{"id":652,"date":"2013-07-13T01:29:29","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=652"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:29:29","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:29","slug":"40-kena-upanishad-vol-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/12-the-upanishad-volume-12\/40-kena-upanishad-vol-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","title":{"rendered":"-40_Kena Upanishad.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\n
\nKena Upanishad<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nFOREWORD<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/span>S
\nTHE <\/span><\/b>Isha Upanishad is concerned with the problem
\nof God and the world and consequently with the harmonising of spirituality and
\nordinary human action, so the Kena is occupied with the problem of God and the
\nSoul, and the harmonising of our personal activity with the movement of infinite
\nenergy and the supremacy of the universal Will. We are not here in this universe
\nas independent existences. It is evident that we are limited beings clashing
\nwith other limited beings, clashing with the forces of material Nature, clashing
\ntoo with forces of immaterial Nature of which we are aware not with the senses
\nbut 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
\nis in relation with the outside world through the senses, through the vitality,
\nthrough mind. It is entangled in the mesh of its instruments, thinks they alone
\nexist or is absorbed in their action with which it identifies itself \u2014 it
\nforgets itself in its activities. To recall it to itself, to lift it above this
\nlife of the senses, so that even while living in this world, it shall always
\nrefer itself and its actions to the high universal Self and Deity which we all
\nare in the ultimate truth of our being \u2014 so that we may be free, may be plastic
\nand joyous, may be immortal, that is the object of the seer in the Kena
\nUpanishad. Briefly to explain the step by which he develops and arrives at his
\npoint and the principal philosophical positions underlying his great argument,
\nis, as always, the purpose of this commentary. There is much that might and
\nshould be said for the full realisation of this ancient gospel of submission and
\nself-surrender to the Infinite, but it is left to be said in a work of greater
\namplitude and capacity. Exegesis in faithful subordination to the strict purport
\nand connotation of the text will be here as always my principle.<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 527<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\n
\nTHE FIRST PART <\/span><\/b> \n<\/p>\n

\nTHE SELF AND THE SENSES<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n"By whom controlled, by whom commissioned and sent forth
\nfalleth the mind on its object, by whom yoked to its activity goeth abroad this
\nchief of the vital forces ? By whom controlled is the word that men speak, and
\nwhat God set ear and eye to their workings ? That which is hearing within
\nhearing, mind of the mind, speech behind the word, he too is the life of
\nvitality and the sight within vision; the calm of soul are liberated from these
\ninstruments and passing beyond this world become Immortals…. There the eye
\ngoes not and speech cannot follow nor the mind; we know it not nor can we decide
\nby reason how to teach of it; for verily it is other than the known and it is
\nbeyond the unknown; so have we heard from the men that went before us by whom to
\nus this Brahman was declared. That which is not uttered by speech but by which
\nspeech is expressed, know thou that to be the Soul of things and not this which
\nmen here pursue. That which thinketh not by the mind but by which mind itself is
\nrealised, know thou that to be the Soul of things, not this which men here
\npursue. That which seeth not by sight, but by which one seeth things visible,
\nknow thou that to be the Soul of things and not this which men here pursue. That
\nwhich heareth not by hearing but by which hearing becomes subject to knowledge
\nthrough the ear, know thou that to be the Soul of things and not this which men
\nhere pursue. That which liveth not by the breathing but by which the breath
\nbecometh a mass of vitality, know thou that to be the Soul of things and not
\nthis which men here pursue."<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nI<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nIn order to understand the question with which the Upanishad
\nopens its train of thought, it is necessary to remember the ideas of the
\nVedantic thinkers about the phenomena of sensation, life, mind and ideas which
\nare the elements of all our activity<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\n        
\nPage \u2013 528<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nin the body. It is noticeable that the body itself and
\nmatter, the principle of which the body is a manifestation, are not even
\nmentioned in this Upanishad. The problem of matter the Seer supposes to have
\nbeen so far solved for the inquirer that he no longer regards the physical state
\nof consciousness as fundamental and no longer considers it as a reality separate
\nfrom conscious\u00adness. All this world is only conscious Being. Matter to the
\nVedantist is only one of several states \u2014 in reality movements <\/i>\u2014 of this
\nconscious being, \u2014 a state in which this universal consciousness having created
\nforms in itself, within and out of that as substance, absorbs and loses itself
\nby concentration in the idea of being a substance of form. It is still conscious
\nbut as form, ceases to be self-conscious. The Purusha, in matter, the Knower in
\nthe leaf, clod, stone, is involved in form, forgets himself in this movement of
\nhis Prakriti or Mode of Action, and loses hold in full self-knowledge of his
\nself of conscious being and delight. He is not in possession of himself; he is
\nnot ātmavān<\/i>. He has to get back what he has lost to become ātmavān<\/i>,
\nand that simply means that he has to become .gradually aware in matter of that
\nwhich He has hidden from Himself in matter. He has to evolve what He has
\ninvolved. This recovery in knowledge of our full and real Self is the sole
\nsense, meaning and purpose of evolution. In reality it is no evolution but a
\nmanifestation. We are already what we become. That which is still future in
\nmatter is already present in Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor that which we regard as matter cannot be, if the Vedantic
\nview is right, mere matter, mere inert existence, eternally bound by its own
\ninertness. Even in a materialistic view of the world matter cannot be what it
\nseems, but is only a form or movement of Force which the Indians call Prakriti.
\nThis Force, according to the Upanishads, is composed in its action, and capable
\nin its potentiality, of several principles of which matter, mind and life are
\nthose already manifest, active in this world, and where one of these principles
\nis active, the others must also be there, involved in it; or to put it in
\nanother way. Force acting as one of its own principles, one of its movements, is
\ninherently capable even in that movement of all the others. If in the leaf,
\nclod, stone and metal life and mind are not active, it is not because they are
\nnot<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 529<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\npresent, but because they are not yet brought forward (prakr<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>ta<\/span><\/i>)
\nand organised for action. They are kept concealed, in the background of the
\nconsciousness-being which is the leaf, stone or clod; they are not yet vīl<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>u<\/span><\/i>,
\nas the Rig-veda would say, but guhā<\/i>, not vyakta<\/i> but avyakta<\/i>.
\nIt is a great error to hold that that which is not manifest just now or in this
\nor that place or active, does not there and then exist. Concealment is not
\nannihilation; non-action is not non-being, nor does the combination of secrecy
\nand inaction constitute non-existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIf it is asked how we know that there is the Purusha or
\nKnower in the leaf, clod or stone, the Vedantin answers that, apart from the
\nperceptions of the Seer and the subjective and objective experiences by which
\nthe validity of the perceptions is firmly established in the reason, the very
\nfact that the Knower emerges in matter shows that He must have been there all
\nthe time. And if He was there in some form of matter He must have been there
\ngenerally or in all; for Nature is one and knows no essential division but only
\ndifferences of form, circumstance and manifestation. There are not many
\nsubstances in this world, but one substance variously concentrated in many
\nforms, not many lives but one life variously active in many bodies, not many
\nminds but one mind variously intelligent in many embodied vitalities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt is, at first sight, a plausible theory that life and mind
\nare only particular movements of matter itself under certain condi\u00adtions and
\nneed not therefore be regarded as independent immaterial movements of
\nconsciousness involved in matter but only as latent material activities of which
\nmatter is capable. But this view can only be held so long as it appears that
\nmind and life can only exist in this body and cease as soon as the body is
\nbroken up, can only know through the bodily instruments and can only operate in
\nobedience to and as the result of certain material movements. The sages of the
\nUpanishads had already proved by their own experience as Yogins that none of
\nthese limitations are inherent in the nature of life and mind. The mind and life
\nwhich are in this body can depart from it, intact, and still organised, and act
\nmore freely outside it; mind can know even material things without the help of
\nthe physical eye, touch or ear; life itself is not conditioned necessarily, and
\nmind not even conditioned <\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 530<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nusually, though it is usually affected by the states of the
\nbody or its movements. It can always and does frequently in our experience
\ntranscend them. It can entirely master and determine the conditions of the body.
\nTherefore mind is capable of freedom from the matter in which it dwells here \u2014
\nfreedom in being, freedom in knowledge, freedom in power.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt is true that while working in matter, every movement of
\nmind produces some effect and consequently some state or movement in the body,
\nbut this does not show that the mind is the material result of matter any more
\nthan steam is the mechanical result of the machine. This world in which mind is
\nat present moving, in the system of phenomena to which we are now overtly
\nrelated, is a world of matter, where to start with, it is true to say, annam
\nvai sarvam<\/i>: All is matter. Mind and life awaken in it and seek to express
\nthemselves in it. Since and when they act in it, every movement they make must
\nhave an effect upon it and produce a movement in it, just as the activity of
\nsteam must produce an effect in the machine in which its force is acting. Mind
\nand life also use particular parts of the bodily machine for particular
\nfunctions and when these parts are injured the workings of life and mind are
\ncorrespondingly hampered, rendered difficult or for a time impossible \u2014 and even
\naltogether impossible unless life and mind are given time, impulse and
\nopportunity to readjust themselves to the new circumstances and either re-create
\nor patch up the old means or adopt a new system of function. It is obvious that
\nsuch a combination of time, impulse and opportunity cannot usually or even often
\noccur, \u2014 cannot occur at all unless men have the faith, the nis<\/i><\/span>̣̣<\/span>t<\/span>̣<\/span>hā<\/span><\/i>
\n\u2014 unless, that is to say, they know beforehand that it can be done or have
\naccustomed themselves to seek for the means. Bodies, drowned and "lifeless", \u2014
\nnothing is really lifeless in the world, \u2014 can now be brought back to life
\nbecause men believe and know that it can be done and have found a means to do it
\nbefore the organised mind and life have had time to detach themselves entirely
\nfrom the unorganised life which is present in all matter. So it is with all
\npowers and operations. They are only impossible so long as we do not believe in
\ntheir possibility and do not take the trouble or have not the clarity of mind to
\nfind their right process.<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 531<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nLife and mind are sometimes believed to descend, \u2014 as the
\nhypothesis is advanced\u2014into this world from another where they are more at home.
\nIf by world is meant not another star or system in this material universe, but
\nsome other systematisation of universal consciousness, the Vedantin who follows
\nthe Vedas and Upanishads, will not disagree. Life and mind in another star or
\nsystem of this visible universe might, it is conceivable, be more free and
\ntherefore at home; but they would still be active in a world whose basis and
\ntrue substance was matter. There would therefore be no essential alteration in
\nthe circumstances of its action nor could the problem of their origin here be at
\nall better solved. But it is reasonable to suppose that just as here Force
\norganises itself in matter as its fundamental continent and movement, so there
\nshould be \u2014 the knowledge and experience of the ancient thinkers showed them
\nthat there are \u2014 other systems of consciousness where Force organises itself in
\nlife and in mind as its fundamental continent and movement. \u2014It is not necessary
\nto consider here what would be the relations in Time and Space of such worlds
\nwith ours. Life and mind might descend ready organised from such worlds and
\nattach themselves to forms of matter here; but not in the sense of occupying
\nphysically these material forms and immediately using them, but in the sense of
\nrousing by the shock of their contact and awakening to activity the latent life
\nand mind in matter. That life and mind in matter would then proceed, under the
\nsuperior help and impulse, to organise a nervous system for the use of life and
\na system of life-movements in the nerves for the use of mind fit to express in
\nmatter the superior organisations who have descended here. It was indeed the
\nbelief of the ancients that \u2014 apart from the phenomenon of each living form as a
\nsingle organised personality \u2014 such help from the worlds of life and mind was
\nnecessary to maintain and support all functionings of life and mind here below
\nbecause of the difficulty otherwise of expressing and perfecting them in a world
\nwhich did not properly belong to them but to quite other movements. This was the
\nbasis of the idea of Devas, Daityas, Asuras, Rakshasas, Pisachas, Gandharvas,
\netc., with which the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and Itihasa have familiarised
\nour minds. There is no reason to suppose<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 532<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nthat all worlds of this material system are the home of
\nliving things \u2014 on the contrary, the very reverse is likely to be the truth. It
\nis probably with difficulty and in a select place, that life and mind in matter
\nare evolved.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIf it were otherwise, if life and mind were to enter,
\norganised or in full power (such as they must be in worlds properly be\u00adlonging
\nto them) into material forms, these forms would immediately begin to function
\nperfectly and without farther trouble. We should not see this long and laborious
\nprocess of gradual manifestation, so laboured, so difficult, the result of so
\nfierce a struggle, of such a gigantic toil of the secret Will in matter.
