INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF MIND.
_As the Ego, the subjective and really existent entity._
Argument. The Faculties of the Mind, and their Various Functions and
appellations.
Vasishtha said:—The mind is mere thought, and thought is the mind in
motion (literally, having the property of fluctuation). Its actions are
directed by the nature of the thoughts (lit. according to the nature of
the objects of thought); and the result of the acts is felt by every
body in his mind.
2. Ráma said:—Sir, I pray you will explain in length, regarding the
immaterial mind as opposed to the material body, and its inseparable
property of will or volition (contrary to the inertness of dull matter).
3. Vasishtha replied:—The nature of the mind is known to be composed of
the property of Volition, which is an attribute of the infinite and
almighty power of the Supreme soul. (_i.e._ The mind is the volitive
principle of the soul).
4. The mind is known to be of the form of that self-moving principle,
which determines the dubitation of men between the affirmative and
negative sides (as whether it is so or not _dwikotika_). _i.e._ The
principle of rationality or the Reasoning faculty, consisting of the two
great alternatives; _viz._ 1. The principle of contradiction: or of two
contradictory propositions of which one is true, and the other untrue,
_i.e._ Is, or, is not. _2._ _Raison determinantic_ or determining by _a
priori_ reasoning, as, why so and not otherwise.
5. The mind is known to be of the form of _Ego_, which is ignorant of
the self manifesting soul of God; and believes itself as the subject of
its thoughts and actions.
6. The mind is of the nature of imagination (Kalpaná), which is ever
busy in its operations: hence the inactivity of the mind is as
impossible in this world, as the insapience of the sapient man.
(Imagination is an active faculty, representing the phenomena of the
internal and external worlds, Sir W. Hamilton. It is an operation of the
mind consisting of manifold functions, such as;—1. of receiving by the
faculty of conception. 2. of retaining by the faculty of memory. 3. of
recalling by the power of reproductive fancy; 4. of combining by
productive fancy. In modern philosophy, it is the _power of
apprehending_ ideas, and combining them into new forms).
7. As there is no difference in the essence of fire and heat; so there
is no difference whatever between mind and its activity, and so betwixt
the mind and soul (_i.e._ the living soul).
8. The mind is known by many names in the same person and body,
according to its various faculties and functions, its various thoughts
and desires, and their manifold operations and consequences. (The mind,
soul and intellect taken together as the same thing, comprise all the
powers of intellect and intelligence).
9. The Divine Mind is said to be distributed into all souls by mistake
and without any reason; since the All—_to pan_ is without any substance
or substratum, and indivisible in its nature. It is a mere fabrication
of our desires and fancies to diversify it in different persons. (The
Divine mind being the _Anima mundi_, contains all within itself, and
having no container of it).
10. Whoever has set his desire in any thing as if it were a reality,
finds the same to be attended with the like fruit as he had expected of
it. (It means either that Association of ideas in the mind, introducing
as by a chord; a train of kindred consecutive ideas, which are realised
by their constant repetition, or that the primary desires of our nature,
which are not factitious, but rising from our constitutions, are soon
satisfied).
11. It is the movement of the mind, which is said and perceived by us to
be the source of our actions; and the actions of the mind are as various
as the branches, leaves and fruits of trees. (So it is said, the tree of
desire has the mind for its seed, which gives force to the action of
bodily organs, resembling its branches; and the activities of the body,
are the causes which fructify the tree of desire).
12. Whatever is determined by the mind, is readily brought into
performance by the external organs of action (Karmendriya); thus because
the mind is the cause of action, it is identified with the effect. (By
the law of the similarity of the cause and effect, in the growth of one
seed from another. Or that the efficient cause _a quo_, is the same with
the final-_propte quod_ by inversion of the causa cognoscendi—in the
effect being taken for the cause).
13. The mind, understanding, egoism, intellect, action and imagination,
together with memory, or retentiveness, desire, ignorance, exertion and
memory, are all synonyms of the mind. (The powers of the mind,
constitute the mind itself).
