The Consciousness of Self and Mystical Vision
I was working at home and preparing for a class
presentation on 'Communal Separatism in India' when I
noticed a television feature on Bruce Lee. I tried not
to pay attention but was soon drawn in, as the intensity
he displayed was amazing. He was a Kung Fu fighter on
one end, and yet his study in college was in philosophy.
I started thinking of how concentration of the mind can
lead to a great intensity in spirit. I thought of
Vivekananda and Yoga, and a young boxer...
A few months ago there was an interview in which a young
boxer was asked:
Interviewer: When you came out at the age of 20,
you were such an intense fighter - what was the source
of this intensity?
Boxer: I was born and raised in the ghetto and my
prime purpose was to get out of there, and thus my hard
childhood proved to be my motivation.
Interviewer: And has that been your motivation
since?
Boxer: No. I was out of the ghetto a long time
ago. After that it became a matter of pride, ego, and
self. Now I was out of the ghetto and I wanted to be
the best fighter in the world.
Thus, motivation, although originating from many
sources, was accompanied in both cases (Young boxer and
Bruce Lee) by an intellectual principle, and I daresay,
a modicum of understanding of the 'philosophy'
underlying motivations. Again, Vivekananda and the Yoga
he preaches would ask one to have every mental faculty
and fiber of muscle in one's body working in unison,
with a single philosophy and a single purpose. Was this
the source of their intensity - the same source that the
Upanishadic writers were preoccupied with? Now that I
was beginning to understand the motivation leading to
the intensity of body and spirit, I asked myself about
the antithesis - what is the ultimate limiting factor
for humans? And what about Rabindranath Tagore's
comment on how empty existence would be if it were
solely limited to taming 'nature'. Again the same
question - what is the fundamental limitation for
humans? Answer: CONSCIOUSNESS OF SELF.
Consciousness of self, this is the idea that we exist
separately from the rest of creation. Consciousness in
terms of the limitations of self-protection and
self-elevation, all within the bounds of our ephemeral
skin. Consciousness in the sense of I am black, white,
man, woman - and not in the sense of the compassion that
we are all capable of exhibiting. One of the beautiful
moments once described by Ramakrishnan is the time when
he lost all feeling of being a man or a woman and was
able to mingle freely with the womenfolk in the kitchen
without being bothered by the concept of gender.
To overcome this consciousness, there must be
recognition of the beauty of the inner self, of an
internal sense of satisfaction as opposed to an external
addiction for accolades. Ideally, there is also an
internal existence that is above the need for approval
from external sources. This is perhaps why Rabindranath
Tagore willingly relinquished control of the Brahmo
Samaj instead of fighting his rival, Keshav Chandrasen.
His visions of his mother and the milky surface of the
moon were his sense of pleasure, and his mysticism was
the controller of his disenchantment. His action and
inaction not only improved the human mind, but also were
in accordance with his nature. He was in complete
control of not only his material body, but also his
disposition, and the need to control or be controlled by
the external world. Concentration and focus are needed
to overcome our biggest nemesis - our inner sense of
fear and insecurity - and to find the beauty of the
Self.
The day we realize this is the day we start our journey;
the journey into the depths of the human mind and the
beauty that is mystical vision. Our bodies must be
strong and our minds unwavering in order to reach the
level of detachment from the external world attained by
Ramakrishna during his visions. But what is a mystical
vision, and who gives one to us? Maybe the vision comes
from our own subconscious when all the tools of
knowledge have been accumulated, and the spirit is
ready; the mind is attuned such that the oneness of the
universe [the Supreme Being, spirituality, and the
purpose of human existence] is self-evident.
Once the body and the subconscious working together have
transcended a particular plane, they then need a vision
to compress that accumulated information into KNOWLEDGE.
In Hinduism, there are seven levels of existence, and
perhaps what separates these levels from one another is
just a vision - a mystical experience.
Can one convey the intensity of this vision? Can one
experience this vicariously? Perhaps not; this would
explain why the Buddha became quiet when asked about
Nirvana. Maybe this is an experience that is limited by
a spiritual barrier, which is a personal and not
logically explicable event. The vision itself in this
case is the realization of the futility of desires and
recognition of fears. But maybe one needs to experience
sensual pleasures to realize its futility, and one needs
to acknowledge weakness in order to be strong, i.e. to
reach the next level of consciousness inside the mind.
The moment which terminates the endless struggle and
allows one to break free to see the beauty in a child's
eyes as he asks a question, or a baby deep in slumber
clutching her mother, is to return to a state of
innocence and purity. This state -- where one is not
circumscribed by the Self and yet lives within the Self
- is when we realize that the path must lie in
submitting completely, and to love and respect who we
have become.
Mr. Advani is a Research Assistant at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA