{"id":1544,"date":"2013-07-13T01:35:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1544"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:35:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:35","slug":"33-kena-upanishad-an-incomplete-commentary-vol-18-kena-and-other-upanishads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/18-kena-and-other-upanishads\/33-kena-upanishad-an-incomplete-commentary-vol-18-kena-and-other-upanishads","title":{"rendered":"-33_Kena Upanishad An Incomplete Commentary.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\n Section Four <\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n Incomplete Commentaries
\n<\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n on the Kena Upanishad <\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n Circa 1912 \u00ad 1914
\n <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n Kena Upanishad <\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n An Incomplete Commentary
\n<\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n Foreword <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n As the Isha Upanishad is concerned with the problem of God
\n& the world and consequently with the harmonising of spirituality & ordinary human action, so the Kena is occupied with
\nthe problem of God & the Soul and the harmonising of our personal activity with the movement of infinite energy & the
\nsupremacy of the universal Will. We are not here in this universe as independent existences. It is evident that we are limited beings
\nclashing with other limited beings, clashing with the forces of material Nature, clashing too with forces of immaterial Nature
\nof which we are aware not with the senses but by the mind. The Upanishad takes for granted that we are souls, not merely
\nlife-inspired bodies\u2014into that question it does not enter. But this soul in us is in relation with the outside world through the
\nsenses, through the vitality, through mind. It is entangled in the mesh of its instruments, thinks they alone exist or is absorbed
\nin their action with which it identifies itself\u2014it forgets itself in its activities. To recall it to itself, to lift it above this life of the
\nsenses, so that even while living in this world, it shall always refer itself & its actions to the high universal Self & Deity which
\nwe all are in the ultimate truth of our being\u2014so that we may be free, may be pure & joyous, may be immortal, that is the
\nobject of the seer in the Kena Upanishad. Briefly to explain the steps by which he develops and arrives at his point and the
\nprincipal philosophical positions underlying his great argument, is as always the purpose of this commentary. There is much that
\nmight & should be said for the full realisation of this ancient gospel of submission & self-surrender to the Infinite, but it is left
\nto be said in a work of greater amplitude and capacity. Exegesis <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 297<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

in faithful subordination to the strict purport & connotation of the text will be here as always my principle.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

_____<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

_____<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The First Part <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The Self & the Senses <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

“By whom controlled, by whom commissioned & sent forth falleth the mind on its object, by whom yoked to its activity
\ngoeth abroad this chief of the vital forces? By whom controlled is this word that men speak, and what god set ear & eye to their
\nworkings? That which is hearing within hearing, mind of the mind, speech behind the word, he too is the life of vitality &
\nthe sight within vision; the calm of soul are liberated from these instruments and passing beyond this world become Immortals…
\nThere the eye goes not & speech cannot follow nor the mind; we know it not nor can we decide by reason how to teach of it; for
\nverily it is other than the known & it is beyond the unknown; so have we heard from the men that went before us by whom
\nto us this Brahman was declared. That which is not uttered by speech, but by which speech is expressed, know thou that to be
\nthe Soul of things and not this which men here pursue. That which thinketh not by the mind, but by which mind itself is realised, know thou that to be the Soul of things, not this which men here pursue. That which seeth not by sight, but by which
\none seeth things visible, know thou that to be the Soul of things and not this which men here pursue. That which heareth not
\nby hearing but by which hearing becomes subject to knowledge through the ear, know thou that to be the Soul of things &
\nnot this which men here pursue. That which liveth not by the breathing, but by which the breath becometh means of vitality,
\nknow thou that to be the Soul of things & not this which men here pursue.”
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 298<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n I <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n In order to understand the question with which the Upanishad
\nopens its train of thought, it is necessary to remember the ideas of the Vedantic thinkers about the phenomena of sensation, life,
\nmind and ideas which are the elements of all our activity in the body. It is noticeable that the body itself and matter, [the] principle of which the body is a manifestation, are not even mentioned in this Upanishad. The problem of matter the Seer supposes to
\nhave been so far solved for the inquirer that he no longer regards the physical state of consciousness as fundamental and no
\nlonger considers it as a reality separate from consciousness. All this world is only one conscious Being. Matter to the Vedantist
\nis only one of several states\u2014in reality, movements\u2014of this conscious being,\u2014a state in which this universal consciousness,
\nhaving created forms within & out of itself as substance, absorbs & loses itself by concentration in the idea of being as substance
\nof form. It is still conscious, but, as form, ceases to be self-conscious. The Purusha in matter, the Knower in the leaf, clod,
\nstone, is involved in form, forgets himself in this movement of his Prakriti or Mode of Action and loses hold in outgoing
\nknowledge of his self of conscious being & delight. He is not in possession of himself; He is not Atmavan. He has to get back
\nwhat he has lost, to become Atmavan, and that simply means that He has to become gradually aware in matter of that which
\nHe has hidden from Himself in matter. He has to evolve what He has involved. This recovery in knowledge of our full and real
\nself is the sole secret meaning & purpose of evolution. In reality it is no evolution, but a manifestation. We are already what we
\nbecome. That which is still future in matter, is already present in Spirit. That which the mind in matter does not yet know, it is
\nhiding from itself\u2014that in us which is behind mind & informs it already knows\u2014but it keeps its secret.
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n For that which we regard as matter, cannot be, if the Vedantic view is right, mere matter, mere inert existence, eternally
\nbound by its own inertness. Even in a materialistic view of the world matter cannot be what it seems, but is only a form or
\n 300<\/i> <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 299<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

