In2-MeC

Essay Two:

A Vedic Schema of the Mind and its Processes

Introduction

The word schema has specific usages in modern psychology. In this essay, I accept the following usage: that a schema is a pattern imposed upon a complex reality in order to assist in explaining it.

The complex reality under discussion here is the mind. I use the word mind in the sense that Srila Prabhupada uses it in the following phrase from Srimad-Bhagavatam 1. 3. 33p: ". . . the living being misinterprets the gross body and subtle mind to be his own self. " Mind, then, means the linga-sarira or subtle body. It follows that I do not take the processes of buddhi (intelligence) and ahamkara (false ego) as independent of the processes of the mind. This indeed makes for a complex subject matter, especially since I refer to Vedic sources for a description of the mind.

In Chapter 22 of Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 11, Sri Krsna tells Uddhava that Vedic sages have analyzed the tattvas (gross, subtle and spiritual categories of reality) in multifarious ways. The Lord personally teaches Uddhava twenty-eight tattvas; plus He validates eight enumerations of tattvas by other sages. Thus there are at least nine different Vedic accounts of creation that are met with approval in the Eleventh Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. In Bhagavad-gita Chapter 13, Sri Krsna teaches Arjuna yet another enumeration of tattvas. Logically, then, one might bring forth out of these ten accounts ten different descriptions of the mind and its processes.

That is why this essay presents you, the reader, a "schema" of the mind. The schema is drawn from Vedic sources; as I will take pains to show you, it is backed up by Srila Prabhupada's editions of Bhagavad- gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta and other books. But being a schema, it a simplification of a more complex reality.

This schema comes to you in four parts:

1) An Overview of the Conditioned State of the Jivatma
2) Maha-samasti, Samasti and Vyasti: How Consciousness is Conditioned
3) Vedic Depth Psychology
4) An Overview of the Psychology of Bhakti-yoga

Part One:
An Overview of the Conditioned State of the Jivatma

There are two kinds of covering powers exhibited by maya. One is called praksepatmika, and the other is called avaranatmika. When one is determined to get out of material bondage, the praksepatmika-sakti, the spell of diversion, impels one to remain in conditioned life fully satisfied by sense gratification. Due to the other power (avaranatmika), a conditioned soul feels satisfied even if he is rotting in the body of a pig or a worm in stool. To release a conditioned soul from material bondage is very difficult because the spell of maya is so strong. [C. c. Madhya 20. 6p]

Thus we begin with a general account of the conditioned state of the jivatma. What is meant by the word "conditioned"? The definition given by modern psychology is, "Exhibiting or trained to exhibit a conditioned response. " A much-cited example is Pavlov's dogs; in 1904 the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov won the Nobel Prize for discovering the conditioned response when he instilled in dogs the behavior of salivation at the ring of a bell. Dogs were first trained to associate their feeding time with a bell's ringing. When the conditioning was complete, the mere sound of the bell--absent the appearance of food--was enough to make the dogs salivate. Thus, "to be conditioned" means to mentally associate the satisfaction of a desire with a stimulus that cannot satisfy that desire.

This is precisely what happens to the jivatma when it is covered by maya.

Therefore, in Srimad-Bhagavatam the conditioned soul is likened to the camel. The camel is very fond of eating thorny twigs that cut his tongue. While he is eating them, blood issues from his tongue and mixes with the thorny twigs. They become a little tasty, and he is thinking, "Oh, these twigs are very nice. " That is called maya. Maya means "that which is not. " Ma means "not," and ya means "this. " So maya means "not this. " That is the explanation of maya, or illusion. [Life Comes From Life, The Eleventh Morning Walk]

hoya maya-das kore nana abhilasa

"A servant of maya is always overwhelmed by many desires. " [From a Bengali song cited by Srila Prabhupada in Hyderbad 1975, lecture tape 4, side B]

In the quotation about the two potencies of maya that opens this Part One of Essay Two, we saw that maya covers the jivatma by first diverting it from the real path of satisfaction, just as Pavlov's dogs were diverted to respond to the sound of a bell as if that was food. Next, maya trains the soul to passively accept the false satisfaction again and again, life after life, even when the soul is put into the body of a hog.

This process--by which the real object of desire is switched for a false one--is termed manoratha upagata in Srimad-Bhagavatam 5. 14. 17. The term is significant. Manoratha means "chariot of the mind. " Upagata means "obtained. " The indication here is that the mind is the seat or vehicle of the process by which the soul obtains something false and yet accepts it. Iti svapna-nirvrti-laksanam anubhavati, the verse concludes: "In this way the soul feels the happiness one sometimes feels in a dream, and the conditioned soul sometimes takes pleasure in such mental concoctions. " The reader will recall from Essay One that the sastra repeatedly compares the human condition to a dream-experience.

Another suitable comparison is to intoxication and addiction.

We are already intoxicated. Being under the influence of maya, the material energy, we are already forgotten of ourself. Everybody. Nobody knows that he's not this body. This is another intoxication. He is not this body, this is a fact, but go to the outside of this temple, ask anybody, "What you are?" "Yes, I am this body. " They are already intoxicated. [Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam, 2 December 1973, Los Angeles]

Those who are addicted to fruitive activities and speculative knowledge cannot understand the value of the holy name of the Lord, Krsna, who is always completely pure, eternally liberated and full of spiritual bliss. [C. c. Adi 7. 72p]

Let us consider addiction for a moment. It begins with intoxication; by those who enjoy it, intoxication is experienced as bliss and freedom. As addicition takes hold by way of repeated intoxication, it becomes apparent that this bliss and freedom is actually repressive. The addict is caught in a ever-closing spiral of habituation. At first the circle drawn by addiction is very broad. It allows within its diameter the affairs of a normal life: family, job, friends, respectable social position. But as the spiral descends and the circle tightens, such interests are squeezed out. Soon there is no room at all for a normal life. The addict's entire energy is dedicated to the gratification of his one, all-consuming "need. "

But addiction is not a real need at all. It is a conditioning of consciousness whereby, like a dog who cannot help but drool at the sound of a bell, a living entity is forced by nature to be attached to something that incites uncontrollable desires but cannot deliver relief from those desires. To be addicted means to desire to consume a thing that consumes the addict with desire.

The logistics of addiction are provided by maya. What are logistics? These are the procurement, distribution, maintenance, and replacement of the materiel and personnel of addiction. In short, maya gives the facility. But the individual soul himself creates the "need. " Thus he cannot blame maya for his addiction. He creates the need by his choice of what he deems to be bliss and freedom.

karya-karana-kartrtve
hetuh prakrtir ucyate
purusah sukha-duhkhanam
bhoktrtve hetur ucyate

Nature is said to be the cause of all material causes and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world. [B. g. 13. 21]

Srila Prabhupada explains:

Everything is suffering according to the body, and the body is supplied by the nature. That is explained here. Karya-karana- kartrtve hetuh prakrtir ucyate. Kartrtve, my action, that is also directed by the material nature. Originally directed by Isvara, who is sitting within your heart, sarvasya caham hrdi sannivistho mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca, but it is being acted through the agency of material nature.

Karya-karana-kartrtve hetuh prakrtir ucyate. Prakrtir. Just like one criminal is punished by the magistrate, that "This man should undergo six months' imprisonment. " So the judge or the magistrate superficially is the cause of his punishment, but actually he's not. He's giving him punishment according to law. I have created such a situation, I have made myself a criminal, and the magistrate, according to law, giving me punishment. So actually, directly, the magistrate is not the cause of my suffering. Why he should be cause? He's not your enemy. This is going on.

Karya-karana-kartrtve ketuh prakrtir ucyate purusah sukha-duhkhanam bhoktrtve hetur ucyate. So bhoktrtva, my enjoyment, because we have come to this material world for enjoyment. So everyone's enjoyment is not on the same standard. We can see that. Somebody is enjoying some way, another is enjoying. . . "One man's food, another man's poison. " What is enjoyed by the hog is not enjoyed by other animal. This is going on.

Therefore when we get real consciousness by good association, if we can understand that "I am under the clutches of maya, prakrti, and I'm dictated according to my association with the quality of the nature and I am getting different types of bodies, different types of situation for my distress or happiness. This is my position, under, fully under the control of the prakrti. " [Lecture on Bhagavad-gita 13. 21, 15 October 1973, Bombay]

Srila Prabhupada's example of a magistrate sentencing a criminal to imprisonment is yet another suitable comparison. Addiction is a choice of criminal behavior and also a type of imprisonment. The judge is material nature. Behind material nature is the Supersoul. From Him we get the knowledge, rememberance and forgetfulness that constitute our particular notion of bliss and freedom. But the seed of that notion is what we want. Hence, our choice comes first. Supersoul helps us realize our choice, whatever it may be. Though we get assistance from Supersoul and His prakrti, our choice is our responsibility.

