One of the great neurologists, W. Grey Walter of Bristol, in his book ‘The Living Brain’ refers to this fact that all the animals, pre-human species, have been there for millions of years, they have not altered their environment; they have been shaped by their environment. Only the human being has a capacity to alter the environment, alter it for good or for bad, later it even to destroy it and destroy himself. Man alone has that capacity because man is still conditioned by the external world by only sensory knowledge and information. He is often turning to destroying the environment or even destroying himself. That is man today.
This is because we have not tried turning the senses inwards as yet. Like in animals, the senses go out; we eat and rink and handle the world, and we think ourselves also as part of that world: that we are an object. The Katha Upanishad gives a profound description to this situation:
‘The self-existent (God) has rendered the senses (so) defective that they go outward, and hence man sees the external and the internal self. (Only, perchance) some wise man desirous of immortality turns his eyes in, and beholds the Atman.”
The whole of Vedanta says that right during the course of human life, in the course of our work, in the course of human interactions in society, we can develop that inward penetration. We need not do it separately. In the midst of life and work, this inward penetration can go on by training the mind, making it purer.
Vedanta says, mind exist in two forms – the impure and the pure. The impure is when it is subject to the pressures of the sensory system. The pure is when it is released form the pressure of the sensory system.
If you achieve this, you are in for a tremendous experience. This is what Buddha achieved on that blessed night. You discover your own true dimension; you discover your own infinite nature.
This is the truth that is waiting to be understood and implemented by man in this modern age. If he does so, there will be peace and co-existence, all around!
Swami Rangathananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai
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