Let us THINK : By Dr.King

Quick links  Pause We often use the word ‘science’ to mean a discipline that predominantly emphasizes on objectivity, verifiability, and precision. These three aspects are the corner stones of all our scientific endeavor. Look at closely what we do in science. We try to differentiate things from one another, understand each of them distinctly, and use that knowledge to better interact with the world around, live a better life and so on. Ultimately, science aims at making our lives more secure and comfortable. I call it worldly science.

Quick links  Pause We started our story with Maitreyi asking her husband Yajnyavalkya about the way one can get eternal peace. Yajnyavalkya first explained how our individual identities are only transient. These identities are given by our body and Mind. Mistaking the body/Mind as we is the root cause of our problems. It is the body/Mind that masks the real We.

Quick links  Pause In the previous episode, the sage Yajnyavalkya was saying that the different things we see around, are all one in reality. The differences are only superficial. If we look deep, we see that everything is one. Yajnyavalkya gives couple of examples to explain what he is saying. He says

Quick links  Pause In today’s book talk I am going to discuss about my book “How does the Mind work?”. Let me start with an interesting story about some well known incident that happened way back in 1950s. That incident totally revolutionized the way we understand our Mind.

Quick links  Pause In the previous episode, we started with the story of Yajnyavalkya and his scholarly wife Maitreyi. Though Yajnyavalkya wanted to part with all his wealth and give it to his two wives, one of them namely Maitreyi was not interested in wealth. She asked him a profound question.

Quick links  Pause  Of course you do. All of us love our husband, wife, children, parents and so on. Whatever we do is ultimately for their sake. But did you notice something? We love our spouse, our son, our daughter, our friend, our mate, and so on and so forth. In all these relations what do we have in common? What else, it is we! We love someone because that someone is related to us in some way. Not only related, but there is something that we get from them. That is the reason why we all love someone. Or else we won’t. So it is for our own sake that we love someone else.

Pause We started this Upanishadic story of Nachiketa with a question namely “what happens when someone dies?”. That is how even Nachiketa started. That was just a curiosity question. But Nachiketa did not stop there. He kept asking questions, kept pondering. He rejected all that that may not lead him to the answers he was keen on getting. He rejected all worldly pleasures for the sake of the answer to his question. He listened to Yama, the Lord of death who told him the real “story” behind death and the secret behind immortality. Nachiketa finally attained the ultimate reality.

Quick links Pause Many religions promise better life after you die. But this Upanishadic story that we have been discussing in the past several weeks says that it is possible to attain the ultimate realization in this life itself! Interestingly, it says even the spirits or angels cannot do that which you and only you can do it as a human being. So it advises you not to miss this great opportunity.

Pause In today’s book talk I am going to discuss about my recent audio book “Mysterious experiences : A peek beyond the confines of the Mind”. Swami Vivekananda once mentioned some mysterious experience he used to have in his younger days, I.e, before he became a Sanyasi. Whenever he closed his eyes before he slept, he could see a bright light in front of him. But swamiji never felt that that was something unusual. He thought everyone else experiences the same way!

Quick links Pause We were talking about the endless cycle of births and deaths that a soul goes through and the emphasis in all ancient schools of Indian thought on the liberation from that cycle. But the birth does give us an opportunity to enjoy this world!. In that case, why were these schools against enjoyment?

Quick links  Pause In the previous episode we saw how ancient Indians were not against enjoyment completely. They only counseled for a guarded indulgence. They forbade promiscuity that can be a nuisance to the society in addition to harming the individual. In that case, why not an individual keep taking births after birth, enjoying the world, of course in a well disciplined way? Why should one bother about ultimate realization and emancipation?

Pause In the previous episode we were talking about the “Chariot allegory” that is used by the Upanishadic story that we have been discussing. The allegory says that our body is the chariot and our soul is the rider who uses this chariot. It also says that death is the event of this soul disembarking the chariot. Now the question is “what happens when this rider disembarks?”. Obviously, the body gradually disintegrates. But what happens to the rider who has stepped down? Does he also perish?

Pause In the previous episode we were talking about the chariot allegory. Allegories are visual depiction of some abstract ideas. The Nachiketa’s story we have been discussing for the last few weeks uses a chariot allegory to explain what we actually are and what relation we have with our body. It says that our body is like a chariot.

Pause Many of us equate ‘us’ to our body. ‘We’ means ‘our body’. That is exactly the way even the modern science sees it. But ancient Indians did not think that way. Ancient Indian Sankhya philosophers for example, put forth an elaborate reasoning to show why this view is meaningless. They did not expect you to blindly accept their view. But they gave reasons using which you too can logically arrive at the same conclusion.

Pause The Upanishadic story of boy Nachiketa that we started with, opened up a fundamental question, namely “what happens when we die?”.  Actually, that was only a pretext. The main aim of this story, like all stories in the Upanishads, is to talk about ultimate truth and ways to attain that truth. But let us move systematically to that end, as the Upanishad does.