14. So also sensation, nature, delusion and actions, are words applied
to the mind for bewilderment of the understanding. (Many words for the
same thing, are misleading from its true meaning).
15. The simultaneous collision of many sensations (like the Kákátáli
sanyoga), diverts the mind from its clear sight of the object of its
thought, and causes it to turn about in many ways.
16. Ráma asked:—How is it Sir, that so many words with their different
significations, were invented to express the transcendent cause of our
consciousness (the mind), and heap them on the same thing for our
confusion only?
17. Vasishtha replied:—As man began to lose sight of his consciousness,
and laboured under suppositions about his-self, it was then that he
found the mind to be the waking principle within him. (_i.e._ It is after
one has lost the knowledge of his conscious soul, that he thinks himself
to be composed of the mind. Or it was after man’s degradation from his
spiritual nature, that he came to consider himself as an intellectual
being with no higher power than his mental faculties the _manas_;
(whence he derives his name as _man_, _mánava_ or _manusha_)).
18. When man after considering himself and other things comes to
understand them in their true light; he is then said to have his
understanding—_buddhi_. (We understand with or by means of reason, as we
say—a proposition is right by its reasons _hetuváda_; but not reason on
any thing without understanding it; as we cannot judge of a thing
without knowing what it is).
19. When man by false conception of himself, assumes a personality to
him by his pride, he is called an egoist, with the principle of ego or
egoism in him, causing his bondage on earth. Absolute egoism is the
doubting of every thing beside self-existence. _Persona est rationalis
naturae individua substantia._ Boethius.
20. It is called thought which passes from one object to another in
quick succession, and like the whims of boys, shifts from one thing to
another without forming a right judgement of any. (Thoughts are fickle
and fleeting, and flying from one subject to another, without dwelling
long upon any).
21. The mind is identified with acts, done by the exercise of a power
immanent in itself as the agent; and the result of the actions, whether
physical or moral, good or bad, recurs to the mind in their effects.
(The mind is the agent and recipient of the effects of all its various
internal and external actions, such as right or wrong, virtuous or
vicious, praiseworthy or blamable, perfect or imperfect and the like).
22. The mind is termed fancy for its holding fast on fleeting phantasies
by letting loose its solid and certain truths. It is also the
imagination, for giving various images or to the objects of its
desire—_ihita Kalpaná_. It is called _Kákatálíya Sanyoga_ or accidental
assemblage of fancied objects. It is defined as the agglutinative and
associative power to collect materials for imagination which builds up
on them. (_Imaginari est quan rei corporae figuram contemplari._
Descartes).
23. The Memory or retention is that power of the mind, which retains an
image whether known or unknown before, as if it were a certainty known
already; and when it is attended with the effort of recalling it to the
mind, it is termed as remembrance or recollection. (Memory is the
storehouse of ideas preconceived or thought to be known before in the
mind. Retention is the keeping of the ideas got from sensation and
reflection. Remembrance is the spontaneous act of the mind; and
recollection and reminiscence, are intentional acts of the will. All
these powers and acts of the mind, are singly and collectively called
the mind itself; as when I say, I have got it in mind, I may mean, I
have it in memory, remembrance &c. &c.)
24. The appetence which resides in the region of the mind, for
possession of the objects of past enjoyment; as also the efforts of the
mind for attainment of other things, are called its desires. (Appetites
or desires are—common to all, and are sensitive and rational, irascible
&c. Vide Reed and Stewart. The mind is the same as desire; as when I
say, I have a mind to do a thing, I mean, I have a desire to do it).
25. When the mind’s clear sight of the light of the soul or self, is
obscured by the shadow of other gross things, which appear to be real
instead of the true spiritual, it is called ignorance; and is another
name of the deluded understanding. (It is called _avidyá_ or absence of
_Vidyá_ or knowledge of spiritual truth. It becomes _Mahávidyá_ or
incorrigible or invincible ignorance, when the manners and the mind are
both vitiated by falsehood and error).