We have seen that the conditioning of consciousness is a two-fold covering of the soul by maya. We have gone through several analogies to help us grasp how pure consciousness gets covered: it is like Pavlov's experiment on dogs, it is like a dream, it is like intoxication, it is like addiction, it is like choosing to do a criminal act and getting imprisoned as a result. Let us now go from analogy to a summary overview given by a great Vaisnava acarya. In his Govinda Bhasya commentary to Vedanta-sutra 4. 4. 19, Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana writes,

vikare prapance janmadi satake va na vartate
iti vikaravarti niravadyam brahma svarupam
tadgunabhutam taddhamadikam ca tattadvisayaya
vidyaya tattadavrtti pariksayan muktastadanubhavams
tisthatiti na kincidunam
hi yathah kathasrutirmuktasya tatha sthitim aha
puram ekadasadvaramajasyavakrtatejasah
anusthaya na socati vimuktasca vimucyate iti
svarupavarikaya vrttya mimukto vidvangunavarikaya
taya vimucyate ityathah

There are six kinds of transformations (vikara) that living entities undergo in material existence [birth, growth, sustenance, reproduction, dwindling and death]. Whatever is transcendental to vikara is called vikara-avarti. The Lord, His abode and all that share the divine qualities of the Lord are vikara-avarti. The liberated soul knows all the realms (vikara and vikara-avarti) and everything about the Lord, the source of these realms. The liberated soul and the bound soul dwell within the same realms, but the liberated soul is not covered. Katha Upanisad 2. 2. 1 explains, "There is a city of eleven gates [the human body] belonging to the unborn, pure-hearted Supreme. One who meditates on Him never laments within that place. Being free of that which covers the form of Lord, he is free of the covering of material nature. " Thus the liberated soul is free of svarupa-avarika (ignorance that covers spiritual form) and guna-avarika (the covering of consciousness by the three modes). The first point here is transformation. The six kinds of transformation listed in the above quotation are indicitive of a transformation of consciousness. Those souls who are affected by the six vikaras are themselves transformed in consciousness from the liberated state of spiritual bliss to bondage and lamentation.

But can consciousness really be transformed? Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 5. 11. 11,

One should not think that all the interactions of the physical elements, gross and subtle, that cause the transformation of mind and consciousness are working independently. They are under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In Bhagavad-gita (15. 15), Krsna says that the Lord is situated in everyone's heart (sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca). As mentioned herein, Supersoul (ksetrajna) is directing everything. The living entity is also ksetrajna, but the supreme ksetrajna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the witness and order giver. Under His direction, everything takes place. The different inclinations of the living entity are created by his own nature or his expectations, and he is trained by the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the agency of material nature.

The Mayavadis hold to the doctrine that consciousness is nirvikara or untransformable. Thus to explain the conditioned state, they resort to illusionism: that our present perceptions and conceptions of material existence are utterly subjective and insubstantial. Such perceptions and conceptions, they argue, are in every sense disconnected from reality. This logic of utter disconnection obliges the Mayavadis to decry perceptual and conceptual qualities in the Absolute Truth. Names, forms, characteristics, personalities, activities and relationships are never more than hallucinations because without exception they have no existence in Reality.

The Vaisnavas hold that mundane names, forms, characteristics, personalities, activities and relationships are unreal because they are temporary; but still maya has real power to bewilder consciousness because it is a perverted reflection of the real and original transcendental names, forms, characteristics, personalities, activities and relationships eternally manifest in the spiritual world by Bhagavan Sri Krsna. The Mayavadis are quasi-atheists. They cannot accept Krsna as the Supreme Truth and the Supreme Controller, although He declares this of Himself in Bhagavad-gita 7. 7 and 8. 9. Their search for God ends only with consciousness of the self. Thus they cannot accept that consciousness can be transformed. But it can be--by Lord Krsna's will.

Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana states above that the realms of vikara (transformation) and vikara-avarti (transcendence) are both under the authority of the Lord. The transcendental realm is of the Lord's personal divine nature. The material realm--the "city of eleven gates," i. e. the human body--is of a different nature, but nonetheless it is the property of the Lord.

