ABHIMANYU PATI tells us why our mind fails to perceive true reality just as it is
There is a story of the learned King Janaka. One night he dreamt that he was a beggar, searching for food on the street. With a sense of horror he woke up and started wondering whether in reality he was a beggar or a king. Both experiences in dreaming and waking states had been absolutely real for him.Obviously, both events could not be true simultaneously. While nobody in his royal court could answer his query, Sage Ashtavakra told King Janaka that he was neither a beggar nor a king but Janaka, a witness, an observer.
Reception To Volition
The story has a deep spiritual connotation.We interact with our immediate environment through our body which contains five sense organs, action organs, mind, and intellect. These faculties of body-mindintellect constitute the mechanism responsible for receiving information about the objective world — reception, filtering the data — perception, assembling the information to form mental images — conception, and finally, directing action organs to respond — volition. This mechanism is designated in the Upanishads as Nama-Rupa-Prapancham — name and form complex. Like in an automobile, the above mechanism can work only when it is powered by a fuel called Pure Consciousness or Turiya in the Upanishad. Pure Consciousness illuminates and projects the functioning of this mechanism onto the real objective world. However, each individual has a specific constitution and nature of his mind, which makes him different from others. While Pure Consciousness illuminates all sentient beings and insentient objects and is the common substratum for all, the empirical phenomenal worlds constructed by the mind are different, because of the differences in mental constitution, which are driven by beliefs, values, education, earlier experiences, and predominantly by their previous karmic causes. In our waking state, all three faculties of body, mind, and intellect are at work. The person who experiences the waking world has been named as Visva in the Mandukya Upanishad. In swapna or dreaming state, the body is inactive, but the mind and intellect are at work. They create a dream world with a dream body inside. In fact, the real physical body experiences all emotions created during the dream.The dreamer in this case is named as Taijasa. Similarly, in sushupti or deep sleep state, all three faculties of body, mind and intellect are temporarily inactive. In the absence of any activity, both internal and external, there is an experience of temporary bliss and tranquillity.This blissful state is temporary because there is a potential to get back to earlier states of waking or dreaming. The sleeper in this state is named as Prajna.The three names of Visva, Taijasa and Prajna have been given to the same entity of nama-rupaprapancham, the experiencer, only to distinguish between the states.
So Watchful
While the experiencer here goes through the varied experiences of the waking world, the dreaming world and no world, Pure Consciousness in the background remains watchful throughout as a witness and remains completely detached from any of these experiences. Probably, in this context, Sage Ashtavakra told King Janaka that he is Pure Consciousness, the witness, and not the beggar or the king, representing the nama-rupa-prapancham. The next logical question is why the mind fails to perceive reality as it is and creates an erroneous, subjective world. This has been attributed to avidya or ignorance of the truth in the Upanishad.The ignorance of the fact that we are Pure Consciousness pushes us to believe that we are nama-rupa-prapancham and we start strongly identifying ourselves with this faculty. This association gives rise to the differences and divisions among entities. We fail to understand that we are bound by and connected with the same Pure Consciousness.
Your True Nature
The awakening to the truth of Advaita, the nature of our Pure Consciousness, will dissolve our differences at body, mind, and intellect levels. Mind will be transcended, prevailed upon with absolute wisdom and compassion.This state of enlightenment has been achieved by Krishna, the Buddha, Jesus and others.They see the real world as it is without any distortions.They understand the ignorance and consequent sufferings of all living beings in the saha world. Although, they have escaped the vicious cycle of birth and death since their enlightenment, out of their unbound and profound compassion, they take human embodiments from time to time to lead all living beings towards absolute happiness. Now, it is our turn to understand this reality and realise our true nature.
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