26. The next is doubt, which entraps the dubious mind in the snare of
scepticism, and tends to be the destruction of the soul, by causing it
to disbelieve and forget the supreme spirit. (To the sceptic doubts for
knowledge rise; but they give way before the advance of spiritual
light).
27. The mind is called sensation, because all its actions of hearing and
feeling, of seeing and smelling, thinking and enjoying, serve to delight
the senses, which convey the impressions back to the mind. (The doctrine
that all knowledge is derived originally from senses, holds the single
fact of sensation as sufficient for all mental phenomena. It is the
philosophy of Condillac, called Dirt philosophy by Fichte).
28. The mind that views all the phenomena of nature in the Supreme
Spirit, and takes outward nature as a copy of the eternal mind of God,
is designated by the name of _nature_ itself. (Because God is the
_Natura naturans_ or the Author of Nature; and the works of
nature—matter and mind, are the _Natura naturata_. Hence the mind
knowing its own nature and that of its cause, is said to be an union of
both natures, and is the personality of Brahmá the Demiurge, who is
combined of nature and mind).
29. The mind is called máyá or magic, because it converts the real into
unreal, and the unreal into real. Thus showing the realities as
unrealities, and the _vice-versa_ by turns. It is termed error or
mistake of our judgement, giving ascent to what is untrue and the
contrary. The causes of error are said to be ignorance (avidyá) and
passions (tamas).
30. The sensible actions are seeing and hearing, feeling, tasting and
smelling, of the outward organs of sense; but the mind is the cause both
of these actions and their acts. (The mind moves the organs to their
actions, as also feels and perceives their acts in itself).
31. The intellect (chit) being bewildered in its view of the
intellectual world (chetyas), manifests itself in the form of the mind,
and becomes the subject of the various functions which are attributed to
it. (The intellect having lost its universality, and the faculty of
intellection or discernment of universal propositions, falls into the
faults of sensitivity and volition, by employing itself to particular
objects of sense and sensible desires).
32. Being changed into the category of the mind, the intellect loses its
original state of purity, and becomes subject to a hundred desires of
its own making (by its volitive faculty).
33. Its abstract knowledge of general truths being shadowed by its
percipience of concrete and particular gross bodies, it comes to the
knowledge of numbers and parts, and is overwhelmed by the multiplicity
of its thoughts and the objects of its desires. (_i.e._ Having lost the
knowledge of the universal whole and discrete numbers, the mind comes to
know the concrete particulars only).
34. It is variously styled as the living principle and the mind by most
people on earth; but it is known as intellection and understanding
(chitta and buddhi) by the wise.
35. The intellect being depraved by its falling off from the sole
supreme soul, is variously named by the learned according to its
successive phases and functions, owing to its being vitiated by its
various desires, and the variety of their objects.
36. Ráma said:—O Sir! that art acquainted with all truths, please tell
me, whether the mind is a material or immaterial thing, which I have not
been able to ascertain as yet. (It is said to be matter by materialists
and as spirit by spiritualists).
37. Vasishtha replied:—The mind, O Ráma! is neither a gross substance
nor an intelligent principle altogether: it is originally as intelligent
as the intellect; but being sullied by the evils of the world and the
passions and desires of the body, it takes the name of the mind. (From
its minding of many things).
38. The intellect (chit) which is the cause of the world, is called the
_chitta_ or heart, when it is situated in the bosom of sentient bodies,
with all its affections and feelings (ávilám). It then has a nature
between goodness and badness (by reason of its moral feelings and bad
passions).
39. When the heart remains without a certain and uniform fixity to its
purpose, and steadiness in its own nature, it feels all the inner
changes with the vicissitudes of the outer world, and is as a reflector
of the same. (The text says, the fluctuations of the heart, cause the
vicissitudes of the world. But how can the heart be subjective, and the
world the objective? Is the heart author of its feelings without
receiving them from without? Yes).
