Book Title: Faith Knowledge and Conduct
Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/006709/1

JAIN EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL FOR PRIVATE AND PERSONAL USE ONLY
Page #1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ FAITH KNOWLEDGE & CONDUCT C. R. JAIN For Private & Person Page #2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ FAITH, KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT BY C. R. JAIN Vidya Varidhi, Barrister-at-Law ALLAHABAD: THE INDIAN PRESS, LTD. 1929 Page #3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Printed by K. Mittra, at The Indian Press, Ltd., Allahabad Page #4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE Page #5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ “Right Faith is . ... a comprehensive knowledge of the essentials, and knowledge is the strong and sure demonstration of what is received by faith, built upon faith .... conveying the soul on to infallibility, science, and comprehension, . . . . the first saving change is from heathenism to faith .... and the second that from faith to knowledge .... salvation is effected through both well-doing and knowledge, of both of which the Lord is the teacher . . . . . . It is not simply doing well, but doing actions with a certain aim, and acting according to reason, that the scripture exhibits as requisite.”—Clement (Ante Nicene Christian Library, Vol. XII, pages 369, 376 and 447-448.) Page #6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ CONTENTS PAGE Preface . . . . . . . . . . . BOOK I–THE WAY . . . . . . . . . vll 3 BOOK II–THE TRUTH PART I-THE METHOD OF INVESTIGATION . 1-Nikshepa . . . . . . 2-Classification . . . . 3—Nayavāda . . . . . Anekāntavāda . . . 5—The Syādvāda . . . 6-Logic . . . . . 7–The Categories . . . & Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 15 16 19 27 30 PART II-(a) METAPHYSICS ...... y (6) PSYCHOLOGY1-The Soul . . . . . . . . . 2The Nature of Knowledge .. . . 3-Omniscience . . . . . . . 4-Soul an Intelligent Substance . . . 5 The Jnānāvaraṇīya Cover . . . . 6-The Will . . . . . . . . . 32 34 36 37 Page #7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ CONTENTS PAGE 7-Passions . . . . . . . . . 8-Intellect . . . . . . 9_-Attention . . . . . . 10--Instincts . . . . . . . 11-The Subconscious . . . . . 12—The Central Organ of the Mind 13—The Lotus of the Heart . . . 14-Memory and Recollection . . . 15--Association of Ideas . . . . 16--Dreams and Visions . . . . 17–Recognition . . . . . . 18-A Train of Thought . . . . . 19_Inhibition · · · · · · · · · · 20_Motor Mechanisms . . . . . . 21–Pleasure and Pain . . . . . . 22--Varieties of Sensation . . . . . 23-Material Parallelism . . . . . 24-Ethics 25--The Organizing Forces of the Body . . 26-Lesiyās . . . . . . . . 27_Faith . . . . . . . . . . 28-Free will and Predestination. .... 66 67 70 74 BOOK III-THE LIFE ........ 105 Page #8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ PREFACE The proper title of this book is really "The Way, The Truth and The Life," which is the most appropriate one from the standpoint of Comparative Religion. But I refrain from giving it on the outer cover so as not to mislead any one, especially an intending purchaser. There can, however, be no reason for not giving it inside. This real title comes from the New Testament of the Holy Bible; the substance of the matter of the book comes from the Jaina Teaching, and the elaborations are mine. Any one who has realized the Divinity of Life may justly say of himself: I am the way, the truth and the life.' The first Perfect Man (not a mythical or alle.gorical figure) who did this was Risabha Deva, the Founder of Jainism. Many more men have qualified themselves since His time, after His manner. Truly, Faith, Knowledge and Life (Conduct) cannot exist apart from those who realize them. In the Books you have their descriptions only; not faith, knowledge and conduct themselves! I am happy all the more in the choice of this title for my book, as it is a symbol, in my mind, of the per Page #9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ viii PREFACE fect harmony which exists between the Jain Religion and the Christian Creed (when properly understood). This is evident from my little brochure entitled the “Glimpses of a Hidden Science in Original Christian Teachings," which gives the true views of early Christianity under appropriate heads, that stand for and represent the doctrines of Jainism. How came the true view fo Christianity to be lost sight of has been explained in my other works, especially the 'Key of Knowledge.' The barest outline of the vast subject of Religion could only be touched upon in these few pages. My object has been to present an intelligible and systematic exposition of the subject of Salvation in short compass, avoiding all technicalities as far as possible. For fuller information I must refer the reader to other books, including my own works. Simla, Marie Villa, 8th July, 1929. C. R. JAIN Page #10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE WAY Page #11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ “I said, Ye are gods." --John x. 34. ".... he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken ....."John x. 35. Page #12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ BOOK I THE WAY Right Faith signifies a beliefA. I-In the Divinity of the Lord Arhant (Tirtham kara); II—In the Scripture of Truth, embodying the Word of the Lord Arhant; III-In the Preceptorship of the Nirgrantha (pos sessionless) Jaina Saints, engaged in the eradication of their lower nature; B. I-In the potential Divinity of the Soul, that may be realized by following the Path of the Jinas (Conquerors) ; II–In the seven great Tattvus (essentials of knowledge), which have enabled countless numbers of men to attain to the Perfection and Glory of Godhood; III–In the Triple Jewel of Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct, which combinedly, but not singly, lead to the realization of the Great Ideal of the Soul; Page #13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 4 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT C. I—In the Community of the Faithful, compris ing the four kinds of Pious Souls, engaged in working off their karmas, namely, Saints, Nuns, House-holders and Lay female fol lowers; II-In the two-fold Path, the Advanced and Austere and the Preliminary and Qualified, the one for well-disciplined holy Saints and the other for the virtuous amongst men un able as yet to aspire to Saintship; and III–In the rules of Conduct appertaining to each of the two Paths, the Saints and the Layman's, consisting in the observance of the five Great (unbending) Vows (non-injuring, Truthfulness, non-stealing, Celibacy and Renunciation of aught that is foreign to Soul's own nature), five kinds of Vigilance (in walking, handling things, speech, eating and the disposal of bodily products) and the three kinds of Controls (affecting the Mind, Speech and the Body) for Saints, and in the twelve vows and the Sallekhanā (the death-bed' vow) for the laity of either sex. Page #14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH Page #15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ “ Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”—John viii. 32. Page #16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ BOOK II THE TRUTH PART I–THE METHOD OF INVESTIGA TION 1--NIKSHEPA Nikshepa means naming an object which is done for facility of communication and reference. Words constitute speech, and speech makes it possible for us to communicate with one another with the greatest ease. No civilization is possible in the absence of speech. Nouns are the names of objects. They enable us to substitute a mere sound for a long description. If we had to describe a thing each time we had occasion to refer to it, the process would be an interminable nuisance and confusion could not be eliminated altogether. Naming enables us to get over the difficulty. Hence all those who can talk use words as names of persons, places and things. People name objects in four different ways: (1) at random (nāma nikshepa), as calling a man Wolf, Oppington, etc., Page #17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 8 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT (2) with reference to certain real or imaginary attributes, discovered or transferred to the object (sthāpanā nikshepa), e.g., to call a piece of carved stone Nelson's statue, and the pieces of chess King and Queen; (3) with regard to the potentiality of an object (dravya nikshepa), to call a rajkumar (the son of a raja) raja; or a medical student doctor; (4) with reference to occupation or calling (bhāva nikshepa), e.g., to call a person engaged in the act of worship a worshipper. If there be difficulty in understanding the purport of speech, a reference to the particular method of naming would be found of great help. For instance, the statement the queen is captured' might refer to a real queen or to a wooden piece in the game of chess. The confusion can be eliminated by the knowledge of the particular form of nikshepa employed in the nomenclature. Page #18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 24CLASSIFICATION Classification is effected by means of the distinguishing marks of things. The mark (1) must be present in all the members of the class, e.g., wings in birds, (2) should not be found outside the class, and (3) should not be impossible. If the classification is not correct it will lead to all sorts of difficulties in the end. If we classify man as a two-legged animal, then we shall have to recognize the ostrich also as a man! If we pick out the beard as a distinguishing mark of humanity, women and small children will not be included in the class. And no purpose will be served in life if such an absurdity as horns be taken to constitute a distinction of the human species. Page #19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 10 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 3-NAYAVADA Things are characterized with manifoldness of aspects. For instance, general attributes are found coexisting with particular characteristics in all things. Never do we come across the general or the particular by itself. A mango tree, to take a common illustration, has a number of features in common with the other kinds of trees; and it has its own peculiarities which are not to be found outside its class. In speech, however, it is not possible to describe all the aspects of an object at one and the same time. For speech is composed of words and words are only capable of dealing with single features of things, and can only be used in a limited The word mango, for instance, generally only draws the attention to the special group of features that distinguish a mango from other kinds of trees. sense. There are seven special aspects which are