\nEverywhere we see the necessity of a gradual organisation of forms. What is it
\nthat is being organised? A suitable system for the operations of life, a
\nsuitable system for the operations of mind. There are stirrings similar to those
\nthat constitute life in inanimate things and in metals, \u2014 as Science has
\nrecently discovered, \u2014 vital response and failure to respond, but no system for
\nthe regular movement of vitality has been organised; therefore metals do not
\nlive. In, the plant we have a vital system, one might almost say, a nervous
\nsystem, but although there is what might be called an unconscious mind in
\nplants, although in some there are even vague movements of intelligence, the
\nlife system organised is suitable only for the flow of rasa<\/i>, sap,
\nsufficient for mere life, not for prān<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>a<\/span><\/i>,
\nnerve force, necessary for the operations in matter of mind. Āpah <\/i>is
\nsufficient for life, vāyu<\/i> is necessary for life capable of mind. In the
\ninsect life is better organised on a different plane and a nervous system
\ncapable of carrying currents of Pranic force is developed as one rises in the
\nscale of animal creation, until it becomes perfect in man. It is, therefore,
\nlife and mind awakening in matter and manifesting with difficulty that is the
\ntruth of this material world, not the introduction of a ready-made life entirely
\nforeign to it in its own potentiality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIf it be said that the life or mind attaching itself to
\nmatter only enters it by degrees as the system becomes more fit, putting more
\nand more of itself into the body which is being made ready for it, that also is
\npossible and conceivable. We are indeed led to see, as we progress in
\nself-knowledge, that there is a great mental<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 533<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nactivity belonging to us only part of which is imperfectly
\nexpressed in our waking thoughts and perceptions \u2014 a subconscious or
\nsuperconscious Self which stores everything, remembers everything, foresees
\neverything, in a way knows everything know-able, has possession of all that is
\nfalse, and all that is true, but only allows the waking mind into a few of its
\nrecords. 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
\nwe ourselves are not in our totality or essentiality the life and mind in the
\nbody, but are using that principle for our purpose or our play in matter. It
\ndoes not prove that there is no principle of life and mind in matter. On the
\ncontrary, there is reason to believe that matter is similarly involved in mind
\nand life and that wherever there is movement of life and mind, it tends to
\ndevelop for itself some form of body in which securely to individualise itself.
