[Page 198] At
the outset I shall request my readers (such of them at least as are
not acquainted with the Cosmological
theories of the Idealistic thinkers of Europe) to examine John Stuart Mill’s
Cosmological speculations as contained in his examination of Sir William
Hamilton’s philosophy, before attempting to understand the Adwaita
doctrine; and I beg to inform them beforehand that in explaining the
main principles of the said doctrine, I am going to use, as far as
it is convenient to do so, the phraseology adopted by English psychologists
of the Idealistic school of thought. In dealing with the phenomena
of our present plane of existence John Stuart Mill ultimately came
to the conclusion that matter, or the so-called external phenomena,
are but the creation of our mind; they are the mere appearances of
a particular phase of our subjective self, and of our thoughts, volitions,
sensations and emotions which in their totality constitute the basis
of that Ego .Matter
then is the permanent possibility of sensations, and the so-called Laws
of matter are, properly speaking, the Laws which govern the succession
and coexistence of our states of consciousness. Mill further holds that
properly speaking there is no [Page 199] noumenal
Ego. The very idea of a mind existing separately as an entity, distinct from
the states of consciousness which are supposed to inhere in it, is in his
opinion illusory, as the idea of an external object, which is supposed to
be perceived by our senses.
Thus the ideas of mind and matter, of subject
and object, of the Ego and external world, are really evolved from the aggregation
of our mental states which are the only realities so far as we are concerned.
The chain of our mental states or states of consciousness is “a double-headed
monster”, according to Professor Bain, which has two distinct aspects,
one objective and the other subjective. Mr.
Mill has paused here, confessing that psychological analysis did not go
any further; the mysterious link which connects together the train of
our states of consciousness and gives rise to our Ahankaram in this condition
of existence, still remains an incomprehensible mystery to Western psychologists,
though its existence is but dimly perceived in the subjective phenomena
of memory and expectation.
On the other hand, the great physicists of Europe
are gradually coming to the conclusion [see Tyndall’s
Belfast Address. – S.R.]
that mind is the product of matter, or that it is one of the attributes
of matter in some of its conditions. It would appear, therefore, from the
speculations of Western psychologists that matter is evolved from mind
and that mind is evolved from matter. These two propositions are apparently
irreconcilable. [Page
200] Mill
and Tyndall have admitted that Western science is yet unable to go deeper
into the question. Nor is it likely to solve the mystery hereafter, unless
it calls Eastern occult science to its aid and takes a more comprehensive
view of the capabilities of the real subjective self of man and the various
aspects of the great objective universe.The great Adwaitee philosophers of ancient
Aryavarta have examined the relationship between subject and object in every
condition of existence in this solar system in which this differentiation
is presented. Just as a human being is composed of seven principles, differentiated
matter in the solar system exists in seven different conditions. These different
states of matter do not all come within the range of our present objective
consciousness. But they can be objectively perceived by the spiritual Ego
in man. To the liberated spiritual monad of man, or to the Dhyan Chohans,
every thing that is material in every condition of matter is an object of
perception. Further, Pragna or the capacity of perception,
exists in seven different aspects corresponding to the seven conditions of
matter. Strictly speaking, there are but six states of matter, the so-called
seventh state being the aspect of cosmic matter in its original undifferentiated
condition. Similarly there are six states of differentiated Pragna, the seventh
state being a condition of perfect unconsciousness. By differentiated Pragna,
I mean the condition in which Pragna is split up into various states of consciousness.
Thus we have six states of consciousness, either objective or subjective for the time being, as [Page 201] the case may be, and a perfect state of unconsciousness, which is the beginning and the end of all conceivable states of consciousness, corresponding to the states of differentiated matter and its original undifferentiated basis which is the beginning and the end of all cosmic evolutions. It will be easily seen that the existence of consciousness is necessary for the differentiation between subject and object. Hence these two phases are presented in six different conditions, and in the last state there being no consciousness as above stated, the differentiation is question ceases to exist. The number of these various conditions is different in different systems of philosophy. But whatever may be the number of divisions, they all lie between perfect unconsciousness at one end of the line and our present state of consciousness or Bahirpragna at the other end.
To understand the real nature of these different states of consciousness, I shall request my readers to compare the consciousness of ordinary man with the consciousness of the astral man, and again compare the latter with the consciousness of the spiritual Ego in man. In these three conditions the objective universe is not the same. But the difference between the Ego and the non-Ego is common to all these conditions. Consequently, admitting the correctness of Mill’s reasoning as regards the subject and object of our present plane of consciousness, the great Adwaitee thinkers of India have extended the same reasoning to other states of consciousness, and came to the conclusion that the various conditions of the Ego and the non-Ego [Page 202] were but the appearances of one and the same entity – the ultimate state of unconsciousness.
This entity is neither matter nor
spirit; it is neither Ego nor non-Ego; and it is neither object nor subject.
In the language of Hindu philosophers it is the original and eternal combination
of Purusha and Prakriti. As the Adwaitees hold that an external object is
merely the product of our mental states, Prakriti is nothing more than illusion,
and Purush is the only reality; it is the one existence which remains
eternal in this universe of Ideas. This entity then is the Parabrahmam of
the Adwaitees. Even if there were to be a personal God with anything like
a material Upadhi (physical basis of whatever form), from the standpoint
of an Adwaitee there will be as much reason to doubt his noumenal existence
as there would be in the case of any other object. In their opinion, a conscious
God cannot be the origin of the universe, as his Ego would be the effect
of a previous cause, if the word conscious conveys but its ordinary meaning.
They cannot admit that the grand total of all states of consciousness in
the universe is their deity, as these states are constantly changing and
as cosmic idealism ceases during Pralaya. There
is only one permanent condition in the universe which is the state of perfect
unconsciousness, bare Chidakasam (field
of consciousness) in fact.
When my readers once realise the fact that this
grand universe is in reality but a huge aggregation of various states of
consciousness, they will not be surprised to find that the ultimate state
of [Page 203] unconsciousness is considered
as Parabrahmam by the Adwaitees.
The idea of a God, Deity, Iswar, or an impersonal
God (if consciousness is one of his attributes) involves the idea of Ego
or non-Ego in some shape or other, and as every conceivable Ego or non-Ego
is evolved from this primitive element (I use this word for want of a better
one) the existence of an extra-cosmic god possessing such attributes prior
to this condition is absolutely inconceivable. Though I have been speaking
of this element as the condition of unconsciousness, it is, properly speaking,
the Chidakasam or Chinmatra of
the Hindu philosophers which contains within itself the potentiality of every
condition of “Pragna,” and which results as consciousness on
the one hand and the objective universe on the other, by the operation of
its latent Chichakti (the power which generates thought).
Before
proceeding to discuss the nature of Parabrahmam . It
is to be stated that in the opinion of Adwaitees, the Upanishads and
the Brahmasutras fully support
their views on the subject. It is distinctly affirmed in the Upanishads that Parabrahmam,
which is but the bare potentiality of Pragna, [The power
or the capacity that gives rise to perception] – is
not an aspect of Pragna or
Ego in any shape, and that it has neither life nor consciousness. The reader
will be able to ascertain that such is really the case on examining the Mundaka and Mandukya
Upanishads. The language used here and there in the Upanishads is apt
to mislead one into the belief that such [Page 204] language
points to the existence of a conscious Iswar. But the necessity for such
language will perhaps be rendered clear from the following considerations.
From
a close examination of Mill’s cosmological theory the difficulty will
be clearly seen referred to above, of satisfactorily accounting for the generation
of conscious states in any human being from the stand-point of the said theory.
It is generally stated that sensations arise in us from the action of external
objects around us: they are the effects of impressions made on our senses
by the objective world in which we exist. This is simple enough to the ordinary
mind, however difficult it may be to account for the transformation of a
cerebral nerve-current into a state of consciousness.
But
from the standpoint of Mill’s
theory we have no proof of the existence of any external object; even the
objective existence of our own senses is not a matter of certainty to us.
How, then, are we to account for and explain the origin of our mental states,
if they are the only entities existing in this world? No explanation is really
given by saying that one mental state gives rise to another mental state,
to a certain extent at all events, under the operation of the so-called
psychological “Laws of Association”. Western psychology
honestly admits that its analysis has not gone any further. It may be inferred,
however, from the said theory that there would be no reason for saying that
a material Upadhi (basis) is necessary for the existence of mind
or states of consciousness.
As is already indicated, the Aryan psychologists [Page
205] have
traced this current of mental states to its source – the eternal Chinmatra existing
everywhere. When the time for evolution comes this germ of Pragna unfolds
itself and results ultimately as Cosmic Ideation. Cosmic ideas are
the conceptions of all the conditions of existence in the Cosmos existing
in what may be called the universal mind ( the demiurgic mind of the Western
Kabalists).
This Chinmatra exists as it were at every geometrical
point of the infinite Chidakasam. This
principle then has two general aspects. Considered as something objective
it is the eternal Asath – Mulaprakriti or Undifferentiated
Cosmic matter. From a subjective point of view it may be looked upon
in two ways. It is Chidakasam when considered as the field of Cosmic
ideation; and it is Chinmatra when considered as the germ of Cosmic
ideation. These three aspects constitute the highest Trinity of the Aryan
Adwaitee philosophers. It will be readily seen that the last-mentioned aspect
of the principle in question is far more important to us than the other two
aspects; for, when looked upon in this aspect the principle under consideration
seems to embody within itself the great Law of Cosmic Evolution. And therefore
the Adwaitee philosophers have chiefly considered it in this light, and explained
their cosmogony from a subjective point of view. In doing so, however, they
cannot avoid the necessity of speaking of a universal mind (and this is Brahma,
the Creator) and its ideation. But
it ought not to be inferred therefrom that this universal mind necessarily
belongs to an Omnipresent living conscious Creator, simply because in [Page
206] ordinary
parlance a mind is always spoken of in connection with a particular living
being. It cannot be contended that a material Upadhi is indispensable
for the existence of mind or mental states when the objective universe
itself is, so far as we are concerned, the result of our states of consciousness.