40. The intellect hanging between its intelligence and gross objects,
takes the name of the mind, when it is vitiated by its contact with
outward objects.
41. When the action of the Intellect or the faculty of intellection, is
vitiated by sensitivity, and becomes dull by reason of its inward dross;
it is then styled the mind, which is neither a gross material thing, nor
an intelligent spiritual principle.
42. The intellectual principle is variously designated by many such
names, as the mind, the understanding, the _ego_, and the living soul or
principle of animation.
43. The mind bears its different appellations according to the variety
of its functions; just as an actor in the theatre, appears under
different names and garbs of the dramatic personages on the stage. (The
world is a stage, where one man acts many parts. Shakespeare).
44. As a man passes under many titles, according to his various
occupations and professions; so the mind takes different appellations
according to the various operations of its nature. (Thus one man is a
scholar, a householder, an officer, a subject and many others at once).
45. Besides the names that I have mentioned regarding the mind, the
disputants in mental philosophy, have invented many others agreeably to
their diverse theories.
46. They have attributed to the mind many designations, according to the
views in which they designed to exhibit its nature; such as some calling
it the intellect, another the understanding, the sensation and so forth.
47. One takes it as dull matter, and another as the living principle;
some one calls it the ego, while others apply the term understanding to
it. (As Manas or Manu is the father of and of the same nature with all
mankind; so is the mind _manas_ or _mens_, similar in its nature and
names with every one and all its operations).
48. I have told you, Ráma that egoism, mind and the light of
understanding, together with the volition of creation, are but different
properties of the one and same internal principle. (Ego—the subjective,
mind—the motive, understanding—the thinking, and the volitive powers,
all relate to the same soul. All these are different faculties having
the one and same common root—the one universal soul).
49. The Nyáyá philosophy has taken the mind &c., in different lights
according to its own view of them; and so the Sánkhya system explains
the perception and senses in a way peculiar to itself. (Namely: the
Nyáyá says, the Ego to be a _dravya_ or substance; the living soul as
God; the mind a sensitive particle and internal organ; and understanding
as a transitory property of the mind. The Sánkhya has the understanding
as a product of matter, and egoism a resultant of the same, and the mind
as the eleventh organ of sense).
50. In this manner are all these terms taken in very different
acceptations, by the different systems of Mímámsá, Vaiseshika, Arhata
and Buddhist philosophy. The Pancharátra and some other systems, have
given them particular senses disagreeing with one another. (See
Rákháldása Nyayaratna’s tract on the identity of the mind and the soul
_átmá_; and Hirálal’s reply to and refutation of the same).
51. All these various doctrines, arising at different times and in
distant countries, lead at last to the same supreme Being, like the very
many different ways, leading their passengers to the same imperial city.
(All systems of philosophy, like every scheme of religion and its
different sects and schisms, lead their followers to the same truth of
one Superintending power or Deity).
52. It is ignorance of this supreme truth or misunderstanding of the
discordant doctrines, that causes the votaries of different systems and
sects, to carry on an endless dispute among themselves with bitter
acrimony. (All party contentions, are but effects of ignorance of the
various terminology bearing the same sense).
53. The disputants maintain their particular positions by their
respective dogmatism; just as passengers persist in their accustomed
paths as the best suited to them. (Bias has a stronger basis in the mind
and has a faster hold of the human heart, than the best reason and the
surest truth).
54. They have spoken falsely, whose words point out every thing as the
fruit of our acts, and direct mankind only to the performance of their
actions. It is according to the various prospects that men have in view,
that they have given their reasons in their own ways. (Ask of the
learned, the learned are blind, this bids you shun, and that to love
mankind. Pope).
55. The mind receives its various names from its different functions as
a man is called a _Snataka_ or early bather, and a _dátá_—donor, from
his acts of sacred ablutions and religious gifts.
56. As the actor gets his many titles, according to the several parts
which he performs; so the mind takes the name of a Jíva or living being,
from its animation of the body and its desires. (The mind is repeatedly
said to be the animating and volitive principle).
57. The mind is said to be the heart also, which is perceived by every
body to reside within himself. A man without the heart, has no feeling
nor sensation.
58. It is the heart which feels the inward pleasure or pain, derived
from the sight or touch, hearing or smelling, and eating and drinking of
pleasurable and painful things.
59. As the light shows the colours of things to the sight, so the mind
is the organ, that reflects and shows the sensations of all sensible
objects in the cranium and sensory.
60. Know him as the dullest of beings, who thinks the mind to be a dull
material substance; and whose gross understanding cannot understand the
nature of the Intellect.
61. The mind is neither intelligence (chetana) nor inert matter (jada);
it is the _ego_ that has sprung amidst the various joys and griefs in
this world. (The pure intelligence knows no pleasure nor pain; but the
mind which is the same with the conscious _ego_, is subjected to both in
this world).
62. The mind which is one with the divine Intellect (_i.e._ sedately
fixed in the one Brahmá), perceives the world to be absorbed into
itself; but being polluted with matter (like fresh water with soil), it
falls into the error of taking the world for real. (The clear mind like
clear water is unsullied with the soil of the material world; but the
vitiated mind, like foul water, is full of the filth of worldliness).
63. Know Ráma, that neither the pure immaterial intellect, nor gross
matter as the inert stone, can be the cause of the material world. (The
spirit cannot produce matter, nor can dull matter be productive of
itself).
64. Know then, O Rághava, that neither intelligence nor inertia, is the
cause of the world; it is the mind that is the cause of visible objects,
as it is the light which unfolds them to the view. (Intelligence is the
knowledge of the self-evident, and not their cause).
65. For where there is no mind, there is no perception of the outer
world, nor does dull matter know of the existence of anything; but
everything is extinct with the extinction of the mind. (A dead body like
a dull block, is insensible of every thing).
66. The mind has a multiplicity of synonyms, varied by its multifarious
avocations; as the one continuous duration undergoes a hundred homonyms,
by the variations of its times and seasons.
67. If egoism is not granted to be a mental action, and the sensations
be reckoned as actions of the body; yet its name of the living
principle, answers for all the acts of the body and mind. (Egoism or
knowledge of the self, is attributed to the soul by some schools of
philosophy, and sensations are said to be corporeal and nervous actions;
yet the moving and animating power of the mind, must account for all
bodily and mental actions.)
68. Whatever varieties are mentioned of the mind, by the reasonings of
different systems of philosophy, and sometimes by the advocates of an
opinion, and at others by their adversaries:—
69. They are neither intelligible nor distinguishable from one another,
except that they are all powers of the self-same mind; which like the
profluent sea, pours its waters into innumerable outlets.
70. As soon as men began to attribute materialistic powers and force to
the nature of the pure (immaterial) consciousness, they fell into the
error of these varieties of their own making.
71. As the spider lets out its thread from itself, it is in the same
manner that the inert has sprung from the intellect, and matter has come
into existence from the ever active spirit of Brahmá.
(The Sruti says:—Every thing comes out of the spirit as the thread from
the spider, the hairs and nails from the animal body, and as rocks and
vegetables springing from the earth).
72. It is ignorance (of the said Sruti), that has introduced the various
opinions concerning the essence of the mind; and hence arose the various
synonymous expressions, significant of the Intellect among the
opponents.
73. The same pure Intellect, is brought to bear the different
designations of the mind, as understanding, living principle and egoism;
and the same is expressed in the world by the terms intelligence, heart,
animation and many other synonyms, which being taken as expressive of
the same thing, must put an end to all dispute. (So all metaphysical
disputes owe their origin to the difference of terminology. Such as,
Kant regarded the mind under its true faculties of cognition, desire and
moral feeling, called as Erkenntnißvermögen or Denkvermögen,
Begehrungsvermögen, and Gefühlsvermögen. Instead of multiplying the
synonyms of Mind here, I refer the reader to Roget’s Thesaurus for
them).