The friend asks if mind (MANA), intellect (BUDDHI) mind stuff (CHITTA) and ego (ahankara) are separate entities or they are different names for the same thing. He also wants to know if they are different from the atman or the soul, or they are one with it, and whether they are conscious or unconscious. He also wants to know what is conscious and what is unconscious, and their specific places in life.
The first thing is that in this world matter and consciousness are not two separate things. What we call matter is consciousness asleep and what we know as consciousness is matter awakened.
In reality matter and mind are not different; they are different manifestations of the same thing. Existence is one, and that one is God or brahman or whatsoever you want to call it. When that one is asleep it appears as matter, and when awake it is mind, or consciousness. So don’t treat matter and mind as separate entities; they are only utilitarian terms. They are not really different.
Even science has come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as matter. As science goes deeper and deeper into matter it finds that matter is no more and only energy remains, only energy is. What remains after the explosion or splitting of the atom is only particles of energy. And what we know as electrons, protons and neutrons are particles of electricity.
In fact, it is not correct to call them particles, because particles connote matter. The scientists had to find a new word, which is quanta, which has a different connotation altogether. Quanta is both a particle and a wave. It is difficult to comprehend how a thing could be both a particle and a wave simultaneously, but quanta is both. Sometimes it behaves as a particle – which is matter; and sometimes it behaves as a wave – which is energy. Wave and energy are behaviors of the same quanta.
When science dug deep it found that only energy is, and when spirituality delved deep it found that only spirit or atman or soul is. And soul is energy. The time is just around the corner when a synthesis of science and religion will be achieved, and the distance that separates them will simply disappear. When the gap between matter and God has proved to be false, the gap between science and religion cannot exist for long. If matter and mind are not two, how can religion and science be two? The separation of science and religion was dependent on the separation of matter and mind.
To me, only one is; two simply don’t exist. There is no place for duality; so the question of matter and mind does not arise. If you like the language of matter, you can say that everything is matter. And if you like the language of mind or consciousness, you can say that everything is consciousness. I for one prefer the language of consciousness. But why do I prefer it?
Because, in my view, one should always prefer the language of the higher, which has greater possibility; one should not prefer the language of the lower, where possibility is less and less.
We can, for instance, say that only the seed is, and not the tree. And it is not wrong to say so, be cause the tree is only a transformation of the seed. But there is a danger involved in this statement. The danger is that some seeds may say, ”If we are seeds all the way up, then why seek to become trees? We will remain as we are; we will remain seeds. ” So it is better if we say that only trees are, and not seeds. Then the possibility for the seed to become a tree remains. I prefer the language of consciousness, so that what is asleep can awaken, this possibility should be available.
There is a similarity between the materialist and the spiritualist; both of them accept only one – either matter or mind. But there is a difference too. While the materialist accepts the primary thing and is thus deprived of the ultimate, the spiritualist accepts the ultimate which includes the primary in it. It is all inclusive; it does not exclude. I love the language of spirituality; and therefore I say that everything is consciousness. Consciousness asleep is matter, and consciousness awakened is consciousness. All is consciousness.
The second thing the friend wants to know is whether mind, intellect, mind stuff, and ego – mana, buddhi, chitta and ahankara – are separate entities or they are one. They are not separate entities, they are many faces of the same mind. It is like you ask whether the father, the son and the husband are separate individuals – and I say no, he is one and the same man. We know that the same person is a father in relation to his son, a son in relation to his father, and a husband in relation to his wife. But the fact is that the same person is playing different roles in relation to different persons.
Our mind behaves in many ways. When it feels arrogant and says, ”I am everything and others are nothing before me,” then mind appears as ego. That is one way of mind’s behavior. It is ego when it says, ”I am everything.” When it declares, ”Everyone is just zero before me,” then mind is ego.
And when the mind thinks, cogitates, it is intellect. But when it does not think or cogitate, when it simply moves about, rambles without any sense of direction, when it is unfocused, it is called mind stuff, or chitta.
Intellect is mind with a direction, as is the mind of a scientist sitting in his lab and thinking how to split the atom. When the mind moves about with out any purpose and aim, when it kind of dreams and daydreams, when it thinks of becoming a billionaire or the president of a country, when it is unfocused, then it is chitta or mind stuff. Then it is just waving and wavering, it is incoherent and unorganized. And when it follows a well laid system of thought it is intellect.
These are the many ways of the mind. But it is all mind. And the friend also wants to know if mind, intellect, mind stuff and ego are separate from the soul or the atman.
Do you think that when there is a storm in an ocean the ocean and the storm are separate? When the ocean is agitated and disturbed, we call it a storm. Similarly when the soul is agitated and disturbed, when it is restless, it is called mind. And when the mind is quiet it is again soul. Mind is the restless state of the soul, and soul is the quiet and tranquil state of the mind.
In other words, when consciousness is disturbed and agitated, when it is stirred and tempestuous, it is mind. That is why so long as you are in mind you can not be aware of the atman, or the soul. And for the same reason the mind ceases to be when it is in meditation. But what does it mean to cease? It means that the waves raging in the sea of the soul have quieted down. It is only then that you know you are a soul. So long as you are disturbed and restless, you know your self only as a mind.
The restless mind appears in many forms – some times as ego, sometimes as intellect and
sometimes as mind stuff. These are the different faces of the same restless mind.
The atman and mind are not separate. The atman and the body too are not separate; because the substance, the essence, the reality is one, and all these are transformations of the same. And if you know the one, all conflicts with the body or the mind, all strife comes to an end. Once you recognize the one, then it alone remains. Then the one abides in Rama as well as in Ravana. Then you will not worship Rama and kill Ravana. Then you will either worship both or kill both; because the same dwells in both – Rama and Ravana.
Essence is one, its expressions are infinite. Truth is one, its forms are many. Existence is one; its faces and gestures are myriad.
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