate with the Akasha Tathwa in the Universe. That is the power of sound.

This formula is the core of the Gayatri Mantra:
Om Bhur Bhuvah Suvaha
This message is contained in various places in the Vedas and Vedanta and very clearly and simply in the Mandukya Upanishad.

It describes the complexity of the Manifest Universe as well as the simple way in which one can relate to all components of the Universe.

In the next blog we will try to understand something about the structure of the Human Being.

This month we remember Sri Sankara, a great human being who helped to revive and restore the knowledge base of the Vedas and the Vedanta in the 8th century A.C (After Christ) when this knowledge was in disarray under the onslaught of almost a thousand years of Buddhist thought. As we proceed with our study we will also study his great contributions and life and works. Sri Sankara Jayanthi falls on May 18.

Sri Sankara was born in the province of Kerala in South West India. After a learning period with His teacher, Sri Govinda Bhagavatpada, he took up the resuscitation and re-establishment of Vedic and Vedantic thought in India. He not only propounded and clarified the concept of ‘Advaita’ but re-invigorated other methods of worship, prayer and self-development based on Vedic methodologies.

May the purity and clarity and inherent auspiciousness of spiritual thought re-energize and re-vitalize you and give you not only peace of mind but compassion and kindness to all of humanity.
As always we look forward to your active comments and participation and guidance.

Warm regards and God Bless