of daily use in connection with the employment of words (in human speech). These are: (1) In an abstract or mixed sense, that is, the description of a fact or an event with reference to a past or future state or fact, e.g., 'Today is the nirvana-day of the last Tirthamkara Mahāvīra.' (But Mahāvīra obtained nirvana over 2,450 years ago.) Page #20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 11 (2) In the sense of a genus or species or class, as in the statement 'the soul is divine.' The whole class is referred to here and not any particular individual. (3) With reference to a particular individual, e.g., Ram Prasad is very clever. (4) With reference to the form as distinguished from the substance of a thing. The house has been destroyed. Here it is obvious that the material of the house has not been destroyed, only its form has perish ed. (5) In the grammatical sense, where the signi ficancy can be ascertained by a reference to the rules of grammar and a lexicon, as for instance in the statement The Sun rises in the East.' Here the word 'Sun' is used in its ordinary sense. (6) In an allegorical or special sense, e.g., "(The) Sun is the leader of the gods.' Here (the) Sun is a symbol of omniscience, and 'gods' stand for the divine attributes of a pure Soul. (7) With reference to one's occupation, as in the statement · May I call a doctor?' Here the word doctor refers to a member of the Page #21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 12 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT class of men who practise medicine. The difference between the bhava nikshepa and this form of naya lies in the fact that the term (e.g., doctor) is used in the former as the name, but in the latter as the description of a person or a class. Gross errors with reference to these nayas are committed when the special significaney and sense in which words are employed is forgotten, and further conclusions are drawn from the statements embodying them indiscriminately. We shall now illustrate some errors typical of each of these seven nayas: (1) It will be an error of the first naya to conclude from the statement that today is the nirvana-day of the Tirthamkara Mahāvīra that he actually attained nirvāṇa today. (2) With reference to the second naya it will be false to say, with regard to the statement that the soul is divine by nature, that every unredeemed soul is a divinity in manifes tation. (3) With reference to the third naya, it will be mischievous to confound the individual with the class, and to generalise on the basis of a solitary instance. Page #22 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 13 (4) With reference to the fourth naya it will be suicidal to forget that things have a substantial basis, and to conclude that the destruction of a house means the destruction of the substance of its matter altogether. (5) With regard to the fifth naya it should never be forgotten that when words are employed in a non-figurative sense their meaning is not to be twisted into metaphorical import. To read into the plain statement that the Sun rises in the East some mystical sense will be an instance of this type of error. (6) The sixth nuya points to the allegorical signi ficance. It will be destructive of reason to take it literally. Where an allegorical reading is indicated an historical interpretation will be calamitous; the one will pave the way to the Right Path, the other can but lead to ruin. (7) With reference to the seventh naya it will be a misdirection to say that a doctor is nothing but a doctor at all times. Jaina metaphysics warns us against these errors, because the utmost precision of thought is necessary for metaphysical enquiry and the determination of truth. Page #23 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 14 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT If the investigator throws caution to the wind at the very commencement of his task, and allows himself to roam about slip-shod in a region that is beset with dangers nothing but a catastrophe is to be expected. Page #24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 15 15 ANEKANTAVADA Anekāntavāda (many-sidedness of investigation) is the method that is not satisfied with one-sided results. Unless an object is studied from all its aspects the knowledge of it will be incomplete and liable to misiead. In the main everything has to be studied from the point of view of substance of which it may be composed, and from that of the form in which it may clothe itself or present itself for investigation. Page #25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 16 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 5—THE SYADVADA Human speech will become a source of interminable confusion unless care be taken from the very outset to avoid a slip. The statement-S is P, and S is not P, and at the same time S is both P and not P, is likely to cause a lot of trouble to uninitiated or improperly initiated readers. It looks like a bundle of contradictions on the face of it; yet it may not be so, in fact. Let us see whether it is possible to make any sense out of it or not. Suppose S represents strychnine and P poison, and suppose the statement only means : Strychnine is poison (when administered in large doses); it is not poison (in medicinal doses); and it is both poison and non-poison at the same time (when looked at without reference to dosage). In the above reading the contradiction is completely gone, and a very useful bit of information is acquired about the nature of strychnine ! Jaina Metaphysicians warn us against being turned a way, by the appearance of contradiction, in the Word of the Tirthamkara which is really never wrong or contradictory. Sometimes the contradictions are real, as Page #26 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 17 is the case with the statements of false witnesses in courts; but there is never a real contradiction to be found in the statement of the Tirthamkara who is the Teacher Divine. Those who are led to discard His teaching on the appearance of contradiction deprive themselves of the truth, and will be forced to pin their faith on onesided absolutisms which might be very very dangerous. The man who insists on regarding strychnine, for instance, as absolutely not poison may very soon have occasion to pay for his folly with his life. The theory of contradiction will admit of being given in the form of a diagram. It is quite simple in its nature. Human speech purports to say something about a thing. There are three kinds of statements we can make about a thing, from the standpoint of contradiction. S is P. S is not P. S is at once both P and not P. By combining these in different ways we get four more forms of the contradictory statement. These are: S is P+S is not P. S is P+S is at once P and not P both. S is not P+S is at once both P and not P. S is P+S is not P+S is at once both P and not P. These seven forms, taken together, constitute what is known as the sapta-bhangi (sevenfold) system of F. 2 Page #27 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 18 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT predication. Of these the first three are the simple forms of predication, and the remaining four their compounds. They may be contradictory with reference to one another or, in the case of the compound ones, in regard to their own contents. Jaina Metaphysicians advise the inserting of the term syat (from a particular point of view) mentally before every such statement of predication, so that the mind be directed to the necessity of referring them to their standpoints. The statements would then read as syat S is P; syat S is not P, and so on. In this way the attention will be directed to finding out the point of view from which a statement proceeds. If this is not borne in mind when reading the Word of a Divine Teacher, the labour is likely to be lost, or end in colossal disaster. The sapta-bhangi method owes its origin to the need for perfect investigation of the nature of things from all possible points of view, in the course of which seemingly but not really contradictory statements will have to be made. The Jaina system is known as the Syādvāda metaphysics because of its many-sided (anekāntic) investigation and of the recourse to the chart of reconciliation, syat S is P, syat S is not P, and the rest. It should be remembered that for a real contradiction the affirmation and denial of a thing will have to proceed from the one and the same point of view. Page #28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 6-LOGIC There are three different standards of proof which the different classes of men are guided by. The slovenly mind is satisfied with the possible in nature; the judge in a court of law rejects the possible but is governed by the probable; but the philosopher rejects both the possible and the probable, and only builds his system on the certain. Certainty is attained by logic which is of two kinds-deductive and inductive. Here we are only concerned with deductive logic. For the inductive logic a scientific study of nature is required, with scientific precision. This way we shall be able to acquire knowledge of the relations of objects with one another and of the true principles of causation of events in nature. 