movement of Force which the Indians call Prakriti. This Force, according to the Upanishads, is composed in its action & capable
\nin its potentiality of several principles, of which matter, mind & life are those already manifestly active in this world, and where
\none of these principles is active, the others must also be there, involved in it; or, to put it in another way, Force acting as one of
\nits own principles, one of its movements, is inherently capable even in that movement of all the others. If in the leaf, clod,
\nstone & metal life and mind are not active, it is not because they are not present, but because they are not yet brought forward
\n(prakrita) and organised for action. They are kept concealed, in the background of the consciousness-being which is the leaf,
\nstone or clod; they are not yet vil<\/font>u, as the Rigveda would say, but l
\nguha, not vyakta, but avyakta. It is a great error to hold that that which is not just now or in this or that place manifest or active,
\ndoes not there & then exist. Concealment is not annihilation; non-action is not non-being nor does the combination of secrecy
\n& inaction constitute non-existence. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

If it is asked how we know that there is the Purusha or
\nKnower in the leaf, clod or stone,\u2014the Vedantin answers that, apart from the perceptions of the Seer & the subjective & objective experiences by which the validity of the perceptions is firmly established in the reason, the very fact that the Knower emerges
\nin matter shows that He must have been there all the time. And if He was there in some form of matter He must be there generally & in all; for Nature is one & knows no essential division, but only differences of form, circumstance and manifestation.
\nThere are not many substances in this world, but one substance variously concentrated in many forms; not many lives, but one
\nliver variously active in many bodies; not many minds, but one mind variously intelligent in many embodied vitalities.
\n \t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

It is, at first sight, a plausible theory that life & mind are only particular movements of matter itself under certain conditions
\n& need not therefore be regarded as independent immaterial movements of consciousness involved in matter but only as latent material activities of which matter is capable. But this view can only be held so long as it appears that mind and life can only
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 300<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nexist in this body & cease as soon as the body is broken up, can only know through the bodily instruments and can only operate
\nin obedience to and as the result of certain material movements. The sages of the Upanishads had already proved by their own
\nexperience as Yogins that none of these limitations are inherent in the nature of life & mind. The mind & life which are in this
\nbody can depart from it, intact & still organised, and act more freely outside it; mind can know even material things without the
\nhelp of the physical eye, touch or ear; life itself is not conditioned necessarily, and mind is not even conditioned usually, though it
\nis usually affected, by the state of the body or its movements. It can always and does frequently in our experience transcend
\nthem. It can entirely master & determine the condition of the body. Therefore mind is capable of freedom from the matter in
\nwhich it dwells here,\u2014freedom in being, freedom in knowledge, freedom in power.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n It is true that while working in matter, every movement of mind produces some effect & consequently some state or
\nmovement in the body, but this does not show that the mind is the material result of matter any more than steam is the
\nmechanical result of the machine. This world in which mind is at present moving, in the system of phenomena to which we
\nare now overtly related, is a world of matter, where, to start with, it is true to say Annam vai sarvam; All is matter. Mind
\nand life awaken in it & seek to express themselves in it. Since & when they act in it, every movement they make, must have an
\neffect upon it and produce a movement in it, just as the activity of steam must produce an effect in the machine in which its
\nforce is acting. Mind and life also use particular parts of the bodily machine for particular functions and, when these parts
\nare injured, those workings of life & mind are correspondingly hampered, rendered difficult or for a time impossible\u2014&
\n\t\t\teven altogether impossible unless life & mind are given time,
\n\t\t\timpulse & opportunity to readjust themselves to the new
\n\t\t\tcircumstances & either recreate or patch up the old means or adopt a
\n\t\t\tnew system of function. It is obvious that such a combination of
\n\t\t\ttime, impulse & opportunity cannot usually or even often occur,\u2014
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 301<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

cannot occur at all unless men have the faith, the nistha\u2014unless that is to say, they know beforehand that it can be done & have
\naccustomed themselves to seek for the means. Bodies, drowned & “lifeless”,\u2014nothing is really lifeless in the world,\u2014can now
\nbe brought back to life because men believe & know that it can be done & have found a means to do it before the organised
\nmind & life have had time to detach themselves entirely from the unorganised life which is present in all matter. So it is with
\nall powers & operations. They are only impossible so long as we do not believe in their possibility & do not take the trouble
\nor have not the clarity of mind to find their right process.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

Life & mind are sometimes believed to descend,\u2014or the
\nhypothesis is advanced\u2014into this world from another where they are more at home. If by world is meant not another star or
\nsystem in this material universe, but some other systematisation of universal consciousness, the Vedantin who follows the Vedas
\n& Upanishads, will not disagree. Life & mind in another star or system of this visible universe might, it is conceivable, be
\nmore free and, therefore, at home; but they would still be acting in a world whose basis & true substance was matter. There
\nwould therefore be no essential alteration in the circumstances of their action nor would the problem of their origin here be at
\nall better solved. But it is reasonable to suppose that just as here Force organises itself in matter as its fundamental continent &
\nmovement, so there should be\u2014the knowledge & experience of the ancient thinkers showed them that there are\u2014other systems
\nof consciousness where Force organises itself in life and in mind as its fundamental continent & movement.\u2014It is not necessary
\nto consider here what would be the relations in Time & Space of such worlds with ours. Life & mind might descend, ready
\norganised, from such worlds and attach themselves to forms of matter here; but not in the sense of occupying physically these
\nmaterial forms & immediately using them, but in the sense of rousing by the shock of their contact & awakening to activity the
\nlatent life & mind in matter. That life & mind in matter would then proceed, under the superior help & impulse, to organise a
\nnervous system for the use of life and a system of life-movements <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 302<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nin the nerves for the use of mind fit to express in matter the superior organisations who have descended here. It was indeed
\nthe belief of the ancients that\u2014apart from the government of each living form by a single organised personality\u2014such help
\nfrom the worlds of life & mind was necessary to maintain & support all functionings of life & mind here below because of
\nthe difficulty otherwise of expressing & perfecting them in a world which did not properly belong to them but to quite other
\nmovements. This was the basis of the idea of Devas, Daityas, Asuras, Rakshasas, Pisachas, Gandharvas etc, with which the
\nVeda, Upanishad & Itihasa have familiarised our minds. There is no reason to suppose that all worlds of this material system
\nare the home of living things\u2014on the contrary the very reverse is likely to be the truth. It is, probably, with difficulty & in select
\nplaces that life & mind in matter are evolved.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n If it were otherwise, if life & mind were to enter, organised
\nor in full power, (such as they must be in worlds properly belonging to them) into material forms, those forms would immediately
\nbegin to function perfectly & without farther trouble. We should not see this long & laborious process of gradual manifestation,
\nso laboured, so difficult, the result of so fierce a struggle, of such a gigantic toil of the secret Will in matter. Everywhere we see
\nthe necessity of a gradual organisation of forms. What is it that is being organised? A suitable system for the operations of life,
\na suitable system for the operations of mind. There are stirrings similar to those that constitute life in inanimate things, in metals\u2014as Science has recently discovered,\u2014vital response & failure to respond, but no system for the regular movement of vitality
\nhas been organised; therefore metals do not live. In the plant we have a vital system, one might almost say a nervous system,
\nbut although there is what might be called an unconscious mind in plants, although in some there are even vague movements of
\nintelligence, the life system organised is suitable only for the flow of rasa, sap, sufficient for mere life, not for prana, nerve force,
\nnecessary for the operation in matter of mind. Apah is sufficient for life, vayu is necessary for life capable of mind. In the animal
\nlife is organised on a different plan and a nervous system capable <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 303<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

of carrying currents of pranic force is developed as one rises in the scale of animal creation, until it becomes perfect in man. It
\nis, therefore, life & mind awakening in matter & manifesting with difficulty that is the truth of this material world, not the
\nintroduction of a ready made life entirely foreign to it in its own potentiality.
\n \t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

