mindspace

Pain is evident so long as you connect yourself with the mind. There is no pain in sleep. If
there is an inflammatory swelling on your back with throbbing pain, you do not experience any pain at night when you are asleep. Only when the mind is connected with the diseased part through nerves and thinking, you begin to experience pain. There is no pain when the mind is disconnected from the body by the administration of chloroform. During moments of great joy, the severe pain entirely ceases, as the mind is taken away from the body, from the seat of the pain. If you can consciously withdraw the mind from the diseased part by concentrating it on God or any otherattractive object, you will not experience any pain even when you are wide awake. If you have apowerful will and strong Titiksha (power of endurance), then also you will not experience any pain.
By constant thinking of any trouble or disease, you only augment your pain and suffering. Pain is inmind. Atman or spirit is Anandasvarupa (full of bliss).

CONQUER THE MIND TO CONTROL THE BODY
With the majority of mankind, the mind is greatly under the control of the body. Their minds being very little developed, they live on Annamaya Kosha mostly. Develop the Vijnanamaya Kosha and, through Vijnanamaya Kosha (Buddhi), control the Manomaya Kosha (mind). The Vijnanamaya kosha is developed by abstract thinking and reasoning, by systematic meditation,
Brahma-Chintana, study of the Upanishads, Yogavasishtha and Brahma Sutras.
When you have controlled the mind, you have perfect control over the body. The body is only a shadow of the mind. It is the mould prepared by the mind for its expression. The body becomes your slave when you have conquered the mind.

Inspiration, revelation, insight, intuition, ecstasy, divine sight and Paramananda state are

the seven planes of knowledge. There are four sources of knowledge, viz., instinct, reason, intuition

and super-intuition or Brahma-Jnana.

                 
                                                                   Instinct

When an ant crawls in your right arm, the left arm automatically moves towards the right

arm to drive away the ant. The mind does not reason there. When you see a scorpion in front of your

leg, you withdraw your leg automatically. This is termed instinctive or automatic movement. As

you cross a street, how instinctively you move your body to save yourself from the cars! There is no

Vritti in such mechanical movement.

Instinct is found in animals and birds. In birds, the ego does not interfere with the free divine

flow and divine play. Hence the work done by them through their instincts is more perfect than that

done by human beings. Have you not noticed the excellent work done by birds in their building of

wonderful nests?

                                                  Reason

Reason is higher than instinct and is found only in human beings. It collects facts,

generalises, reasons out from cause to effect, from effect to cause (

a priori and a posteriori methods

of reasoning), from premises to conclusions, from propositions to proofs. It concludes, decides and

comes to judgment. It takes you safely to the door of intuition and leaves you there.

Belief, reasoning, knowledge and faith are the four important psychic processes. First you

have belief in a doctor. You go to him for diagnosis and treatment. He makes a thorough

examination and then prescribes certain medicines. You take them. You reason out: ìSuch and such

is the disease. The doctor has given me Iron and Iodide. Iron will improve my blood. The Iodide

will stimulate the lymphatics and absorb the exudation and growth in the liver. So I should take it.î

Then the disease is cured, by a course of these drugs, in a month. Then you get knowledge of and

perfect faith in the efficacy of the medicine and the proficiency of the doctor. Then you recommend

to your friends this doctor and his drugs.

                                                 Intuition

Intuition is spiritual Anubhava. Knowledge through functioning of Karana-Sarira is

intuition. Sri Aurobindo calls it super-mind or supramental consciousness. There is direct

perception of truth (Pratyaksha) or immediate knowledge through Samadhi. You know things by a

flash. Professor Bergson preached about intuition in France to make the people understand that

there is another higher source of knowledge than intellect. In intuition, there is no reasoning process

at all. It is Pratyaksha. Intuition transcends reason, but does not contradict it. Intellect takes a man to

the door of intuition and returns back. Intuition is Divyadrishti. It is Jnana-Chakshus. Spiritual

flashes and glimpses of truth come through intuition. Inspiration, revelation, spiritual insight come

through intuition.

                                               Atma-Jnana

Atma-Jnana is above intuition. It transcends the Karana-Sarira. It is the highest form of

Knowledge. It is the only Reality.

What is the nature of the Atman or Brahman? It is Sat-Chit-Ananda. Atman is Vyapaka.

Then, what is it that limits the individual soulís vision? It is only mind. This fact proves the

existence of an internal instrument, the mind.

In the commentary on the Brihadaranyaka, Sri Sankara gives two proofs of the existence of

Manas.

One is that it is Manas which renders all knowledge through senses possible. It is called

Sarva Karma Vishaya Yoga. Sense-knowledge is the product of the connection between the mind

and the sensory organs. That is why there is no simultaneity of the knowledge of the impressions

received through the various sensory organs. People say, ìMy mind was elsewhere. I did not see

that.î The impossibility of this simultaneity of knowledge through various sensory organs is an

indication of the existence of the mind.

The soul is a constant factor. Between the Atman and the organs of senses, a connecting link

is necessary. We have to acknowledge the existence of an internal organ (Mind), through whose

attention and non-attention, perception takes place. If we do not admit the internal organ, there

would result either perpetual perception or perpetual non-perceptionóthe former when there is a

conjunction of Atman, the sense (Indriya) and the object (Vishaya), the three constituting the

instruments of perception. If, on the conjunction of these three causes, the effect did not follow,

there would take place perpetual non-perception. But, neither is the case. We have, therefore, to

acknowledge the existence of an internal organ on whose attention (Avadhana) and non-attention

(Anavadhana) perception and non-perception take place. This is the argument for the existence of

Antahkarana or mind.

The other proof is the capacity for judgment which we possess. Somebody whom we

cannot see touches us; and, we infer the person. Now, mere touch cannot make us aware of this fact.

The faculty by which we make such an inference is Manas.