\nBy analogy we must suppose life and mind to be similarly involved and latent
\n(inherent) in matter and therefore evolvable in it and capable of manifestation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWe know then the theory of the early Vedantins with regard to
\nthe relations of life, mind and matter and we may now turn to the actual
\nstatements of the Upanishad with regard to the activities of life and mind and
\ntheir relation to the Soul of things, the Brahman.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nII <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nMIND<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 \n<\/p>\n

\nIf the Upanishads were no more than philosophical
\nspeculations, it would be enough in commenting upon them to state the general
\nthought of a passage and develop its implications in modern language and its
\nbearing upon the ideas we now hold, for if they only expressed in their ancient
\nlanguage general conclusions of psychological experience, which are still easily
\naccessible and familiar, nothing would be gained by any minute emphasis on the
\nwording of our Vedantic texts. But these great writings are not the record of
\nideas; they are a record of experiences; <\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 534<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nand those experiences, psychological and spiritual, are a&
\nremote from the superficial psychology of ordinary men as are the experiments
\nand conclusions of Science from the ordinary observation of the peasant driving
\nhis plough through a soil only superficially known or the sailor of old guiding
\nhis bark by the few stars important to his rudimentary navigation. Every word in
\nthe Upanishads arises out of a depth of psychological experience and observation
\nwe no longer possess and is a key to spiritual truths which we can no longer
\nattain except by discipline of a painful difficulty. Therefore each word, as we
\nproceed, must be given its due importance. We must consider its place in the
\nthought and discover the ideas of which it was the spoken symbol.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe opening phrase of the Kena Upanishad, kenes<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>itam
\npatati pres<\/span>̣<\/span>itam manah<\/span>̣<\/span><\/i>,
\nis an example of this constant necessity. The sage is describing not the mind in
\nits entirety, but that action of it which he has found the most characteristic
\nand impor\u00adtant, that which, besides, leads up directly to the question of the
\nsecret source of all mental .action, its president and impelling power. The
\ncentral idea and common experience of this action is expressed by the word
\npatati<\/i>, falls. Motion forward and settling upon an object are the very
\nnature of mind when it acts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOur modern conception of mind is different; while
\nacknowledging its action of movement and forward attention, we are apt to regard
\nits essential and common action to be rather receptivity of objects than
\nresearch of objects. The scientific explanation of mental activity helps to
\nconfirm this notion. Fixing its eye on the nervous system and the brain, the
\nphysical channels of thought, Physiology insists on the double action of the
\nafferent and the efferent nerves as constituting the action of thought. An
\nobject falls on the sense-organs, \u2014instead of mind falling on the object, \u2014 the
\nafferent nerves carry the impact to the brain cells, their matter undergoes
\nmodification, the trans-filaments respond to the shock, a message \u2014 the will of
\nthe cell-republic \u2014 returns through the efferent nerves and that action of
\nperception, \u2014 whether of an object or the idea of an object or the idea of an
\nidea, which is the essence of thinking \u2014 is accomplished. What else the mind
\ndoes is merely the internal modification of the<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 535<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\ngrey matter of the brain and the ceaseless activity of its
\nfilaments with the store of perceptions and ideas already amassed by these
\nmiraculous bits of organised matter. These movements of the bodily machine are
\nall according to Physiology. But it has been necessary to…. The theory of
\nthought-waves or vibrations created by those animalcular.-.in order to account
\nfor the results of thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHowever widely and submissively (though) this theory has been
\nreceived by a hypnotised world, the Vedantist is bound to challenge it. His
\nresearch has fixed not only on the physiological action, the movement of the
\nbodily machine, but on the psychological action, its movement of the force that
\nholds the machine, \u2014 not only on what the mind does, but on what it omits to do.
\nHis observation supported by that careful analysis and isolation in experiment
\nof the separate mental constituents, has led him to a quite different
\nconclusion. He upholds the wisdom of the sage in the phrase patati manaḥ<\/i>.
\nAn image falls on the eye, \u2014 admittedly, the mere falling of an image on the eye
\nwill not constitute mental perception, \u2014 the mind has to give it attention; for
\nit is not the eye that sees, it is the mind that sees through the eye as an
\ninstrument, just as it is not the telescope that sees an otherwise invisible
\nsun, but the astronomer behind the telescope who sees. Therefore, physical
\nreception of images is not sight; physical reception of sounds is not hearing.
