The Relationship between Brain and Mind : 3.

Discussion : between a devotee with Swamiji ( Q - A )


How the individuality arose is a cosmic question. It is a question of cosmology and creation, and there we go beyond psychology. Your question is partly a psychological question, but when you go deep, it becomes a cosmological question of creation itself; it is very deep, farther than how the mind works. Then, you have to know how the individuality has started at all. There, we go beyond ordinary human concepts of experience. This is my answer to your question.

Spanish Visitor: Thank you, Swamiji.

SWAMIJI: They say the mind is inside the brain. From where did the brain come? Their idea also is that the mind is different from the brain.

Spanish Visitor: Yes. They say so.

SWAMIJI: Is the mind touching the brain, or is it separate from the brain? What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? What is the brain made of? What is the mind made of? You see, you have already accepted that they are two things.

Spanish Visitor: Yes.

SWAMIJI: So, you may say that the brain is made of material stuff. Is the mind also made of material stuff? Or, is it made of something else? Let the scientists answer this question. If it is made of a different stuff, what is that substance out of which it is made? If it is made of the same stuff as the brain, it becomes as material as the brain; then, it cannot be conscious, because matter is not conscious of itself. So, how is it that you are conscious, if the mind also is made up of matter only? Is matter aware of itself? Matter requires another thing for it to be known. Matter cannot know matter; the non-matter only knows the existence of matter, so we must say that the mind is made of non-matter. If it is non-matter, what is that non-matter? What is it made of?

Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ...