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CONSTITUTION
OF A HUMAN BEING
By
Ramaa Ravi Shankar
The
whole trend of evolution is towards synthesis. As consciousness
goes down into matter, towards materialization, heterogeneity
arises; as consciousness works back towards spirit there is
tend towards unity. What is the path that helps humanity
particularly the human being, work to be one with the unity?
It
is definite that the entire human race shall one-day learn
the technique to blend with the one consciousness, without
any effort of its own. Yet when the purpose of human life is
realized to be concurrent with the One, efforts towards that
goal alone seem to bring meaning to life and living.
The
attempt of choosing the appropriate path turns one on the
road of spiritualism. Science Religion and Philosophy
provide the fundamental impetus required to make the right
choice. Scientific line of thought embodies all that
concerns matter, the substance aspect of manifestation
dealing with objectivity, and with that which is material,
tangible, and seen; literally, with that which can be
proven. Religious thought is concerned with the life within
the form, which deals with the return of spirit to its
source and all that has been gained by the use of the form.
It has reference to the subjective side of nature. The
philosophical thought shows the utilization of the
intelligence by the indwelling life, in order that the form
may be adequately adapted to its need.
All
this fundamental study brings one to an understanding that
human life is adventurous with freedom to choose the
personal path to emancipation. As Hamlet says, "What a
piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in
faculty! In form
and moving how express and admirable!"
Even
as each person desires to exist and live in such divine
state of consciousness the conditions of life one has to
manage do not appear to give a natural thrust of effort
towards this end.
The
day-to-day humdrum of human life however is largely confined
within the realms of the intellect. Focus of human effort is
chiefly in the area of sharpening the intellect. The
conditions of life are highly analyzed with the aid of
one’s intelligence. The age-old theory of Descartes
“Cogito Ergo Sum (I think, therefore I am)” though
proved incorrect in defining Man still has its sway over
humanity. Religion Philosophy and Science point that any
effort to have relationship with the higher life, life
beyond that on the physical plane will be well realized only
when appealed more to the intuition than the intellect. The
mind its compulsive thoughts is said to bring a state of
apparent separateness that becomes an obstacle for man to
take to the path of spiritualism.
The
sudden hunch, the creative leap of the mind that “sees”
in a flash how to solve a problem in a simple way, is
something quite different from general intelligence. Recent
studies show that persons who possess a high aha! Ability
are all-intelligent to a moderate level, but beyond that
level there seems to be no correlation between high
intelligence and aha! Thinking – (The New Indian Express-
Excel Think Piece- 2-12-2002)
In
Chapter XVI (verses 1 to 3) of The Bhagavadgita, Sri Krishna
replies explicitly to Arjuna’s question on the method of
identifying a man who has risen above the three Gunas-
tamas,rajas and sattva. Lord Krishna illustrates such a man
as ‘a wise one with divine qualities’. These divine
qualities, the Lord says are aspects of Self-Knowledge. When
one practices these qualities with a quest to know the Self,
the lord says that the practitioner will arrive at the
realization that living these qualities is true-knowledge
and true-knowledge is the realization of God in his divine
qualities of Sat Chit Ananda.
“Absolute
fearlessness, perfect purity of mind, constant fixity in the
Yoga of meditation for the sake of Self-realization, and even
so charity in its Sattvika form, control of the senses, worship
of God and other deities as well as of one’s elders including
the performance of Agnihotra and other sacred duties, study and
teaching of the Vedas and other sacred books as well as the
chanting of God’s names and praises, suffering hardships for
the discharge of one’s sacred obligations and straightness of
mind as well as of the body and senses.
Non-violence
in thought, word and deed, truthfulness and geniality of
speech, absence of anger even on provocation, disclaiming doer
ship in respect of actions, quietude or composure of mind,
abstaining from malicious gossip, compassion towards all
creatures, absence of attachment to the objects of senses even
during their contact with the senses, mildness, a sense of
shame in transgressing against the scriptures or usage, and
abstaining from frivolous pursuits.
Sublimity,
forbearance, fortitude, external purity, bearing enmity to none
and absence of self-esteem-these are the marks of him, who is
born with the divine gifts.”
Who
would not want to dwell and live with these divine
qualities? Who would not want to be in this state of sat
chit ananda. Sat the Be-ness. Being aware of the
be-ness is Chit. Such awareness accompanied with
Bliss is Ananda. But Man seems to have varied
built-in filters that prevent him from being so. What in the
process of evolution seems to limit him?
Science
presents the big bang theory advocated by Georges Lemaitre and
Alexander Friedmann in the 1920’s, which explains how a
cosmic explosion caused the Universe to expand 15 billion years
ago from a dense point of matter called Singularity making way
for matter space and time and later forming galaxies, Milky Way
and introduction of life. It is no doubt a good theory but
hasn’t been proved for sure.
In
chapter IX of The Bhagavadita Krishna explains the process
of creation in verses 7, 8 & 9 as follows:
“Arjuna,
during the final dissolution all beings enter my prakrti
(the prime cause), and at the beginning of creation, I send
them forth again.
Wielding
my nature I release, again and again (according to their
respective karmas) all this multitude of beings subject to the
influence of their own nature.
Arjuna,
with me as the supervisor, nature brings forth the whole
creation, consisting of both sentient and insentient beings; it
is due to this cause that the wheel of samsara is going
round.”
Each
religion has a story on the creation of Universe. As a
summation, religion professes that everything in the universe
has sprung from one transcendent self-existent life. Duality as
matter-spirit became evident soon after the manifestation. Life
manifested as Shabda Brahma and each aspect of duality
expressed itself as Trinity, called by different names in
different religions. While the Spirit has three qualities and
matter too has three qualities of its own.
According
to the Occult chronology, Human being is available on this
Earth in a nebulous condition without the definite body of a
human being for last thirty million years and with a body
structure we presently know of for the last thirty million
years. Physical form has been the resultant of great
evolutionary process.
Darwin
explained the process of evolution in his theory of natural
selection introduced the phrase ‘the survival of the
fittest’ explaining biologically the evolution of man from
the animal. Darwinism is the most powerful and unifying theory
in biology. Underlying it is the principle of 'descent with
modification' (evolutionary change), that species are not
fixed: that new species arise from those that already exist,
some of which become extinct.
The
story of Dasha Avatara of Sri MahaVishnu
narrates the process of evolution. The first being a
creature of water (matsya), evolving to a creature that can
move both in water and on land (kurma), to an animal or land
(varaha), half animal and man (Narasimha), a human
yearning for physical need of land (Vamana)
developing to being an emotional (Parashurama)
intellectual (Rama) intuitive (Krishna)
liberated as Buddha and much higher self as Kalki.
Thus
man is a product in the process of evolution. The visible
section of the human body is the result of the combination
of Pancha
bhootas (Five elements) water,
fire, earth, air and ether (aapa tejo prithivi vaayu
aakaasha) developing bone, muscle, nerve, circulatory,
lymphatic, tubular and skin systems. This is called the annamaya
kosha, the grossest of all shields of the human body.
The
invisible but sense-able or otherwise present subtler
shields of the human are pranamaya manomaya
vigyanamaya and anandamaya koshas. These are
rightly called koshas or shields to stress that they
are mere shields for something else, to that which is
indestructible, the Atman.
Sri
Ramanuja clarifies in his philosophy of Srivishishtadvaita
that Atman which is from the Paramatma has to
journey back to Paramatma shedding away the
contingencies it has acquired in its journey through the
shields, lingering to the distinct individuality it has
developed by virtue of its experience in the journey so as
to rejoin Paramatma
with its distinctive individuality so contributing to
refinement of the Paramatma himself.
‘Know
thyself’ is the key phrase said to the student walking the
spiritual path. To understand oneself investigation into the
latent powers with the belief that one is a reflection of
that One homogeneous reality becomes necessary.
Individuality here does not mean knowledge of the physical
emotional and mental bodies and gaining distinction in them
by proper training. It means understanding their working to
transcend to higher levels and work with higher mind devoid
of its analytical and rationing qualities, with intuition
and complete awareness.
The
phrase sat-chit-ananda is used to describe the gunas
(qualities) of
Divinity. Man being the reflection of the Divine; these
qualities of sat-chit-ananda are to reflect in him.
That would be his real self and all others psuedo. The
divine qualities are of subtler realms unlike grosser
natures man is made of. Like a stone is pulled easily to the
bottom of the water body than a feature, grosser natures
pull man to dwell in qualities of matter rather than in the
subtler realms that exhibit divine qualities. Thus Will,
Knowledge and Joy natures of the divine reflect as desire
thought and pleasure in man. Duality in matter has further
created one positive and a second negative aspect to desire
thought and pleasure too.
In
the evolutionary journey of consciousness when consciousness
en-souls the matter in its grossest form it evolves as
mineral later involutions as vegetable then as animal to
become a man yet getting highly influenced to the
gravitational pull that constantly tries to bring him down
to exhibit qualities of matter than the higher self he is or
he could be.
‘According
to the Occult chronology, human being is available on this
earth for the last eighteen million years in the body structure
we presently know of; and for the last thirty million years in
a sort of nebulous condition without having shaped up a
definite body as such.’ The physical body of man so has come
a long way with Developed, developing and undeveloped organs
waiting development.
The
physical seat of emotions and mind shows itself in the brain of
man. ‘Our brain, no less than our livers or kidneys, are
products of evolution, Steven Pinker argues. 'The emotions and
drives and ways of thinking and learning that are uniform
across the human species are part of our inheritance,'' he
says. In other words, a baby's brain is not a blank slate; it
is inscribed with the genetic history of humankind, with the
traits that allowed earlier humans to survive -- and with many
of the quirks that make individuals themselves, Pinker says.
''Evolution feeds on variation.''
The
well-developed emotional body is showing itself as
‘amygdala’ a portion in our brain. The brain of Homo
sapiens achieved its modern form and size between fifty and
a hundred thousand years ago, well before the invention of
agriculture, civilizations, and writing in the last ten
thousand years So humans evolved mind that allowed us to
cooperate and outsmart the local flora and fauna. Vital to
that, what makes it so powerful and essential to foragers
and neuroscientists alike--is its ability to analyze the
world into useful categories.
Sri
Sankaracharya details the four functions or divisions or
parts of the mind as mind called MANAS that creates
doubt, the BUDDHI (intellect) making decisions CHITTA
the storehouse of memory and AHAM (the ego), creating
I-consciousness.
Understanding
the constitution of human being is but feeding the
intellectual quest within. The lesson on the path of
spiritualism lies more in learning the trick of
non-identification: Non-identification with the physical
body or the emotional body or the mental body.
Identification gives it more energy and observation
withdraws energy. The withdrawn energy can be directed to
dwell in the present moment thus breaking the old pattern of
present-moment denial and present-moment resistance. ‘No
longer be so preoccupied with our personal evolution, but
simply attentive to evolution as it takes place in us and
around us, and our life will be completely transformed’.
Many
philosophers have preached ways that help us be in the present
moment. One that will appeal to the modern mind would be the
GOLDEN STAIRS given by H.P.Blavatsky Co-founder of The
Theosophical Society.
A
clean life, an open mind, a pure heart, an eager intellect, an
unveiled spiritual perception, a brotherliness for all
readiness to give and receive advice and instruction, a loyal
sense of duty to the teacher, a willing obedience to the
behests of Truth once we have placed our confidence in and that
Teacher to be in possession of it, a courageous endurance of
personal injustice, a brave declaration of principles, a
valiant defense of those who are unjustly attacked and a
constant eye to the human progression and perfection which the
sacred science depicts, these are the golden stairs up the
steps of which the learner may climb to the Temple of Divine
Wisdom.
References:
1.
The
Human-Being by Dr N C Ramanujachary 1999
2.
The
Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker
3.
On
knowing oneself by Danielle Audoin 1995
4.
The
Bhagavat Gita
5.
The
Power of Now - A guide to spiritual enlightenment by Eckhart
Tolle 2001
6.
Pinnacle
of Indian Thought by Ernest Wood
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