THE COGNITIVE DIMENSIONS OF PUNARJANMA

Architha S N
M.A Vedic Studies
Department of Sanskrit and Vedic Studies
Sri Sathya Sai University for Human Excellence
Karnataka
Email id – snarchitha6@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Cognition travels many lives to realize the self some may believe, and some may not. Most of the things depend upon the cognitive. Some people are born brilliant like, without teaching they grab it up just like that, some people without knowing they’ll have knowledge about it and rare beings remember their past lives due to sadhana, devotion to God. These topics have discussed in the ancient texts like Upanishads, other sacred texts. Even if the person dies, mind will not die. The mind makes memories which will transfer to another body like how the software is just transferred to the new hardware. Mind is the reason for both bondage and liberation.

Key words – Upanishad, mind, cognitive, bondage, liberation.

OBJECTIVES

How Mind is helpful for Liberation.
To understand it will work out in the current generation.
To identify the relationship of mind and Rebirth.
To explain the role of the soul in the cycle of rebirth.

INTRODUCTION

The word cognitive means the process of learning, understanding ideas, remember, thinking, memory, related to the mind and thinking abilities. In the modern world where people cannot afford faith recently, the book called MANY LIVES, MANY MASTERS which is written by psychiatrist Dr. Brian L. Weiss in the year 1988. This treatment is known as psychotherapy. It cures and helps people to overcome the trauma which they are suffering from childhood. To increase the capacity of the mind people used to meditate, contemplate, observe the mind but currently, people have no time to even cook and have a nutritious meal. Mind is also based on what food we consume, without water body cannot sustain all these things have explained in the chandogya Upanishad and other texts too. The food was divided into 3 types of satvik food, rajasic food, and tamasic food.

Mind as a tool

In every Upanishad they have talked about the mind because mind plays very major role. It’s like a key to lock and unlock. For an example in the chandogya Upanishad the food is connected to the mind like they had divided the food into three types. When we consume food the gross part becomes feces, the second part becomes muscles or flesh and subtlest part becomes mind. Before Upanishads too when Indra and Virochana went to brahma Prajapati to seek the knowledge, Lord Brahma advised them to do tapas for 32 years. When they contemplated both understood their own perspectives due to the capacity of mind and what they have understood about the mind. Mind has the capacity to cross over the cycle just by controlling. Mind has four types of manas, buddi, chittah, and ahamkara. Mind is co-ordinater of sense organs. In the bruguvalli when Brugu’s father was explaining to his son about the highest, Brugu started to meditate on the five sheaths of the body which annamayakosha, pranamaya kosha, manomaya kosha, vignanamaya kosha and anandamaya kosha. When he dwells upon the manomaya kosha which is the mind can control and think beyond the capacity. When it comes to the world many scientists have created something which is not an accident. They made up their mind to think about it when they had given the task to the mind it explores in another way present generation uses drug just to sleep, flip to another side where they want to give some time for mind to rest. These are all the medications which are unhealthy, this is the major reason in current world facing now.

Mind and the consciousness in Vedanta

The word called mind which we use in the modern world but in the Vedanta the God is articulated as sakshi which means Consciousness. To understand this topic, I just want to introduce one topic which had been already discussed in the sacred texts. The concept is Drugdrishya Viveka. Here, it goes when we see the object, the object is called drushya and the seer is known as the Druk. When a person sees the chocolate through the eyes he is seeing chocolate so here the chocolate becomes drushya and the eyes becomes druk, it continues now, the eyes becomes drushya and the mind becomes druk finally the mind becomes drusha and the Sakshi means witness is druk and this will never change which is constant, unchangeable, undestroyable, always remains as eternal. To attain the stage of this ultimate, mind should be in our control and when we want to attain our own self alone it is possible. In the modern world people believe mind is maximum if any miracles happen then they believe God is existing. But, in Vedanta the God is eternal, undestroyable, never changes, mainly no name and form which is sakshi called witness.

Why cognitive mind is reason for the Rebirth

We discussed earlier the mind, mainly memory of traveling many births to continue the journey of a soul. The mindset depends upon the karma which we have performed before whether it is good or bad based on that will take birth in the next life. But here karma is also based on the mind and the cognitive process. I just want to narrate a story so that I will get an idea about it. Here it goes where they two friends one decides to go to the temple for satsang another one decides to go to bar, it so happened after their death. The lord of death decides the punishment for both uttering the one who attended the satsang must go to the hell where the punishments section is divided and the one who went to the bar must go to the heaven where he can enjoy the pleasure of heaven. After hearing this both were dumbstruck, they asked why? To this the lord replies the one who went to the temple he was thinking how nicely he is enjoying the drink in the bar and the one who went to the bar he was thinking such a great friend I got among the world he chose God and decided to go for temple to attend the satsang. Both minds were completely paradox here, the body and its presence is not important mind, and the memory plays a major role for it.

