Pursuit of Pleasure is Invocation of Pain : 5.
The sense of individuality is, therefore, a combination of the principle of Pure Being and the principle of externality. When we assert or feel ‘I am’, we have a phenomenal sense of ‘I am-ness’. It is not the consciousness of existence as it is, because this existence is present everywhere – it is in me, it is in you, it is in everything. Why don’t we feel that everything ‘is’? Why is it that there is a peculiar feeling of ‘I am, independent of others’? The pure universal character of existence is restricted in its operation, localised by the distracting activity of the mind that is an aspect of existence drawn into activity. Only a phase of this existence is made to be felt in our sense of personality, so that we have a feeling of localised being, and not a sense of All-being.
This feeling of localised being is brought about for a purpose. The purpose is the fulfilment of the urges mentioned, these tendencies with which we are born – the frustrated desires, we may say, the samskaras, the vasanas, the impressions, etc. – which have been the cause of our birth in this world. Why are we born in this world? We are born for a purpose. The purpose is nothing but the fulfilment of these tendencies with which we are born. They will not keep quiet unless they are fulfilled, and they require a medium of action. There can be no fulfilment unless there is an instrument through which that fulfilment can be achieved. The instrument is this body.
This body is an organisation of certain sensations – a grouping-up of various powers of sense, which the mind employs for the purpose of this fulfilment of its wishes. The individual sense, or asmita, has a desire to see objects; then, eyes come out immediately. The moment there is a desire to see, the power of seeing is projected. When there is a desire to hear, ears are projected. When there is a desire to grasp, hands are projected. Likewise, the different sense organs get manifested on account of the intense urge to come in contact with objects in various ways. Fortunately for us, the mind has thought of projecting itself only in five ways; otherwise, we would have millions of hands, ears and eyes. We do not know how many instruments it would have manufactured if it wanted. Thank God, we have only five senses – not more. If there were more senses, there will be more desires, more ways of employment of the very same urge in various ways. These senses, therefore, are the instruments of contact. That is the desire of the mind. It wants to contact objects, and it cannot do that unless there is a method by which it can do this work. This method is projected by the sensations. This body which is an instrument is, as I mentioned, an organisation of certain forces, like an army that it has brought about for its own purposes. It has placed the whole army in the field of action, and it can use any part of that army at any time, as the occasion may demand. That particular part of the force it employs is the particular organ of sense.
When the senses come in contact with a desired object, there is sensation of pleasure: sukha anunaya ragah (II.7). It is the sensation of pleasure in one’s contact with a desirable object that compels one to repeat this contact again and again, because there will be an endless asking for pleasure. We will never be satisfied with an amount of pleasure in a certain given magnitude. What is asked for is an infinitude of magnitude; but inasmuch as the instruments employed are finite, infinite pleasure is not possible. We cannot have a whole ocean contained in a little cup or a tumbler, because its capacity is very little. Can we use a small tumbler to carry the whole ocean – the Pacific or the Atlantic? That is not possible. But our wish is to carry it. What is the good of this wish when it cannot be fulfilled due to the wrong means that we employed? The instrument is very feeble in comparison with the object that is in our mind.
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