If it be said that the life & mind attaching themselves to matter only enter it by degrees as the system becomes more fit,
\nputting more & more of itself into the body which is being made ready for it, that also is possible & conceivable. We are
\nindeed led to see, as we progress in self-knowledge, that there is a great mental activity belonging to us only part of which is
\nimperfectly expressed in our waking thoughts & perceptions\u2014a sub-conscious or super-conscious Self which stores everything,
\nremembers everything, foresees everything, in a way knows everything knowable, has possession of all that is false & all that
\nis true, but only allows the waking mind into a few of its secrets. Similarly our life in the body is only a partial expression of the
\nimmortal life of which we are the assured possessors. But this only proves that we ourselves are not in our totality or essentiality the life & mind in the body, but are using that principle for our purpose or our play in matter. It does not prove that there
\nis no principle of life & mind in matter. On the contrary, there is reason to believe that matter is similarly involved in mind &
\nlife & that wherever there is movement of life & mind, it tends to develop for itself some form of body in which securely to individualise itself. By analogy we must suppose life & mind to be similarly involved & latent in matter & therefore evolvable
\nin it & capable of manifestation.
\n \t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

We know then the theory of the early Vedantins with regard
\nto the relations of life, mind and matter & we may now turn to the actual statements of the Upanishad with regard to the
\nactivities of life & mind and their relation to the soul of things, the Brahman.
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t_____<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 304<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n II <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n Mind <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n If the Upanishads were no more than philosophical speculations, it would be enough in commenting upon them to state the general thought of a passage and develop its implications in modern language and its bearing upon the ideas we now hold. Or if they
\nonly expressed in their ancient language general conclusions of psychological experience, which are still easily accessible &
\nfamiliar, nothing would be gained by any minute emphasis on the wording of our Vedantic texts. But these great writings are not
\nthe record of ideas; they are a record of experiences; and those experiences, psychological and spiritual, are as remote from the
\nsuperficial psychology of ordinary men as are the experiments and conclusions of Science from the ordinary observation of
\nthe peasant driving his plough through a soil only superficially known or the sailor of old guiding his bark by the few stars
\nimportant to his rudimentary investigation. Every word in the Upanishads arises out of a depth of psychological experience and
\nobservation we no longer possess and is a key to spiritual truths which we can no longer attain except by discipline of a painful
\ndifficulty. Therefore each word, as we proceed, must be given its due importance. We must consider its place in the thought and
\ndiscover the ideas of which it was the spoken symbol.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n The opening phrase of the Kena Upanishad, keneshitam
\npatati preshitam manah, is an example of this constant necessity. The Sage is describing not the mind in its entirety, but that action
\nof it which he has found the most characteristic and important, that which, besides, leads up directly to the question of the secret
\nsource of all mental action, its president and impelling power. The central and common experience of this action is expressed
\nby the word patati, falls. Motion forward and settling upon an object are the very nature of mind when it acts.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n Our modern conception of mind is different; while acknowledging its action of movement and forward attention, we are apt
\nto regard its essential & common action to be rather receptivity <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 305<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

of objects, than research of objects. The scientific explanation of mental activity helps to confirm this notion. Fixing its eye on the
\nnervous system & the brain, the physical channels of thought, Physiology insists on the double action of the afferent and the
\nefferent nerves as constituting the action of thought. An object falls on the sense-organ,\u2014instead of mind falling on the object,\u2014the afferent nerves carry the impact to the brain-cells, their matter undergoes modification, the brain-filaments respond to
\nthe shock, a message\u2014the will of the cell-republic\u2014returns through the efferent nerves and that action of perception,\u2014whether of an object or the idea of an object or the idea of an idea, which is the essence of thinking\u2014is accomplished. What
\nelse the mind does is merely the internal modification of the grey matter of the brain and the ceaseless activity of its filaments
\nwith the store of perceptions & ideas already amassed by these miraculous bits of organised matter. These movements of the
\nbodily machine are all, according to Physiology. But it has been necessary to broach the theory of thought-waves or vibrations
\ncreated by those animalcular amusements in order to account for the results of thought.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