We are familiar with "the city of nine gates" (nava-dvara pura) from Bhagavad-gita 5. 13, in which the two eyes, two ears, one genital, two nostrils, one mouth and one rectum are the gates. The city of eleven gates (puram ekadasadvaram) is just a different enumeration of the sensory openings that is taught in Katha Upanisad. These are: srotra (hearing), tvak (tactile sensation), caksus (eyes), jihva (tongue as taster), vak (voice), pani (hands), pada (feet), payu (anus), upastha (genital) and manas (mind).

The point is that both the spiritual and material realms are controlled and owned by the Lord, and the liberated soul--the Lord's pure devotee--knows both realms and indeed dwells within them. The conditioned soul likewise dwells within both realms. He is always an infinitesimal part and parcel of Lord Krsna's spiritual nature. But he has forgotten Krsna. Thus he is covered by ignorance of the Lord's form, and his own spiritual form too. In other words, he is diverted from the actual object of his desire, which is the transcendental satisfaction of loving exchange with the Lord. In his ignorance of spiritual form, the conditioned soul is further covered by the three modes of material nature. . . which means he takes on a material form. This is all effected by a transformation of consciousness. And so the conditioned soul experiences himself subject to birth, growth, sustenance, reproduction, dwindling and death.

These six transformations are experienced because the conditioned soul finds his identity within eight kinds of elements in the form of the gross and subtle bodies: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego. Through the agency of these gross and subtle energies he acquires thirteen kinds of senses:

All our ordinary actions and perceptions depend on various forms of energy supplied to us by nature in various combinations. Our senses of perception and of action, that is to say, our five perceptive senses of (1) hearing, (2) touch, (3) sight, (4) taste and (5) smell, as well as our five senses of action, namely (1) hands, (2) legs, (3) speech, (4) evacuation organs and (5) reproductive organs, and also our three subtle senses, namely (1) mind, (2) intelligence and (3) ego (thirteen senses in all), are supplied to us by various arrangements of gross or subtle forms of natural energy. [Bhag. 2. 2. 35p]

The conditioned soul is covered by seven kinds of gross bodily layers: skin, flesh, bone, muscles, marrow, fat and semen. [See Krsna, Chapter Two, "Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Krsna in the Womb"] He is covered by five kinds of subtle conceptions imposed by the controlling deity of the mind, the moon: annamaya (the conception that life is food), pranamaya (the conception that life is bodily movement), manomaya (the conception that the good life is the culture of the mind), vijnana-maya (the conception that the better life is the culture of discrimination), and anandamaya (the conception that the best life is full of the bliss of self- realization). [See Srimad-Bhagavatam 5. 22. 9, 10 and 6. 15. 12-15p].

In the subtle body are manifest the living symptoms, which are consciousness and convictions. [See Bhagavad-gita 13. 6-7p] The interaction of the five elements of the gross body gives rise to desire, hatred, happiness and distress. [ibid. ]

The conditioned soul is beaten by the six material whips: hunger, thirst, lamentation, illusion, old age and death. [See Srimad-Bhagavatam 5. 1. 35] He becomes addicted to the four acts of conditioned life: eating, sleeping, mating and defending. He is tempted by the four vices of conditioned life: illicit sex, gambling, intoxication and meat-eating. By committing these, the soul passes through the three gates to hell: lust, anger and greed. Or it may be said he falls into the clutches of six enemies [see Srimad-Bhagavatam 7. 7. 33], namely lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, and jealousy. He can avoid hell and the six enemies by passing religiously through the four stages of regulated material life: dharma, artha, kama and moksa. In any case, he is subject to the fourfold material miseries: birth, death, old age and disease.

The six transformations and all the other permutations associated with them manifest within the field of material activity, consisting of twenty-four components. [See Bhagavad-gita 13. 6-7] Most of these twenty-four have been mentioned already; here I shall simply summarize them. There are five gross elements called mahabhutas; three subtle elements; the unmanifested stage of the three modes of material nature, called avyakta; five knowledge-acquiring senses; five working senses; and five sense objects. Idam sariram kaunteya kestram iti abhidhiyate, "This body, O son of Kunti, is called the field. " [B. g. 12. 2] Thus the field of twenty-four components is the material body, the city of nine (or eleven) gates.

How consciousness is transformed, and how the field of activities manifests from the three modes of material nature, is the subject of Part Two of this essay, coming soon to In2-MeC.