Expressions implying the existence of a conscious Iswar which
are to be found here and there in the Upanishads should not therefore
be literally construed.
It now remains to be seen how Adwaitees account
for the origin of mental states in a particular individual. Apparently
the mind of a particular human being is not the universal mind. Nevertheless
Cosmic ideation is the real source of the states of consciousness in every
individual. Cosmic ideation exists everywhere; but when placed under restrictions
by a material Upadhi it
results as the consciousness of the individual inhering in such Upadhi.
Strictly speaking, an Adwaitee will not admit the objective existence of
this material Upadhi. From his stand-point it is Maya or
illusion which exists as a necessary condition of Pragna. But
to avoid confusion, I shall use the ordinary language; and to enable my
readers to grasp my meaning clearly the following simile may be adopted.
Suppose a bright light is placed in the centre with a curtain around it.
The nature of the light that penetrates through the curtain and becomes
visible to a person standing outside depends upon the nature of the curtain.
If several such curtains are thus successively placed around the light,
it will have to penetrate [Page 207] through
all of them; and a person standing outside will only perceive as much light
as is not intercepted by all the curtains. The central light becomes dimmer
and dimmer as curtain after curtain is placed before the observer; and as
curtain after curtain is removed the light becomes brighter and brighter
until it reaches its natural brilliancy. Similarly, universal mind or Cosmic
ideation becomes more and more limited and modified by the various Upadhis of
which a human being is composed; and when the action or influence of these
various Upadhis is successively controlled, the mind of the individual
human being is placed en rapport with the universal mind and his
ideation is lost in Cosmic ideation.
As I have already said, these Upadhis are
strictly speaking the conditions of the gradual development or evolution
of Bahipragna – or consciousness in the present plane of our
existence – from the original and eternal Chinmatra which
is the seventh principle in man, and the Parabrahmam of the Adwaitees.
This
then is the purport of the Adwaitee philosophy on the subject under consideration,
and it is, in my humble opinion, in harmony with the Arhat doctrine
relating to the same subject. The latter doctrine postulates the existence
of Cosmic matter in an undifferentiated condition throughout the infinite
expanse of space. Space and time are but its aspects, and Purush,
the seventh principle of the universe, has its latent life in this ocean
of Cosmic matter. The doctrine in question explains Cosmogony from an objective
point of view. [Page 208]
When
the period of activity arrives, portions of the whole differentiate according
to the latent law. When this differentiation has commenced, the concealed
wisdom or latent Chichakti acts in the universal mind, and Cosmic
energy or Fohat forms the manifested universe in accordance with
the conceptions generated in the universal mind out of the differentiated
principles of Cosmic matter. This
manifested universe constitutes a solar system. When the period of Pralaya comes,
the process of differentiation stops and Cosmic ideation ceases to exist;
and at the time of Brahmapralaya or Mahapralaya the
particles of matter lose all differentiation, and the matter that exists
in the solar system returns to its original undifferentiated condition. The
latent design exists in the one unborn eternal atom, the centre which exists
everywhere and nowhere; and this is the one life that exists everywhere.
Now, it will be easily seen that the undifferentiated Cosmic matter, Purush,
and the ONE LIFE of the Arhat philosophers, are the Mulaprakriti,
Chidakasam and Chinmatra of the Adwaitee philosophers.
As regards Cosmogony, the Arhat stand-point is objective, and the
Adwaitee stand-point is subjective. The Arhat Cosmogony accounts
for evolution of the manifested solar system from undifferentiated Cosmic
matter, and Adwaitee Cosmogony accounts for the evolution of Bahipragna from
the original Chinmatra. As the different conditions of differentiated
Cosmic matter are but the different aspects of the various conditions of Pragna,
the Adwaitee Cosmogony is but the complement of the Arhat Cosmogony.
The [Page 209] eternal principle is precisely
the same in both the systems, and they agree in denying the existence of
an extra-Cosmic God.
The Arhats call themselves Atheists,
and they are justified in doing so if theism inculcates the existence
of a conscious God governing the universe by his will-power. Under such circumstance
the Adwaitee will come under the same denomination. Atheism and theism are
words of doubtful import, and until their meaning is definitely ascertained
it would be better not to use them in connection with any system of philosophy.
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