The world has come into existence due to the mind- mano muulamidam Jagath. The cosmic being, who was alone, willed to be many-Ekoham bahu syam– I am alone, let me become many. As a result, the whole creation process started, says the aitareya Upanishad. So, the mind is the cause of everything that exists. That amounts to saying everything exists because of the existence of the mind. This in turn suggests that ‘mano laya’ or annihilation of mind will undo the entire creation. Seeing from this angle mind is everything. yadbhavam tad Bhavati. What one thinks that one becomes. Think of the world, to become the world, think of the Lord of the world to become lord of the world. The Mundakopanishat gives the example of a spider which creates its web and clings to it, to explain the inseparable oneness of the creation and the creator. Similarly, the potential of mind is boundless. It can imagine things which it can bring forth too. When we look at many of the inventions this becomes clearer. Many of the things that were invented were products of human mind’s imagination that were manifested. But, unfortunately, many of them have become of danger to human existence. What is the way out?

Mana Eva manushyanaam Kaaranam bandha mokshayoh

It is a well-known saying. It means mind is the cause of bondage as well as liberation of human beings. What is the mind? It is a bundle of thoughts. ‘Samkalpa vikalpaatmo manah’ – mind is made of thoughts and counter thoughts.

Importance of Mind

Mind is very important for an individual. If it is absent no work can be done. It is like the cursor in computer. Just as no typing is possible in a computer, no work happens without the presence of mind. Even a simple act like eating chocolate needs the presence of mind, without which even if dissolves in the mouth, the eater will not be able to relish the taste of it. Even if a big and full event happens right in front of an individual’s open eyes, if the presence of mind is not there, the person will not come to know even a bit about it.

Journey of mind through births:

Body has bounds, mind is boundless. Body comes into existence one day and has an end another day. Mind is called ‘antahkarana’– the inner instrument. Any work is planned in mind first and then executed using body, the ‘upakarana’-physical instrument. Thoughts are the basis for the mind. Death is the end of the body, but not of the mind. It migrates with the embodied soul to another body when it gets disembodied from the previous one. Scriptures declare that the last thought of the individual decides the kind of next birth one is destined to have. We have the classic example of Jada Bharata in this regard.

Bharata, who had renounced his kingdom, family and everything, got attached to a deer, whose care was the upper most concern in his mind when it was time for him to shed his mortal coil. The result was his birth as a deer. By virtue of his merits, he could be aware of this even while he was a deer and confined himself to ashram surroundings even as a deer and then after shedding that body has a human brahmin birth again and consciously and cautiously keeps himself unattached to people or places until the last and attains liberation. If we turn the pages of ancient scriptures and the well recorded episodes of recent times, we find enough number of such examples of people recalling their previous births and associations. In the Bhagavad Geeta Sri Krishna has told: bahuni mey vyateetaani janmaani tava cha arjuna, taanyaham veda sarvaani na tvam veda parantapa– ‘I have spent many lifetimes before, and so you are, I know all of them, but you do not’. Mind in the form of ‘chitta’ records all experiences. The journey of mind through many births is evident from all these. That is why, Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai baba often used to say, “less luggage, more comfort”- reduce your thoughts to bare minimum to make the journey of life easy.

How to control your mind? The bundle of thoughts which travel with an individual from birth to birth, form vasanas or instincts, which cause one to function in a particular manner, or choose a particular company or a particular situation and so on. Due to one’s association with the spiritually evolved ones, the satsanga, one has an inner urge to free oneself from the clutches of the vicious circle of thoughts, actions, fruits of them and so on. How to free oneself? The answer is restraining or controlling the mind. Arjuna says “chanchalam hi manah krishna, pramaathi, balavad Dhrdham, tasyaham nigraham manye vaayoriva dushkaram”- O Krishna, the mind is very fickle and prone to commit mistakes, it is very powerful and strong, its control is as hard as controlling the wind. Sri Krishna replied promptly, yes Arjuna you are right, it is very difficult, but it is possible to restrain it by abyasena tu kounteya vairagyena cha grhyate- by practice and detachment it can be restrained.

Control of the mind doesn’t mean putting an end to it. It means making it serves the purpose one wishes to accomplish. The mind will not be brought to a stage where there are no thoughts, instead, it will be channelized to think in the line that serves the purpose of achieving one’s chosen goal. It is like constructing a dam for storing the river water that has been causing damage everywhere by its unrestrained flooding. Just as the water stored in a reservoir can be channelized for constructive purposes of agriculture, generating electricity and so on, the mind channelized can serve the purpose of accomplishing great tasks including attaining brahmajnana. Controlling the mind means channelizing it in the chosen direction, it doesn’t mean annihilation of the mind. Annihilation of the mind just happens when one has self-realization or realizes the self. It is the end of all spiritual pursuits. The means to have it is by controlling or channelizing the mind.

Being mindful of all that we do is the way to channelize or control the mind. Mindfulness means total conscious involvement of oneself. When one acts without total involvement of oneself, one is likely to go astray at any stage. For example, if one is driving a vehicle without paying attention to the road, there is possibility of bumping headlong into another vehicle and causing severe damage not only to oneself, but also to the others. Or, one can even miss taking a turn in the right direction and end up somewhere else than the intended destination. Therefore, being conscious of what one is up to is very important when controlling the mind or channelizing one’s mind is to be achieved.

Ancients’ verses moderners’ Peace and Understanding:

As we see already, mind is the cause of all that we undergo in life. In ancient times people were living amidst nature. Each lived in his own dwelling however it is, unmindful of how well others lived. The exposure to differences and such distractions was less, due to natural barriers in place and less mode of communication, whatever happened at one place could hardly or never be known in other places immediately. Anything that is not known immediately or unknown doesn’t cause much impact on the mindset of individuals. This way the ancient people could be more at peace. They could understand the people or things better due to the slow pace of life that was natural for them.

Moderners are in an age of swift communication. Everything gets known at the other end of the globe in second’s time. Almost nothing goes unknown to others. The information and broadcast system-based communication has brought most havoc and damage to humans today along with the advantages we boast about. They have rendered Peace into pieces, while humans are able to understand many things, the understanding that is needed for smooth functioning of society has gone missing. That has led to misunderstanding and widening gaps between human relationships.

As Sri D V Gundappa has beautifully said in his Mankutimmana kagga, if we can achieve a beautiful and harmonious blending of ancient roots with modern shoots, the gnawing gap and the havoc caused by it can be averted. He says- “Rshi vaakyadodane Vijnan kale melavise jasavu jana jeevanake” – ‘when the scientific skills are blended with the wisdom of the ancient sages, the human life will become glorious’. This is the need of the hour. The ancient wisdom of the rishis must reach mankind across the globe in its true sense. Humans must unlearn the wrong understanding and relearn the right one and live up to it. When that happens, there will be a golden age again.

This clearly shows that the mind is the cause of everything. Human exploration in the external world has exploded while the inward journey has been stunted due to undue priority given to external show rather than to inward glow of wisdom. Undue importance given to upskilling in external pursuits has caused the killing of inner stillness of mind. What is the way ahead?

The world outside goes on changing very rapidly. Tasyaham nigraham manye vaayoriva dushkaram- I feel controlling the advancement of them is as difficult to keep pace with as with the wind. So, it is not possible to do anything about it. But there should be a solution, The way ahead is the way Within: SAI- See Always Inside to find the way.

At least a part of one’s day should be spared for turning within always and everywhere. Even amidst the hectic schedule also, it is advised by experts that one can take a break for a ‘one minute meditation’ to turn within. That one minute spent well within will energize the individual to do better qualitatively and quantitatively too. The ‘one minute meditation’ is a very effective tool for controlling or channelizing one’s mind. A regular practice of this will enable one to have a balanced life and beneficial life too for oneself and others around.

CONCLUSION

The greatest goal to be achieved by anyone is self-realization. Whether one knows or not, aspires or not, this is something one is bound to achieve, if not in this life, in the next or the next, or after many lives too. One who is mindful about this will do everything in a better way, consciously keeping away from the sense of doer ship which binds one to its consequences. Achieving this is not possible by dealing with the mind aggressively. Mind is like a child. A child persists in doing what it likes. Mind too does the same thing. We entice the child with incentives like toys eatables and promise to provide many things it loves. Similarly, one should handle the mind; of course, one should be cautious in this regard, if its demands can ruin one’s purpose. Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai baba tells beautifully- “I bless you with things you Love to have, so that you will Love to have what I want really to give you”. This technique one can adopt to win over one’s mind also. Once the mind is pleased, and ready to listen, one can accomplish anything using its boundless possibilities. Nothing is impossible for human mind.

Being mindful about what one does is the way to master the mind. Once the mind is mastered, everything is possible. Mastering the mind is the end of all spiritual pursuits. Mastering the mind is another name for controlling the mind. Once this is achieved, mind becomes a helpful friend or servant. Such a companion will be helpful to anyone in every walk of life. That is why it is said, “Master the mind and be a Master Mind, this is what the article talks about.

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