\nFor how many sights and sounds besiege us, fall on our retina, touch the
\ntympanum of the ear, yet are to our waking thought non-existent! If the body
\nwere really a self-sufficient machine, this could not happen. The impact must be
\nadmitted, the message must rush through the afferent nerve, the cells must
\nreceive the shock, the modification, the response must occur. A self-sufficient
\nmachine has no choice of action or non-action; unless it is out of order, it
\nmust do its work. But here we see there is a choice, a selection, an ample power
\nof refusal. The practical researches of the Yogins have shown besides that the
\npower of refusal can be (is) absolute, that something in us has a sovereign and
\nmany-sided faculty of selection or total prohibition of perception or thought,
\ncan even determine how if at all it shall respond, can even see without the eye
\nand hear without the ear. Even European hypnotism points to<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 536<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nsimilar phenomena. The matter cannot be settled by the rough
\nand. ready conclusions of impatient physiology eager to take a short cut to
\nTruth and interpret the world in the light of its first astonished discoveries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere the image is not seen, the sound is not heard, it is
\nbecause the mind does not settle on its object \u2014 na patati<\/i>. But we must
\nfirst go farther and inquire what it is that works in the afferent and efferent
\nnerves and ensures the attention of the nerves. It is not, we have seen, mere
\nphysical shock, a simple vibration of the bodily matter in the nerve. For, if it
\nwere, atten\u00adtion to every impact would be automatically and inevitably assured.
\nThe Vedantins say that the nerve system is an immensely intricate organised
\napparatus for the action of life in the body; what moves in them is prān<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>a<\/span><\/i>,
\nthe life principle, materialised, aerial (vāyavya<\/i>) in its nature and
\ntherefore invisible to the eye, but sufficiently capable of self-adaptation both
\nto the life of matter and the life of mind to form the meeting-place or bridge
\nof the two principles. But action of this life-principle is not sufficient in
\nitself to create thought, for if it were mind could be organised in vegetable as
\nreadily as in animal life. It is only when prana has developed a sufficient
\nintensity of movement to form a medium for the rapid activities of mind and
\nmind, at last possessed of a physical instrument, has poured itself into the
\nlife-movement and taken possession of it, that thought becomes possible. That
\nwhich moves in the nerve system is the life-current penetrated and provided with
\nthe habitual movement of mind. When the movement of mind is involved in the
\nlife-movement, as it usually is in all forms, there is no response of mental
\nknowledge to any contact or impression. For just as even in the metal there is
\nlife, so even in the metal there is mind; but it is latent, involved, its action
\nsecret, \u2014 unconscious, as we say, and confined to a passive reception into
\nmatter of the mind-forms created by these impacts. This will become clearer as
\nwe penetrate deeper into the mysteries of mind; we shall see that even though
\nthe clod, stone and tree do not think, they have in them the secret matrix of
\nmind and in that matrix forms are stored which can be translated into mental
\nsymbols, into perception, idea and word. But it is only as the life-currents
\ngain in<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 537<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nintensity and rapidity and subtlety, making the body of
\nthings less durable but more capable of work, that mind-action becomes
\nincreasingly possible and once manifested more and more minutely and intricately
\neffective. For body and life here are the pratis<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>t<\/span>̣<\/span>hā<\/span><\/i>,
\nthe basis of mind. A point, however, comes at which mind has got in life all
\nthat it needs for its higher development, and from that time it goes on
\nenlarging itself and its activities out of all proportions to the farther
\norganisation of its bodily and vital instruments or even without any such
\nfarther organisation in the lower man.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut even in the highest forms here in this material world,
\nmatter being the basis, life an intermediary and mind the third result, the
\nnormal rule is that matter and life (where life is expressed) shall always be
\nactive, mind only exceptionally active in the body<\/i>. In other words, the
\nordinary action of mind is subconscious and receptive, as in the stone, clod and
\ntree. The image that touches the eye, the sound that touches the ear is
\nimmediately taken in by the mind-informed life, the mind-informed and
\nlife-informed matter and becomes a part of the experience of Brahman in that
\nsystem. Not only does it create a vibration in body, a stream of movement in
\nlife but also an impression in mind. This is inevitable, because mind, life and
\nmatter are one. Where one is, the others are, manifest or latent, involved or
\nevolved, supraliminal active or subliminally active. The sword which has struck
\nin the battle, retains in itself the mental impression of the stroke, the
\nstriker and the stricken and that ancient event can be read centuries afterwards
\nby the Yogin who has trained himself to translate its mind-forms into the active
\nlanguage of mind. Thus every thing that occurs around us leaves on us its secret
\nstamp and impression. That this is so, the recent discoveries of European
\npsychology have begun to prove and from the ordinary point of view, it is one of
\nthe most amazing and stupendous facts of existence; but from the Vedantist’s it
\nis the most simple, natural and inevitable. This survival of all experience in a
\nmighty and lasting record, is not confined to such impressions as are conveyed
\nto the brain through the senses, but extends to all that can in any way come to
\nthe mind, \u2014 to distant events, to past states of existence and old occurrences
\nin<\/span><\/p>\n

                                                                                                               
\n
\nPage \u2013 538<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nwhich our present senses had no part, to the experiences
\ngarnered in dream and in dreamless sleep, to the activities that take place
\nduring the apparent unconsciousness or disturbed consciousness of slumber,
\ndelirium, anaesthesia and trance. Unconsciousness is an error: cessation of
\nawareness is a delusion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt is for this reason that the phenomenon on which the sage
\nlays stress as the one thing important and effective in mental action and in the
\nwaking state here, is not its receptiveness, but its outgoing force\u2014patati<\/i>.
\nIn sense-activity we can distinguish three kinds of action \u2014 first, when the
\nimpact is received subconsciously and there is no message by the mind in the
\nlife current to the brain, \u2014 even if the life current itself carry the message \u2014
\nsecondly, when the mind, aware of an impact, that is to say, falls on its
\nobject, but merely with the sensory part of itself and not with the
\nunderstanding part; thirdly, when it falls on the object with both the sensory
\nand understanding parts of itself. In the first case, there is no act of mental
\nknowledge, no attention of eye or mind, as when we pass, absorbed in thought,
\nthrough a scene of Nature, yet have seen nothing, been aware of nothing. In the
\nsecond there is an act of sensory knowledge. The mind in the eye attends and
\nobserves, however slightly; the thing is perceived but not conceived or only
\npartly conceived, as when the maidservant going about her work, listens to the
\nHebrew of her master, hearing all, but distinguishing and understanding nothing,
\nnot really attending except through the ear alone. In the third there is true
\nmental perception and conception or the attempt at perception and conception,
\nand only the last movement comes within the description given by the sage \u2014
\nis<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>itam pres<\/span>̣<\/span>itam
\npatati manas<\/span><\/i>. But we must observe that in all
\nthese cases somebody is attending, something is both aware and understands. The
\nman, unconscious under an anaesthetic drug in an operation, can in hypnosis when
\nhis deeper faculties are released, remember and relate accurately everything
\nthat occurred to him in his state of supposed unconsciousness. The maidservant,
\nthrown into an abnormal condition, can remember every word of her master’s
\nHebrew discourse and repeat in perfect order and without a single error
\nsentences in the language she did not understand. And, it may surely be
\npredicted, one day we shall find that the thing our<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 539<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nminds strove so hard to attend to and fathom, this passage in
\na new language, that new and unclassed phenomenon, was per\u00adfectly perceived,
\nperfectly understood, automatically, infallibly, by something within us which
\neither could not or did not convey its knowledge to the mind. We were only
\ntrying to make operative on the level of mind, a knowledge we already in some
\nrecess of our being perfectly possessed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

 \n <\/p>\n

\n        (Incomplete<\/i>)<\/span> \n <\/p>\n

\n
\n           
\nPage \u2013 540<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kena Upanishad   FOREWORD   AS THE Isha Upanishad is concerned with the problem of God and the world and consequently with the harmonising of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","wpcat-14-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652","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=652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}