However widely & submissively this theory has been received by a hypnotised world, the Vedantist is bound to challenge
\nit. His research has fixed not only on the physiological action, the movement of the bodily machine, but on the psychological
\naction, the movement of the force that holds the machine,\u2014not only on what the mind does, but on what it omits to do. His
\nobservation supported by that careful analysis & isolation in experiment of the separate mental constituents, has led him to a
\nquite different conclusion. He upholds the wisdom of the sage in the phrase patati manas. An image falls on the eye,\u2014admittedly,
\nthe mere falling of an image on the eye will not constitute mental perception\u2014the mind has to give it attention; for it is not the eye
\nthat sees, it is the mind that sees through the eye as an instrument, just as it is not the telescope that sees an otherwise invisible sun,
\nbut the astronomer behind the telescope who sees. Therefore, physical reception of images is not sight; physical reception of
\nsounds is not hearing. For how many sights & sounds besiege <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 306<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nus, fall on our retina, touch the tympanum of the ear, yet are to our waking thought non-existent! If the body were really a
\nself-sufficient machine, this could not happen. The impact must be admitted, the message must rush through the afferent nerve, the
\ncells must receive the shock, the modification, the response must occur. A self-sufficient machine has no choice of action or
\nnon-action; unless it is out of order, it must do its work. But here we see there is a choice, a selection, an ample power of refusal;
\nthe practical researches of the Yogins have shown besides that the power of refusal can be absolute, that something in us has a
\nsovereign & conscious faculty of selection or total prohibition of perception & thought & can even determine how, if at all,
\nit shall respond, can even see without the eye & hear without the ear. Even European hypnotism points to similar phenomena.
\nThe matter cannot be settled by the rough & ready conclusions of impatient Physiology eager to take a shortcut to Truth &
\ninterpret the world in the light of its first astonished discoveries. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n Where the image is not seen, the sound is not heard, it is
\nbecause the mind does not settle on its object\u2014na patati. But we must first go farther & inquire what it is that works in the
\nafferent & efferent nerves & insures the attention of the nerves. It is not, we have seen, mere physical shock, a simple vibration
\nof the bodily matter in the nerve. For, if it were, attention to every impact would be automatically & inevitably assured. The
\nVedantins say that the nerve system is an immensely intricate organised apparatus for the action of life in the body; what
\nmoves in them is prana, the life principle, materialised, aerial (vayavya) in its nature and therefore invisible to the eye, but
\nsufficiently capable of self-adaptation both to the life of matter & the life of mind to form the meeting place or bridge of the
\ntwo principles. But this action of life-principle is not sufficient in itself to create thought, for if it were mind could be organised in
\nvegetable as readily as in animal life. It is only when prana has developed a sufficient intensity of movement to form a medium
\nfor the rapid activities of mind and mind, at last possessed of a physical instrument, has poured itself into the life-movement
\nand taken possession of it that thought becomes possible. That <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 307<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

which moves in the nerve system is the life-current penetrated & pervaded with the habitual movement of mind. When the
\nmovement of mind is involved in the life-movement, as it usually is in all forms, there is no response of mental knowledge to any
\ncontact or impression. For just as even in the metal there is life, so even in the metal there is mind; but it is latent, involved,
\nits action secret,\u2014unconscious, as we say, and confined to a passive reception into matter of the mind-forms created by these
\nimpacts. This will become clearer as we penetrate deeper into the mysteries of mind; we shall see that even though the clod, stone
\n& tree do not think, they have in them the secret matrix of mind and in that matrix forms are stored which can be translated into
\nmental symbols, into perception, idea and word. But it is only as the life-currents gain in intensity, rapidity & subtlety, making
\nthe body of things less durable but more capable of works, that mind-action becomes increasingly possible & once manifested
\nmore & more minutely & intricately effective. For body & life here are the pratistha, the basis of mind. A point, however,
\ncomes at which mind has got in life all that it needs for its higher development; and from that time it goes on enlarging itself &
\nits activities out of all proportion to the farther organisation of its bodily & vital instruments or even without any such farther
\norganisation in the lower man.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

