Mind and Self

Mind and Self

You cannot be surprised that under these conditions of continueddisappearance of functions, the unfortunate student asks: " Whatbecomes of the mind itself? If you suppress all the functions,what is left?" In the Indian way of teaching, when you come to adifficulty, someone jumps up and asks a question. And in thecommentaries, the question which raises the difficulty is alwaysput.

The answer of Patanjali is: "Then the spectator remains inhis own form."

Theosophy answers: "The Monad remains." It is theend of the human pilgrimage. That is the highest point to whichhumanity may climb: to suppress all the reflections in thefivefold universe through which the Monad has manifested hispowers, and then for the Monad to realise himself, enriched bythe experiences through which his manifested aspects have passed.But to the Samkhyan the difficulty is very great, for when he hasonly his spectator left, when spectacle ceases, the spectatorhimself almost vanishes. His only function was to look on at theplay of mind. When the play of mind is gone, what is left? He canno longer be a spectator, since there is nothing to see.

The onlyanswer is: " He remains in his own form." He is now out ofmanifestation, the duality is transcended, and so the Spiritsinks back into latency, no longer capable of manifestation.There you come to a very serious difference with the Theosophicalview of the universe, for according to that view of the universe,when all these functions have been suppressed, then the Monad isruler over matter and is prepared for a new cycle of activity, nolonger slave but master.

more next week