Pursuit of Pleasure is Invocation of Pain : 2.

 The thinking principle gets identified with the thinker. Asmita means the sense of being individual. It has arisen on account of an identification of two factors: the thinking principle – the medium through which thought is projected – and the real thinker that is responsible and is behind this process. It is difficult to define the nature of the thinking principle, because this principle is a blend of two different sides, or aspects. On one side there is the capacity to think, understand, illumine, and judge the values of things. On the other side there is the aspect of projecting this intelligence into space and time in an externalised manner, and locating it or pinpointing it upon an object.


The true thinker, if one would like to call it so, is the principle of consciousness itself, which cannot be limited to objects and which is not in space and time. But the awareness of an object outside is a specific function that is performed by the asmita, or the individual sense, and this particularised function is made possible by the mixing up of this principle of consciousness with a distracting medium, which is the most inscrutable thing to understand. This distracting medium is the mind, the antahkarana. It refracts the light of consciousness in a particular fashion – just as, if a mirror is kept in the sun, the reflection of the light of the sun through the mirror will be cast only in that particular direction in which the mirror is facing. If we can change the position of the mirror, the reflection also will change its location and project itself in a different manner altogether. So, the way in which this refracted medium functions determines the nature of our life itself.


Minds differ. Just as mirrors may differ – the position, colour, structure, thickness, etc. all may change from mirror to mirror – in the same way, mental characteristics differ due to reasons which are peculiar to different individuals themselves. It is the mind that drags the consciousness in a given direction – just as, in this analogy I mentioned, it is the position of the mirror that will determine in which direction the light of the sun is projected. This position of the mirror of the mind is the tendency of the mind towards objects. It is this tendency that determines the location, or the position, of the mind.


Everyone is born with certain groups of tendencies. The tendencies are the requirements of the constitution of the individual in a particular manner, just as in a vast set-up of a national government, for instance, there are different officials placed in different positions and each official functions in a restricted manner, notwithstanding that this restricted position of the official has a connection with an unrestricted background of an entire government. Likewise, the limitation of the personality is motivated by certain urges with which the individual is born, and these urges are the peculiar proclivities of the individual which makes one different from the other, so that even from childhood we can find that there is a distinct mark of isolated predilection in a particular individual which will mark it off from others. This predilection, or idiosyncrasy, of different individuals is due to the direction taken by these groups of tendencies with which one is born. And, the mind is nothing but a bundle of these tendencies.

To be continued  ...