But even in the highest forms here in this material world,
\nmatter being the basis, life an intermediary and mind the third result, the normal rule is that matter & life (where life is expressed) shall always be active, mind only exceptionally active in<\/i> the body<\/i>. In other words, the ordinary action of mind is subconscious and receptive, as in the stone, clod & tree. The image that touches the eye, the sound that touches the ear is immediately
\ntaken in by the mind-informed life, the mind-informed & life-informed matter & becomes a part of the experience of Brahman
\nin that system. Not only does it create a vibration in body, a stream of movement in life but also an impression in mind.
\nThis is inevitable, because mind, life & matter are one. Where one is, the others are, manifest or latent, involved or evolved,
\nsupraliminally active or subliminally active. The sword which <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 308<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nhas struck in the battle, retains in itself the mental impression of the stroke, the striker & the stricken and that ancient event can
\nbe read centuries afterwards by the Yogin who has trained himself to translate its mind-forms into the active language of mind.
\nThus everything that occurs around us leaves on us its secret stamp & impression. That this is so, the recent discoveries of
\nEuropean psychology have begun to prove & from the ordinary point of view, it is one of the most amazing & stupendous facts of
\nexistence; but from the Vedantist’s it is the most simple, natural & inevitable. This survival of all experience in a mighty & lasting
\nrecord, is not confined to such impressions as are conveyed to the brain through the senses, but extends to all that can in any way
\ncome to the mind,\u2014to distant events, to past states of existence & old occurrences in which our present selves had no part, to
\nthe experiences garnered in dream & in dreamless sleep, to the activities that take place during the apparent unconsciousness
\nor disturbed consciousness of slumber, delirium, anaesthesia & trance. Unconsciousness is an error; cessation of awareness is a
\ndelusion.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n It is for this reason that the phenomenon on which the sage
\nlays stress as the one thing important & effective in mental action here & in the waking state, is not its receptiveness, but
\nits outgoing force\u2014patati. In sense-activity we can distinguish three kinds of action\u2014first, when the impact is received subconsciously & there is no message by the mind in the life current to the brain,\u2014even if the life current itself carry the message\u2014secondly, when the mind is aware of an impact, that is to say, falls on its object, but merely with the sensory part of itself &
\nnot with the understanding part; thirdly, when it falls on the object with both the sensory & understanding parts of itself. In
\nthe first case, there is no act of mental knowledge, no attention of eye or mind; as when we pass, absorbed in thought, through
\na scene of Nature, yet have seen nothing, been aware of nothing. In the second, there is an act of sensory knowledge, the mind in
\nthe eye attends & observes, however slightly; the thing is perceived but not conceived or only partly conceived, as when the
\nmaidservant going about her work, listens to the Hebrew of her <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 309<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

master, hearing all, but distinguishing & understanding nothing, not really attending except through the ear alone. In the third,
\nthere is true mental perception & conception or the attempt at perception & conception, and only the last movement comes
\nwithin the description given by the Sage\u2014ishitam preshitam patati manas. But we must observe that in all these cases somebody is attending, something is both aware & understands. The man, unconscious under an anaesthetic drug in an operation, can
\nin hypnosis when his deeper faculties are released, remember & relate accurately everything that occurred to him in his state
\nof supposed unconsciousness. The maidservant thrown into an abnormal condition, can remember every word of her master’s
\nHebrew discourse, & repeat in perfect order & without a single error long sentences in the language she did not understand.
\nAnd, it may surely be predicted, one day we shall find that the thing our minds strove so hard to attend to and fathom, this
\npassage in a new language, that new & unclassed phenomenon, was perfectly perceived, perfectly understood, automatically, infallibly, by something within us which either could not or did not convey its knowledge to the mind. We were only trying to
\nmake operative on the level of mind, a knowledge we already in some recess of our being perfectly possessed.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

From this fact appears all the significance of the sage’s sentence about the mind.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tPage – 310<\/span><\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Section Four   Incomplete Commentaries on the Kena Upanishad   Circa 1912 \u00ad 1914     Kena Upanishad   An Incomplete Commentary   Foreword  …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18-kena-and-other-upanishads","wpcat-35-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}