All World
Gayatri Pariwar

The Quartet of Inner Senses and the Science of Atma-S³dhan³

The consciousness manifests itself through the quartet of inner senses. The consciousness is one. It can neither be visualized as divided into different parts like the fingers nor is there any division of the tasks done by it. The same single power acts differently at different times. Whatever work it does, it is called by that name.

The same single person may be seen performing the role of an orator, student, actor, sportsman, friend, foe, customer, salesman, etc. at different times. The camera will take the picture of a person in the form of work in which he is engaged at that moment and others after seeing his picture will call him accordingly. The four titles of consciousness may be understood in the same fashion. The quartet described below should be considered as consisting of four independent agencies appointed for performing different tasks.

(1) Mana(mind): The task of mind is to imagine. The field of imagination is normally confined to the inner desires and the knowledge of the pleasant experiences of the past. The second aspect is fear. Self-defense against fear or loss too is effective like the joy of pleasures. The mind goes on frisking between these high and low tides.

It presents several aspects of imagination and scenes with the help of which it becomes easier for the next layer of consciousness, Buddhi (intellect) to decide between the right and wrong; and between the possible and the impossible. Many times irrelevant thoughts are also generated; though they too have some connection with some memories. Thoughts that are totally new and those pertaining to unknown context seldom come to the mind. They roam around in the background of their earlier knowledge.

(2) Buddhi (Intellect): It is that element which has to take the decision of what is useful and what is useless in the vast field of thoughts. It may be called the judge. In a typical case, several witnesses, complainants, defendants, their lawyers, and others defending the two sides, put forward their arguments and views at different times and in their own way. The judge, through his wisdom, extracts the truth from this mesh and gives the judgement accordingly. The intellect plays almost the same role. Normally, the basis of its judgement is a combination of what is possible and what is of self-interest. The refined intellect, which in Gayatri mantra has been called as Dhº and in philosophy has been called •tambhar³, goes beyond the circle of selfishness and gives priority to righteousness and idealism. Whatever is the level of intellect, it will give decisions accordingly, but its task is to give judgement only.

(3) Chitta (psyche, or conscience or reasoning faculty): It may be called a faculty of assessment. The task of Buddhi is to decide what is acceptable from amongst the wild imaginations of Mana, but it is not essential that those decisions will be transformed into actions. The coordination of desire, resolve and the courage develops that kind of mentality which compels a person to take some concrete steps. In order to proceed towards the destination, several resources have to be gathered and several ways of removing the obstacles from the path have to be thought of. This preparation is done only after taking a definite decision.

For practical purposes, the faculty of transforming a thought into an effort has been called Chitta. In scientific terminology, Chitta is known as inanimate. Through its past experiences, it is very well acquainted with the basic activities of sustaining life. The automatic execution of all the bodily functions, like blood circulation, compression and expansion of heart, respiration, digestion and excretion, sleeping and awakening, etc. is done through this faculty of Chitta. Good and bad impressions reside in this very Chitta. The roots of habits may be found in this very field. The aim of Tapa-S³dhan³s (penances) is to mold the direction of Chitta and develop one’s personality by performing the most important task of forgetting the past and teaching it virtuous traits.

(4) Aha®k³ra - It is that layer of consciousness which contains what a person considers himself to be. Though one of the meanings of aha®k³ra is vanity, but in philosophy it is used in the sense of ego. Therefore, the essence of Aha® should be considered as the realization of the level of self. A person makes his own assessment about himself. His desires and viewpoints are formed The integration of quartet: The coordination of all these four layers of consciousness completes the objective of Atma-S³dhan³ in its totality. If only one or two of these layers are utilized, the task will remain incomplete and whatever benefit of the thought power should have been obtained, may not be obtained.

A mental figure of any object of desire is prepared on the basis of imagination. It is necessary to prepare the map and a model prior to the construction of a building or to prepare a pencil-sketch prior to making a painting. In the same way, the pen of imagination prepares a rough figure of the set objective. This very task is done by Mana. It goes on flying from one to the other object of desire. It goes on sketching the mental figures according to the desires.

The next task of classification of useful and useless amongst these is done by Buddhi. During shooting, a lot of film is exposed in taking various scenes. The director selects useful parts of the film and discards the rest. Children tell many things and put forward many demands, but the parents distinguish between the desirable and undesirable things and decide what should be done. Buddhi is that touch stone which distinguishes between the real and unreal. It is the task of Buddhi, to extract a useful part from wild imaginations.

A long term coordination of one type of thoughts with corresponding actions makes one’s nature accordingly and automatically similar types of desires are aroused and they are converted into actions. This is called psyche or Chitta. The fourth factor aha®k³ra or ego is made of selfassessments and activities. It forms a cover to the consciousness. It may be compared with the slough of the snake or the glass of the bulb. This very aha®k³ra may be called personality. This is the main separating wall between the soul and the supreme soul. This aha® is made to vanish by totally surrendering at the feet of God through worship. Eradication of evil traits and imbibing of virtuous traits is done through Tapa S³dhan³ (penance).

The intellect is refined by Sw³dhy³ya (virtuous reading), Satsang (virtuous company), manan (thinking) and chintan (contemplation). The Mana (mind) is made to form useful sketches for virtuous deeds through the control of senses. In short, this is theessence of Atma-S³dhan³ (self-realization).