TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2024
Ibonio D'Souza
Man experiences life through the media of the four constituents in him. These are his body, mind, intellect and the Consciousness which is the life spark in him. Of these, the mind-and-intellect equipment is the actual experiencer who enjoys or suffers the objects with which it comes into contact. When this equipment is perfectly tuned up, man experiences harmony and rhythm in life, but when it lies neglected and fallen into disuse, there arises discordance and harshness.
The grossest aspect of the human personality is the physical body, which contains the five organs of perception and the five organs of action. The subtlest aspect is Conciousness, which is the core of a man's composite personality, and it is one and the same in all human beings. Spiritual masters after having discovered that these two aspects are common to mankind, proved by logical analysis and deduction that the variable factor in man is the mind-and-intellect equipment. The kaleidoscopic pattern of experiences is, therefore, attributed to the differences in the textures and quality of the mind- and-intellect equipment.
The seat of all our emotions and feelings is the mind. The intellect is the discriminating faculty, the discerning factor, the judging ability whereby we distinguish the good from the bad, the right from the wrong and the real from the unreal. The functions of the mind and the intellect are fundamentally divergent and opposed to each other. For instance, when a person is overwhelmed with emotion, his faculty of discrimination is lost, and when acute discrimination prevails, there is no room for his sentiments and feelings.
We utilize this subtle equipment in our day-to-day experience of life. When one meets and deals with another, it is only his mind-and-intellect which comes in contact with the mind-and-intellect of the other. The actual experiencer in us therefore, is the indwelling mind-intellect equipment and the body serves only as a garb worn by it. Consider for instance, an individual visiting a friend's house. He does so only to contact the resident in the house and his interest in the visit is lost when the later is not there. Likewise, our physical bodies are mere hutments in which the subtler personality dwells and all our contacts and experiences are transacted in the subtler realm.
Sadly in our times, this important aspect of the human personality lies neglected and putrefied. It is no fault of man since he knows not the state of his inner personality. It is religion that holds a mirror unto man's real nature within and also provides him with the ways and means for chastening his emotions and edifying his thoughts, thereby enabling him to live a more dynamic and cheerful life.
The paramount need today is that the mind and intellect of man have to be carefully nurtured in the light of our spiritual teachings so that he may develop and enjoy a freer and ampler existence. If for any reason this development is neglected, we can only expect his personality to degenerate and create chaos for himself and his society. It is therefore imperative for us to strive in the direction indicated by our scriptures to grow inwardly and thus help usher in a progressive and healthy society.