19 Deductive logic presupposes a goodly stock of knowledge of scientific truths. Inferences are drawn on the strength of scientific principles which will hold true under any circumstances. It is not necessary to encumber the mind with technical elaborations of the science of deduction. One simple rule will suffice to ensure never-failing accuracy of deduction as well as agreement with nature, at one and the same time. Aristotelian logic is unable to achieve the second of these aims. But it does achieve the Page #29 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 20 first. It is not concerned with anything more than consistency. Its conclusions will be correct in form and consistent; but whether they are true in fact is beyond its province. No doubt they will be true if the premises on which they are founded are true; but in the Aristotelian logic nobody pays any attention to the accuracy in point of fact of the implications of the premises. FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT The one rule of logic on which a logician might stake his reputation is this: whenever you have a fixed unalterable rule to go upon, you may base your deduction on the strength of it. If there be such a rule and you make a deduction to the contrary, that is, in defiance of it, the deduction will be wrong. If there be no such rule one way or the other to guide you, and you make a statement of some kind, it will be a pure guess and utterly unreliable. For instance it is a fixed unalterable rule of nature that people are born small and then begin to grow up. Now, if some one says that he was born a thousand years old and is travelling backwards in regard to his years, the statement is opposed to a natural law, and must be false. An instance of pure speculation will occur if one predict that a certain man will earn so much money in his fiftieth year; because there is no fixed rule about people's income-how much they should earn in any particular year or at a particular age. Page #30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH By a natural rule is meant a law of nature, or something which has been raised to the rigidity of a law of nature amongst human conventions. Neither of them should admit of as much as a single exception. The order of the days of the week, for instance, has been fixed by human convention, and will hold good so long as it is not changed by the concurrence of the whole race. We may safely predict on the strength of this order that a Monday will follow a Sunday. But we could not have done this if there were a single exception, unless the elimination of the exception was possible in some way. But that would have only gone to fix the rigidity of the rule itself. If the above rule is kept in mind there is no fear of mishaps, for the want of the elaborate technical knowledge of the numerous terms employed in Logic and of their definitions and elaborations. The Jaina rule may be termed the practical or busy man's Logic, and can be mastered by a single reading of this Chapter, The one practical rule to follow when you wish to find out whether any particular statement is true or untrue is to ask if it be supported by or grounded or founded on any fixed unvarying unalterable rule. If it be founded on such a rule you may take it as absolutely correct; otherwise it will be either perverse or unreliable as a piece of guess-work. Page #31 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 22 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 7-THE CATEGORIES The principal categories are four, namely, dravya (substance), kshetra (place), kāla (time) and bhāva (internal states). These admit of amplification as follows: Dravya (substance) may be own substance or what is adhering to or is in association with one's own substance, that is, a foreign substance; and includes quality and form without which no substance can ever exist in nature. Kshetra signifies place or locality, extent of space occupation (quantity), and position in space. Kala is time, or modification of being, the outward state of existence, e.g., an object in motion, or one at rest. Bhāva indicates internal states and feelings, how related to others, whether enjoying the esteem of others or not. If we reduce the above to two categories only-namely, substance and quality-as Aristotle did at times, there will be the risk of confusion between such things as states and qualities, substance and space, and the like. And no useful purpose will be served by enlarging the list, as the four enumerated above will be found to cover all that may be said about a thing. Page #32 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 8-DIVISION Division may be scientific or unscientific. In scientific division the subject is divided and no remainder is left; in the unscientific way it is not exhausted. For instance, to divide living beings into men, horses, monkeys and rats, is not a proper division, for the class (living beings) is not exhausted that way. The proper mode is to divide them as under : LIVING BEINGS Men Not-men Literate Not-literate (illiterate) Well-read Not-well-read In this way a division can be made without the possibility or risk of confusion. Page #33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 24 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT PART II-(a) METAPHYSICS The world is composed of two different kinds of substances, the Conscious and the Unconscious. The latter comprise no less than five different substances. These are: Space, Time, two kinds of Ether and Matter. The Conscious substance (Spirit) will be described in the part dealing with Psychology. But the others shall be dealt with here. Space is a substance, in the nature of a vacuum, not a pure vacuum. It is an extended continuous vacuum. As pure vacuum it will be non-existent, and non-extended; for you cannot have even one positive quality inhering in what is itself non-existent. Space, which is endowed with infinite extension, must, therefore, be a substance in itself. Time is known to us in two different aspects. It is, firstly, the measure of duration, and is known in the form of hours, days, and the like. Secondly, it is the cause of the continuity of function of things. Nothing in nature can exist destitute or devoid of function. Function is discharged by the displacement of energy in the case of simple units and things. If there were no Time-substance to help in the performance of the movement of the displacement of energy, things would be doomed to remain in the same condition always. Our Page #34 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 25 consciousness, for instance, known itself again and again, and not only once throughout life. The form which this sense of awareness takes is that of periodic intensification. Self-awareness is intense at one time; it then begins to fade, and is revived again, before it is completely obliterated. This rhythmical rise and fall of the intensity of the feeling of self-awareness cannot be accomplished without the aid of an accompanying cause. That cause is Time, that is to say, a substance which has been termed Time, because of its being the source of the measurable aspect of time. It exists in the form of revolving pins on every point of space, and is helpful in the discharge of function as described. If there be no Time-substance there will be no motion, and measurable time will itself be unknown. Of the two kinds of Ethers, one is the medium of motion, and the other helpful in the resting or stationary state of things. Things when resting do not rest on one another; there is always a cushion of Ether interposed between them. Matter needs no description here, as it is perceived by the senses. It is endowed with sensible qualities, which are colour (red, black, blue, yellow and white), taste (pungent, bitter saline acid and sweet), odour (pleasant and unpleasant), touch (hard, soft, rough, smooth, hot, cold, light and heavy), and sound which arises from the agitation of material bodies. Page #35 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 26 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT · . Substances are eternal, and cannot be created or destroyed. They are, from another point of view, only so many bundles of qualities; for qualities inhere in substances, and cannot exist independently of a substantive basis. If qualities could exist by themselves, then existence would be able to exist by itself, too. But in that case it would simply be a featureless entity, and all other things would be deprived of being, because of their being separated off from existence itself. In either case the result is unacceptable to reason. Qualities may become or remain un-expressed or suppressed, but they can never be destroyed altogether, or separated from the substances in which they inhere. The world had no beginning in time; for the supposition would involve the non-existence of substances, or, in the alternative, the suspension of their functions, which is equally inconceivable. For to exist in nature is only to function. Every substance has its particular mode of existence in its very function, in respect of which it differs from the other substances. If the specific function of a thing is taken off, its existence will be counter-indicated. The supposition that things can exist apart from their function can only mean that they both exist and not exist at the same time, since to function is only to exist in a particularized way, and to exist is only to discharge a particular function! Page #36 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH (b) PSYCHOLOGY 1-THE SOUL Perception is the function of a simple substance. It cannot be performed by compounds. 27 Every perception is a mental synthesis-an indivisible affection or sensation. Perception does not imply a reflection, e.g., the reflection of an object in the looking-glass. A reflection is composed of parts, and perception is a pure synthesis-an indivisible affection or sensation. If perception consisted in a reflection over a compound surface, no part of the compound surface would be seized of the whole of the reflection, for different parts of it will appear in different portions of the reflecting surface. Each part of the reflecting surface would thus know only what is reflected on it but no more. The whole of the object is not reflected in any one of the parts of the reflecting surface, and cannot be known anywhere over its surface. The subject of perception must, then, be a simple substance that has no parts, so that the whole of the excitation will act on a partless subject and be recognized by it at once. The subject of logical inference must also be a partless entity. If the premises and their implications were Page #37 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 28 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT spread over an extended compound object, mental synthesis could not be attained. In order that logical inference be drawn from a given set of premises, the one and the same mind, which must be indivisible and uncompound, will have to be seized of them and of their implications and contents. If the contents of the premises are distributed over different parts of a compound being, no part will be possessed of the whole syllogism, and a deduction will be an inconceivable process. Our consciousness which actually draws a logical deduction must, then, be a simple substance, or the function of a simple substance. The mind that knows abstract ideas, like goodness, love and truth, must likewise be an indivisible thing. For abstract ideas cannot be broken into parts or spread over an extended compound surface. Simple things cannot be created or produced from nothing, nor manufactured from different elements. They contain no parts or separable elements, and cannot be destroyed or broken up into fragments and bits in any way. What cannot be created and destroyed must be eternal! The mind, then, is an eternal existence. Nothing that exists can exist, or be the abode of qualities, independently of a substantive basis. The mind, too, must, therefore, be a substance. Page #38 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 29 The ancients employed the term soul to indicate their conception of a knowing substance that was partless and indestructible and, therefore, immortal. The term is a fit and convenient one, and may be retained on account of the currency which it has obtained all over the English-speaking world. Suitable words exist in other tongues to express the same idea—ātman, ruh, jīva, etc. Perception is an affection. It is not constituted by the stimulus. The stimulus is material, but perception is not material. The paper on which this book is printed is white in colour and has so many inches in length and breadth, but the idea of it in the mind is devoid of both colour and dimension. It is simply a partless affection or sensation. No state of consciousness is ever possessed of the material attributes of colour, taste, touch, smell and sound. Consciousness is, then, not endowed with the qualities which appertain to matter and is a different kind of substance from matter. The senses only respond to material stimuli-colour, sound, etc. They cannot take notice of non-material things. The mind or consciousness is not possessed of material qualities and cannot be perceived by the senses. The soul cannot, therefore, be known by the senses. Page #39 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 30 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 2-NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE Perception is different from the stimulus which gives it rise. The stimulus is material in nature, but perception is psychic. Perception is merely called forth by the stimulus; it is not made, created, or manufactured by it. Besides, perception is unitary; stimulus is non-unitary, that is composite or compound in nature. A Simple thing cannot be created or manufactured; it exists by itself, ready made. This holds good of even a simple state of consciousness, that is, of an idea, which is indivisible. All perceptions and ideas thus exist in the mind, un-made and un-manufactured. They are as indestructible as the soul-substance itself in which they inhere. These ideas are themselves not loose units or things somehow stuffed into the simple thing-the soul. They all interpenetrate and really constitute one thought. Unbroken parts of this one huge idea are perceived from time to time; those not perceived remaining suppressed. The process or rather the mechanism of perception consists of three parts, namely, the senses, the sensory nerves and centres, and the response of the individual consciousness. Stimuli transmitted by the objects are received by the senses. They are then allowed to travel Page #40 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH along the sensory nerves in the form of vibratory motion or agitation. Consciousness then responds to the vibratory force with its innate ' ideas,' when cognition is had. Sensory nerves themselves do not perceive the agitation which they communicate. If they did so, we should be conscious of the object all along the route of the excitation. If the units of the sensory nerves are living cells endowed with consciousness, they will perceive and take notice of the disturbance passing over them in a certain measure, according to the type of their mind,' but what each of these living cells will notice will not be communicated by it to its neighbour, for perceptions are not alienable things. Page #41 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 32 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 3-OMNISCIENCE The One huge Idea which is characteristic of the soul-substance is infinite in respect of its contents. It represents all things of all times and places. This is so because things are only known through the response of consciousness to the incoming stimulus. Further, since the soul is a substance and since the attributes and properties of substances are the same in all cases, therefore, all souls have the same capacity in respect of knowledge. Hence what one soul knows can be known by all others. This is really tantamount to saying that every soul has the capacity to know all that was known to any and all the souls in the past, and that which is known to any one today, and also that which shall ever be known to any one in the future. In other words, every soul possesses, potentially knowledge infinite, that is, unlimited by time and space. In plain language, every soul is potentially omniscient. What can never be known by the mind is simply non-existent. For what is not proved-whether directly or indirectly to exist cannot be admitted; and what no one will ever know can never be proved to exist. Hence all things are knowable by the soul. The infinite consciousness of the soul, then, has the Page #42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 33 capacity to know all that existed, now exists or shall ever exist in nature, in any part of Space and in any of the three periods of time, the past, the present and the future! Page #43 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 34 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 4SOUL AN INTELLIGENT SUBSTANCE The soul is not distinct or separate from its infinite, all-embracing, all-comprehending idea. If they were separate, knowledge would be dwelling in it as a man dwells in a house. But the soul has no vacuum inside it to admit of even knowledge dwelling there as a tenant. Besides, knowledge will, on such a supposition, become like an external object, instead of a state of its own consciousness, and will have to be known as other objects are known-through different stimuli. But knowledge does not emit sensory stimulus, being nonmaterial in nature. We have to recognize, then, that knowledge and soul are really two different words for the same thing : soul is knowledge, and knowledge is soul! The soul is, therefore, an intelligent substance by nature, All living beings are endowed with two kinds of consciousness: (1) perception, and (2) the understanding, appreciation or import of what is perceived, e.g., to perceive an orange as an object and to know it as an article of food. In the case of sounds (words) their import is also covered by the second kind of consciousness. But this kind of consciousness (the significancy of words) is enjoyed only by the higher forms of life. But there is Page #44 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH no form of life which does not, at least in a crude and obscure manner, possess these two kinds of knowledge; for even the lowest forms of life know what is food and what not, though the form of consciousness manifested is purely instinctive in their case. Page #45 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 36 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 5--THE JNANAVARAŅIYA COVER The self-existing infinite knowledge of the soul must be covered over by some sort of a veil, otherwise it will manifest itself simultaneously in its entirety. The veil that covers it is termed jnūnāvaraņa (jnāna, knowledge and ūvarana, a cover), and signifies a cover on knowledge. But for the presence of this veil, the mind will not stand in need of the external stimulus to display its riches. The covering on knowledge is substantial in nature, and is made of subtle invisible matter. It is not alike in respect of thickness in the case of all the souls. Some have only one sense, namely, touch; in their case the covering is too thick to admit of the activity of the remaining four senses. Some have touch and taste; these are lacking in respect of the other three senses, and so on and so forth. In man there also appears, with the thinning of the covering on knowledge, a Central Organ of Thought (reflection). Some of the five-sensed animals—horses, monkeys, dogs and the like-too, have this Central Organ of reflection in a less refined form than man's. In the case of advanced saints the knowledge-obstructing cover becomes further attenuated. Clairvoyance, and, in more advanced cases, telepathy are then enjoyed by them. When the cover is completely destroyed, the Soul becomes omniscient, that is, simply all-perceiving and all-knowing! Page #46 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 37 6-THE WILL The element of activity in subjection to desire is will. The will is constituted by the totality of the individual desires-conscious and sub-conscious both. Desires are themselves mental longings or impulses seeking gratification. In the Central Office of the Mind the soul appears in the form of will. Mental impulses differ from one another on account of the differences of their ends, each one having a different end in view. The ends' are there in the form of a state of consciousness which may correspond to a visual or non-visual sensation. The most active of these impulses determine the line of action and thought for the individual, at any given moment of time. The less active impulses are quiescent; they do not possess sufficient energy to be effective. But they are nonetheless volcanic in nature, and may assume active shape any moment, if stimulated from an adequate cause. In deliberation the choice of the paths is determined by the amount of satisfaction that will result to the will with reference to its pleasureseeking impulses. The character (or disposition) of an individual consists in the sum-total of his desires, the milder intensity and the lesser number indicating a higher type and vice versa. Conduct is the character in operation in any parti Page #47 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 38 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT cular transaction. It may be in harmony with the general disposition, or it may not be in harmony with it. If a dormant impulse is suddenly roused into activity and is not controlled by the individual, the conduct will not be in keeping with the general trend of his disposition; otherwise it will be in harmony with it. Page #48 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 7-PASSIONS Desires develop into passions (or powerful emotions) when they are actively in operation. An active longing for a thing is termed greed. The state of the fury which blazes up when one is thwarted in the obtainment or enjoyment of an object of desire is anger. The cunning that is resorted to to secure an object of desire is deceit. The state of intense self-glorification which results by the possession of the desired object or state is pride. Passions may assume four different degrees of intensity. They may be mild, strong, overpowering, and irresistible, that is, simply uncontrollable. The worst of these are the passions of the irresistible type when they are at the boiling point (so to speak). He who is under their influence will not stop at anything, and will act as a mad man. He will even kill himself or any other person. 39 There are many forms of the passions; but they are all formed out of the primary four. All forms of passions interfere more or less with the serenity of the mind, and the intellectual work. This is because passions are but violent forms of desire which means a mental craving or agitation. The sight of an object will agitate the mind of the man or animal who entertains a desire for its possession or enjoyment. He Page #49 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 40 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT who entertains no such desire will remain unaffected by its presence. Desire is nothing apart from the soul. The soul moved by the longing to possess an object of desire, that is to say, the soul agitated by the craving, is itself the actual form of desire. The same is the case with passions. Anger, pride, deceit and greed are nothing apart from the soul. They are only different forms of the agitated state of the soul. Page #50 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 8-INTELLECT Like the will, the intellect also is only an aspect of the soul. The will is the desiring and the intellect the thoughtful aspect of the soul. The two aspects are not even separate or separable from each other, in any way. The will itself acts as reason when sufficiently sobered down to be able to think. The intellect is instantly dethroned whenever furious passions seize hold of the soberminded thinker. If there were no desires to obstruct the tranquillity of the soul, it would be all-knowing; when desires are active in a mild form, it is sober and thoughtful and rationally-inclined; when the raging passions are in possession of the field it is cruel and acts thoughtlessly, caring nothing even for killing or being killed. 41 The intellect is also un-settled whenever consciousness is swayed with prejudice. It is actually dethroned when bias assumes the proportions of fanaticism. The five kinds of forces which interfere with the proper functioning of the intellect are, then, the four kinds of passions of the uncontrollable type and bias in its worst form. Sober thinking is not possible till these are not definitely brought under control. Page #51 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 9-ATTENTION Attention is the instrument of conscious enquiry (determination), and of succession in perception and knowledge. Unless attention be directed towards an object it will not be cognized by the mind. Even things -e.g., sweetmeats-placed on the tongue in the mouth will remain unnoticed unless attention be turned towards them. The function of attention is to carry the stimulus from the object to the soul. Unless the stimulus be allowed to reach the soul, it will not rouse consciousness, and will fail to awaken perception and knowledge. Attention signifies interest. We only attend to what interests us. Of all the impulses in the will the most predominant ones are constantly ready to fix themselves on their objects. They are literally at tension all the time for their gratification. Hence the term attention. They push back the others in the background and occupy the field themselves, rendering the rest subconscious. Unless this tension be relaxed sufficiently to admit of their stimuli reaching the soul, it will not know of the existence of other objects even though their contact be as close as that of the sweetmeats on the tongue. Attention brings the object on which it is fixed into the lime-light of consciousness. It then brings to Page #52 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 43 bear upon it the whole of its rich store of past experience, to ascertain its nature. Attention, as apart from the soul, is nothing tangible and concrete. It is only the soul in action in a particular way. Attention is first drawn by the object casually. It is like a flashlight that is being incessantly turned in every direction, till it fall on something which is interesting. The barest outline of the form, that is to say, the general qualities of the object are perceived first of all. When approaching a field you first of all perceive grass, without knowing what particular kind of grass it is. Then if the object interest the perceiver his attention will fix itself upon it, and learn its details one by one. This is because cognition is had first of all by means of the mental impulses which are seeking gratification of their desires in the outside world. The impulses are only so many desires, which differ from one another in respect not so much of energy as qualitatively. The desire for food must be a different kind of thing from the desire for a drink; the longing for an orange cannot be the same as that for a banana. Desires, then, are only so many forms of mental agitation characteristic of the general ideas of different things. A general idea, whether visual or non-visual, can Page #53 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 44 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT only be in the nature of an indivisible nucleus of sensation. It cannot be an image; for in that case it will become particularized. Even a general idea of the nonvisual type must not be particularized. The general idea of the taste of the mango fruit is not the same thing as the taste of a particular mango. But it is not a part or portion of a concrete idea or sensation. For no sensation is capable of being broken up into fragments or bits, and no sensation is a compounded mixture of more than one elements or component parts. The desire for an object, e.g., an orange, is thus a special form of the mental agitation that corresponds to the general idea of an orange, that is of as much of the orange sensation as is common to all oranges. In other words, it is a form of sensation--a kind of stock sensation if such a phrase be permissible with reference to a psychological state--which will correspond to, fit in, or harmonise with the sensations of all members of the orange species but nothing else. A general idea may now be defined with greater precision. In respect of its substantive basis it is an indivisible aspect of the soul; in its character of knowledge it is unanalysable and beyond the senses, and felt rather than known by the finite mind; as the moving force behind an active impulse it is the mental counterpart—the better-half-of a sensation, owing its being to the combination of spirit and matter; and generally Page #54 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH speaking, it is a sort of force marked with differentiating pitch and intensity and rhythm, which is to be distinguished from the blind forces of nature, because of its being an aspect of the Intelligent substance of Spirit. When the general form of mental agitation, termed desire or impulse, encounters a thing that emits or sends out corresponding vibrations, it experiences a sort of shock or thrill which is the first act of perception, or rather the first step in the process of perception. At this stage cognition is felt rather than known, that is to say, it is more like a feeling than knowledge (idea). Then comes attention into play, which ascertains the nature of the object by testing it with its innate mental forms. As a result of this cognition proper now takes place. The impulses, then, are the mental re-agents, and all knowledge is acquired, by the finite mind, through them, of the outside world, in the first instance. They embody the general diagrams of class-sensations (general ideas) of things, and are able, by means of the correspondence between the mental and physical vibrations, to detect the presence of their objects. Attention is, from another point of view, the instrument of succession, and, therefore, of limitation of knowledge. We do not know all things together, but only one after another. Yet knowledge in its infinite array is present within the consciousness all the time. Page #55 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 46 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT This infinite knowledge is inhibited by the focussing of attention on particular objects. We do not even perceive the whole of the wide field that is pictured on the retinæ. What immediately interests us is all that is perceived by the mind. Page #56 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ " THE TRUTH 10-INSTINCTS Stinging' impulses are the instincts. mary instincts are only four : (1) the instinct of life, (2) the instinct of food, (3) the sexual instinct, and (4) the instinct of possession. 47 Complex instincts are acquired in the course of life, but they are more like varieties of behaviour than pure instincts. The pri Instincts may be trained, modified and even eradicated. The suicide defies the instinct of life; the celibate conquers the sexual urge; saints renounce the love of possessions, seeking to subdue their appetites; those who attain to omniscience overrule hunger itself, and live not by bread but by the nourishment of wisdom! Fear, too, is conquered by saints, who are ever prepared for death, and remain unmoved by calamity and ill health. Page #57 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 48 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 11—THE SUB-CONSCIOUS Knowledge infinite is the very nature of the soul; but it is not available normally. It lies buried deep under accumulated deposits of matter (Inānāvarāņa). It cannot be availed of so long as the material covering does not become sufficiently attenuated for it to penetrate through. The infinity of ideas are now lying unfunctioning. They lie in the deepest strata of our being. The impulses that are active surround the bright little gleam of intelligence that enables us to carry on life's work. We adjust our inner relations with those of the outer world with the aid of this little bit of intelligence. This, too, is at times clouded over by the impetuosity of active impulses. The rest of the impulses that are less active or half dormant form the background of consciousness, whence they manifest themselves at times. They exist on a lower level of consciousness. Suppressed or repressed impulses that have been forced down for some reason or other also exist in the mind in a submerged condition, often with distorted or twisted associations. All the above exist in the mind on different levels of consciousness. Page #58 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 49 12—THE CENTRAL ORGAN OF THE MIND The headquarters of intellectual activity in the body is the central organ of the mind. It is connected with, that is, common to, all the senses, and is accordingly termed the common sense. If the organ of thought were not connected with the senses, that is to say, if the senses were not controlled from one central spot or office in the body of man, much confusion would have resulted in life, and much precious time would be wasted needlessly. There would have to be big gaps in thinking, if the individual attention had to go from sense organ to sense organ in search of the different sensory data for its thought-activity. The co-ordination of thought and action, too, would have been quite impossible. The function of the central organ of mind is to bring about a co-ordination of all the phases of the individual's activity, both sensory and motor, to economise time, and eliminate confusion from deliberation. The soul is like an engineer, and must have all connections and controlling levers in its office. If any of the departments is not represented in the office, the gap in the intelligence caused thereby will be a calamity and unfortunate. The central organ of the mind is composed of sensory and motor nerves both. The former bring in intelligence of the world outside, and the latter carry out the F. 4 Page #59 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 50 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT commands of the will through manifold bodily movements. The sensory system is also necessary for reproduction, that is, memory, and the extreme rapidity with which memory furnishes data for thought-activity testifies to its being located in the head office of the deliberative mind itself. The mind is, then, like a system of key-boards for the will to operate upon. It is the head office of the Will, where the covering of matter is more attenuated than in any of the senses. Page #60 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 13-THE LOTUS OF THE HEART The headquarters of the Soul is not situated in the head; for the brain is not the seat of passions and emotions by any means. It is situated in the region of the heart, in the spinal column, not in the physical organ of the heart, though the latter both affects and is affected by the conditions prevailing in the former. There is no other place where it can be properly located. No other place is affected by passions and emotions as the heart is affected, and no other place is fitted to be the head office of the soul in the whole organism. The lotus of the heart is a nervous centre whose petals constitute the operating board for the will. The key-board is connected with the different centres in the brain through which knowledge of the outside world may be obtained, and it is also connected with the limbs of motion in the body through which the wishes of the soul can be enforced. The will is here engaged in seeking gratification of its desires in the external world, led hy different kinds of its impulses. It itself acts as Reason when it is able to subdue its cravings in a certain measure. It becomes Self-conscious when its prejudices are destroyed and the passions are reduced to the type of mild intensity. It obtains Omniscience when all its Page #61 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 52 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT desires for the enjoyment of external nature are completely eradicated from its heart. The heart, and not the head, is, therefore, the seat and the head office of the ego. Page #62 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 53 14-MEMORY AND RECOLLECTION Sensory filaments extend from the perceptive centres in the brain to the central organ of the mind. Here they come in contact with the soul in its most sensitive aspect. Motor nerves, too, have their terminals placed in the central organ of the mind. Complex groupings take place in these nerve terminals. Both the sensory and motor nerves form different combinations, among themselves. The groups are ranged after the manner of an operating or key-board. There are in all eight such operating boards, namely, one each for the five senses, one for memory and reproduction, one for voluntary motion, and one for creative imagination. The groupings of the nerve-terminals are formed in the course of experience, and proficiency in their use is acquired by practice. Thus equipped, the soul in office is able to attend to the outside world with considerable ease. It learns the nature of things through the instrumentality of its senses; and it places itself bodily in touch with the external nature by means of the movements of its limbs, which it initiates, at will, through the operating board of motor mechanisms. Page #63 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 54 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT Memory is of two kinds in the main : recollection and repetition. The former consists in the recalling of an experience or presentation; the latter is the repetition of a lesson learnt by heart or of bodily movements performed automatically. The eightfold key-board in the central region is termed the Central Organ of the Mind. It is the basis of Memory. Those living beings who are not endowed with it are devoid of recollection. They have not the capacity to benefit by experience, and simply live in the present. They will not respond if called. The difference between perception and recollection lies in the fact that in the one the sensory stimulus, which calls forth an idea or a state of consciousness from the mind, originates outside in the world, but from within in the other. The key-board of the sensory groups in the Mind is capable of producing exactly the same kind of stimulus as comes from the outside world, and consciousness responds to it in the same manner as it does in actual perception. This is why recollections may be quite as vivid as perceptions, and just as fresh. The eightfold key-board of the nerve-terminals is termed the lotus of eight petals or the dravya mana (material organ of the mind). It is not the soul, nor is it conscious by nature. It is made of subtle matter, and is merely a tool for the soul's use. Page #64 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 55 15-ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS Ideas may be simple or complex, in respect of their contents or implication, though they are all simple in respect of their substantive basis. Complex ideas are analysable into simpler elements, but not breakable into parts. For a broken up idea will only be so much nonsense. I can destroy the paper on which I am writing this moment, but it is impossible for me or for any one else for the whole of the living and dead nature put together—to destroy the conscious counterpart of it in the mind! The truth is that an idea is as incapable of being destroyed as it is of being created or manufactured. Complex ideas are not formed by the additions of parts to an existing idea; they exist in the mind and are called out like simple ones. Suppose a girl is going to dress up a doll. She takes first of all only a naked doll in her hand, when her mind is also seized of the idea of that particular doll in the state of nudity. She next slips an undervest on the doll. Now, outside, in the world of matter and force, the doll remains the same; but in the mind the first doll is completely gone, and an entirely new one has taken its place, ready dressed in an undervest and resembling the girl's doll as perfectly as the first one. Thus each time that a garment Page #65 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 56 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT is put on the doll an entirely new idea appears in the mind, the old one having completely gone to reside in the subconscious. The same phenomenon occurs if one sees a house which is being dismantled. Outside in the world the house remains the same and is pulled down bit by bit. But in the mind no process of dismantling is taking place and none can possibly take place. There every moment a new image is called up which is replaced by another, coming up in response to the changing excitation. Even when you look at a mansion that is standing before you, you do not hold the same mental image for as much as two consecutive moments in your mind; the stimulus is continuous, and the conscious response, too, is continuous, from moment to moment. The delusion of stability of the mental image arises from the analogy of the stability of the object outside in the world. Thus complex ideas are really all simple ones in their nature. But so far as memory formation is concerned, associations are formed by the groupings of the nervous filaments that have their representatives in the Central Organ of the Mind. Since nerves are not simple things like the states (ideas) of consciousness, an actual grouping of nervous fibres must take place if the girl that is dressing up her doll is to recall its idea in its absence later on. The part played by the sensory Page #66 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 57 nerves in perception and recollection is the same. They carry vibratory agitations to the mind. The difference is only this that in perception the stimulus originates in the outside world, but in recollection in the sensory centres themselves, under the influence of an active impulse of the will. The reason why recollections are usually 'watery' and insipid as compared with perceptions is only this that in perception the object is there to send out a continuous stream of excitations to the senses, while recollections are evanescent. The object is further able to excite pleasurable and painful feelings in the perceiver, but memories are known to be mere memories and incapable, as such, of affording either pleasure or pain. The groupings in the nervous matter are formed mechanically. Certain nerves at first carry the impression of the object, e.g., the undressed doll, to the mind; then others are brought into action along with them, as the process of dressing up progresses. Different groups are thus formed, which adhere together more and more firmly with each subsequent repetition. The inner terminals of the nervous filaments thus grouped together, form the keys on the operating board in the Central Office of the Mind, so that whenever one of them is pressed it will immediately set up the vibratory resonance that had characterised perception itself, and thus call up the corresponding idea in the consciousness. Page #67 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 58 This is how memories are preserved and how recollection is effected. FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 6 Impulses are formed when the penetration of matter is somewhat deeper than in mere perception. In perception the state of consciousness is only cognitive, not appreciative. It only knows the nature of the object in the world outside, whether it is black or white, hard or soft, sweet or sour and the like. It has not yet proceeded to taste or enjoy its relish. But when it goes a step further, and lays itself open to the incoming stimulus more completely, then it is able to ascertain whether its actual experience is pleasurable or painful. It then says such things as I like this,' I do not like this,' and the like. In different language, in perception the external stimulus simply knocks at the door of consciousness; in enjoyment or experience it is admitted further inside. In the one case the contact is merely on the surface; it is more intimate in the other. Now if the sensation is an agreeable one and the soul frequently and passionately longs for it, a strong impulse will be formed in the mind, which will even survive death, unless destroyed by knowledge or eradicated by self-denying discipline. Spirit and matter, then, coalesce to form an impulse; they do not do so when giving rise to perception or knowledge. Impulses are strengthened by gratification, which means the influx of more matter into the soul. Page #68 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH Without material influence they will not be formed. Any kind of pleasurable or painful experience will give rise to a longing (attrahent in the one case and repellent in the other) in the mind. If matter is completely separated from the soul the impulses will be destroyed altogether. 59 At death the nervous associations and groupings are destroyed, but the impulses are carried over by the soul into its new life. All impulses, whether general or generalised aspects of particular complexes (e.g., the sense of love for a particular individual), survive death for this reason. The reason why we do not recollect the events of a previous life is due to the lack of the specific external stimulus which is necessary to rouse and call up old impulses that remain dormant in its absence, and to the predominance of other interests which have been formed since the change of scene and surroundings implied in death. The old impulses are doomed to remain in the condition of slumbering fire, and may be extinguished after a time, under the modifying influence of education and experience, unless they are revived, once again, by the chance perception of an actual landmark from the past that used to appeal powerfully to one's mind. We thus bring our tendencies and impulses with us from a previous life. They survive death in the form of willing, but not as knowledge. The indivisible soul Page #69 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 60 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT substance pervades them all, and they exist inter-penetratingly as so many liquid 'ideas' (that is, forms of mental activity), on the look-out for gratifying themselves with things in the outside world. Their existence is a condition precedent to knowledge of the world. Without them there will be no inducement for the finite ego to bestir himself to know anything, and sense-perception itself will become an impossibility for the want of internal response. Page #70 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 16-DREAMS AND VISIONS Dreams consist of three parts: (i) the scenic type or setting, (ii) the personnel, and (iii) the end in view (gratification of a wish). The first of these is determined by the type of the stimulus, e.g., a sensation of penetrating cold will give rise to scenes in cold climates, falling snow and the like. 61 The second factor is determined by the leading characters of one's predominant thoughts, that is, the residue of conscious thought able to stir up the will. The third is really the motive power, behind the dream, for without an active impulse mental processes cannot be carried on. Sensation is the starting point of a dream. It may be due to external causation or arise within the body. It is seized upon by a mental impulse, which generally is one that is persistent and suppressed. A train of rapid thought then results in the drowsy consciousness. The personnel of the mental drama consist of those who have been recently prominent in the individual's consciousness, and who are or may be connected with the gratification of the motive impulse. But Page #71 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 62 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT their roles are generally distorted on account of the suppression to which the wish has been subjected. Visions are perceived in a similar manner, except that the impulse or wish which is father to the train of thought is not a physical but an elevating moral craving. Any slight bodily sensation, and at times perhaps the persistency of the moral craving itself, will set the mental train in motion. Allegorization will occur probably from the habit of the mind that delights in poetical metaphor. Page #72 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 63 THE TRUTH 17–RECOGNITION Knowledge is a subjective phenomenon. It implies a subjective state as known by an individual consciousness. The knowing consciousness virtually feels itself as the knower in the act of knowing. It is much more than what is implied in the statement: there is an object (e.g., an orange). It actually amounts to the implication: I know the object, e.g., I perceive the orange. The “I” is, however, rarely if ever prominently before its own consciousness; the central place is given to the object of cognition. The same is the case with the feeling of pleasure and pain. It is not that we become conscious of them as if they did not concern us. We know them because they actually affect us. Even when an animal is afflicted with pain the conscious implication of its distress is really only 'I am in pain.' Knowledge, perception and feelings, then, refer back sub-consciously to the consciousness in which they arise, by which they are felt. Memory, too, is no exception to the rule. For in memory also is implied the sub-conscious knowledge I remember.' Fully amplified this only means ' I recall that I knew 'etc. Recognition is literally a second cognition of an object. It may be along the line of similarity or it may be along contiguity. When the mind is interested Page #73 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 64 in a quality similarity is indicated as the process of recollection. When it is interested in the surroundings of an object contiguity would determine the choice of the paths. In other words, when we dwell on a general idea similar memories are recalled, but when we linger on an object its surroundings and settings are called up. FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT The formation of the associations of similarity is the work of the mental impulses in the first instance; for all resemblances are cognized by the same general qualities. As for instance, we first detect the fact that an object is white with the aid of the general idea of whiteness; and then proceed to distinguish the particular shade of that colour. All these impulses in the mind are grouped under the visual section, and have a common centre for their perception. And since general whiteness is common to them all and is actually perceived at the beginning, its variations and shades naturally range themselves round it. Even the newly formed impulses, whether complex or otherwise, would be ranged round the primary general impulse for the same reason. As for contiguity, it is actually given in the very first impression, but is suppressed by the attention being fixed on a part of the sensation. Hence it arises merely by the relaxation of attention. The sense of familiarity with an object is due to the verification of the recalled detail in the object. In cognition the details are Page #74 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 65 acquired from the object; in recognition they are furnished by the mind and verified in the object. Hence, the greater the verification of detail the greater the sense of familiarity. The primary stage of recognition is the identification by a mental impulse of an object or thing in the outside world. The second stage is reached with the confirmation of the details from the mind. The feeling of familiarity is likely to be intensified if the object is one that appeals powerfully to the emotional side of the recalling consciousness. But even this feel. ing of familiarity is not a sure indication of a complete recognition as is evident from the cases of mistaken identity, especially those amongst such intimate and closely related individuals as husband and wife. Perhaps the hall-mark of recognition is the thrill which is experienced when there is a coinciding between the rhythms of the memory impress and the object in the world outside. Page #75 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 66 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 18-A TRAIN OF THOUGHT Thought is originated by a mental impulse. A mental impulse is an attitude of the conscious mind seeking an end. The residue of ungratified desires is the basis of mental impulses. A train of thought consists in a series of mental states—ideas or nascent sensations which continues till the end is perceived to be attainable, or till interrupted by some other train of thought, following a different mental impulse, or by action or sleep. Ideas and nascent sensations are recalled by internal stimulus with the aid of the sensory operating board in the central region of the mind. The 'keys' (groups) are set in motion and their agitations re-evoke the conscious states already experienced in the past by the soul. If the mind dwell on the quality of a sensation, similar sensations will be recalled; if it attend to the external setting of the experience, contiguity will be the guiding principle for the memory. Thinking cannot be carried on in any of the centres of perception; it can only be done by means of general ideas which prevail in the central region of the mind. The perceptive centres are adapted to deal with the concrete reality or the revival of distinct impressions, not with general ideas. Page #76 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 67 19—INHIBITION The working tool of consciousness is the little gleam of light' termed attention. It is unitary and indivisible, and yet seated distributively in all the multifarious and multitudinous impulses of the ego, being but an aspect of the soul itself which is indivisible and present behind every one of its longings and cravings. The most intensely conscious point in the entire organism, it scintillates and sparkles with native intelligence, though not yet freed from the domination of impulsions. It turns wherever the impulses lead it, and is seized by the most predominant of the craving for the time being in possession of the mental field. The other impulses are then rendered quiescent automatically, because of the unitary function of attention, which is only a single point, and not a bundle of points. But attention also is capable of inhibiting the agitations of any of the impulses deliberately, by refusing to be swayed by it. It may even withdraw itself completely from the outside world, and become interested in studying its own nature, when none of the outwardly turned senses will perform their function. The effect of intense absorption in a particular subject-even in an external subject-is the cessation of sensory activity except in regard to what pertains to the subject itself. Page #77 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 68 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT Parliamentary and platform speakers have been known to be imperrious to physical pain when engaged, full of enthusiasm, in pouring forth torrents of rhetoric before their audiences. The explanation of all this lies in the unity of conscious life which works and can work only with undivided attention. Antagonistic impulses, e.g., standing still and ruining, must also inhibit each other when they occur, as no one can do two contrary things at one and the same time. The antagonism between reflection and action is striking. Its effect on the functioning of the senses has already been noticed. But it also affects our knowledge. The general ideas embedded in the impulses which exist in the form of longings when the will is subject to the domination of desire, become stabilized when attention is engaged in reflection. The current of life's tendencies is then literally reflected (re, back, and flexin, to bend) on itself, and knowledge is revealed. Thus knowledge is liquefied into action by our impulsions, and crystallised into ideas by reflection. The final form of memory which is independent of the nervous connections and groupings and of external stimulation is also preserved in the form of generalised experiences in the impulses. It can be recovered by way of precipitation in reflection, so to speak. Page #78 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 69 When the impulses are gone altogether, and the agitations of cravings are removed for good, all knowledge, which is now covered over under matter and liquefied by individual cravings, will be stabilized, and made permanently available. The soul will, then, be no longer subject to fluctuations and will attain to un-agitating steadiness and stability of form. For soul and knowledge are synonymous words, so that the stabilization of knowledge is really the stabilization of the soul. Page #79 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 70 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 20-MOTOR MECHANISMS The levers of voluntary motion are controlled by the key-board in the Central Organ of the Mind. They are formed by motor nerve-terminals, early in the course of life. Moved by his stinging' impulses (instincts) the child is thrown into a state of agitation, which is automatically communicated to his bodily limbs, and he soon learns the effect and the method of useful movements of the hands and the feet and the mouth. Inner groupings of the nerves of motion are formed in the course of these movements, and in due course of time a regular key-board is formed in the central office of the mind. 6 The soul is not like a tenant in a house, and is not free to move in its body. It is chained to matter exceedingly tightly, and may not turn round the least bit in its prison. Because of its thus being chained to the levers of movements at their inner terminals, it is that every true act of the will (not mere deliberative activity) is immediately an act of the body. The impulses of the will, impinging on the keys of the operative board, enable it to move its hands and feet, and the muscles of the bodily limbs generally, producing the desired movements. Page #80 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 71 Action is the end of perception. It may be repellent or attrahent action, the pushing away of a disagreeable undesirable thing, or the bringing into closer contact of what is desirable and desired. Pure disinterested perception is possible only for higher Saints. In the lower grades of life that are destitute of the central mental equipment, perception and action are linked together directly; the choice of the paths is altogether wanting, In man and the higher types of animal life the presence of the Central Organ of the Mind makes all the difference. They are able to respond to the stimulus by movements automatically executed, and they are also able to suspend the automatism of habit, and to deliberately substitute other methods for it. The lowest form of response to stimuli is in the form of reflex action. Here you have the most rudimentary (obscure) form of instinctive choice—to seize (the food) or to fly away (from danger). On the higher level, there is the choice of more than one movement. The response is now not necessarily local; it may involve the movements of the spinal level. In the highest case the response is made deliberately, not merely determined congenitally. With its eight-petalled operating board the soul is a sensory motor organism, that is able to steer its own course. Led by its instincts, it goes about in search of its livelihood and the good things of the world. It is free to think for itself; but not always so to act. As a member Page #81 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 72 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT of society it has to obey the social conventions, and also to submit to sheer brute force from others at times. Sometimes it entertains desires that cannot be gratified, or that are repulsive and forbidden. They have to be repressed. But intense desires are not easily repressed. They become distorted by repression, and exist in disguised form under the surface. Their associations, too, become affected by their repression and distortion, and the motor reactions are involved. Thus great abnormality comes to exist in the region of the sub-conscious, which may even manifest itself in the worst cases, in the form of mental derangement. Glimpses of this abnormality may also be caught in the anomalies of the individual behaviour. The under-currents of these abnormal surcharges of emotion are generally kept under control during the waking hours; but they become too powerful for the drowsy consciousness of a dreaming mind to be checked. They can then readily jump over the barrier of the censor if they disguise themselves a bit. This is why dreams are generally found to be centred round the fulfilment of repressed wishes. This is also the reason why abnormal subjects become normal if they recall the genesis of the primary repressed affect,' and unburden themselves in regard to it before some one. The explanation is simple: repression, which signifies the forcing down of a longing for fear of what others would say, disappears the moment the Page #82 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 73 heart is unburdened before some one, so that the abnormalities of associations, both sensory and motor, vanish with the vanishing of the force which produced them. THE TRUTH Page #83 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 74 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 21-PLEASURE AND PAIN Pleasure is of three kinds, and pain of two. The three kinds of pleasure are: (1) the physical, (2) the mental and (3) the spiritual. The two kinds of pain are: (1) the physical and (2) the mental. There is no such thing as spiritual pain. Physical and mental pleasures are both of the sensory type; they depend on the functioning of the senses or on the recollections of the functioning of the senses. The same is the case with pain. It is either actual or imagined, that is, the product of memory or imagination in a train of thought. Beyond the senses neither pleasure nor pain is able to extend. Spiritual pleasure is the feeling or emotion of freedom which is experienced when some burden is removed from the soul. As an emotion it is independent of the senses. The school-boy who feels joy on the receipt of the intimation of his success in an examination, experiences this emotion. It arises because of the lifting of the weight of anxiety and burden which was imposed on the will. If mental pictures arise in connection with it, its type will be immediately changed into the mental one. Pain and its variants are always physical or mental; it is the burden itself that has to be borne, or its mental picture, the sight or contemplation of blighted Page #84 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH hopes, and the like, in which their causation is to be sought. Depression, unlike the delight of freedom, is thus always caused by ideas. Freedom, that is to say, delight is quite independent of all ideas, and is a pure emotion or feeling: It should be noted that the message of success may be couched in the rudest language; its style may be the most offensive to the ear, the material on which it is written may be the filthiest bit of a rag, the ink may be dirty and unsightly, the man who delivers it may himself be the most abject looking and objectionable in the whole world, but notwithstanding all this, the feeling of joy will arise in the heart the moment credence is attached to the intimation by the mind. This is because the eye, which takes delight in the sight of beautiful things and is disgusted with ugliness and dirt and filth, is not the seat of joy. It can only give rise to sensations, whether they be pleasant or unpleasant ones. The ear is similarly not concerned in the generation of the feeling of joy, though it is the medium for the passage of sounds whereby the intimation of success is communicated to the soul. The characteristic of the ear is that it delights to hear soft, musical, melodious, silvery sounds, and is offended by harsh, croaky, and jarring tones. But the voice that communicates the news of one's success may be the croakiest, its tones may be the harshest, its pitch irritating in the extreme, yet, Page #85 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 76 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT notwithstanding all this, the characteristic feeling of delight will arise in the heart the moment the message is believed to be true! This is sufficient to show that the feeling of joy (of freedom) is not a sensation, and arises independently of the senses. Complete cessation of worry, or rather its eradication, is thus the occasion for the manifestation of joy. The cessation itself may be due to external causes, as for instance, success in an enterprise, or it may arise from voluntary abandonment, but not suspension, of the enterprise itself. For suspension of worries is not the same thing as their cessation. In suspension relief may be had from the mental strain, but not the innate inborn joy of the soul. It is the exploding away of a worry-complex, if the expression be permissible, which brings the natural exhilaration that lay smothered within to show itself. Every tendency is a worry-complex in this sense. When it is in full operation depression (from de, down and pressum, to press) which may be extreme in the worst cases is felt; when the de-pressing elements have been destroyed, delight (from de, intense and light, lightness) is felt. Thus the general idea underlying a tendency is also in its innate nature a form of de-light. It is lying smothered under the weight of the subtle invisible matter which flows into the soul with desire, especially with worry. By the voluntary abandonment, that is, Page #86 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH renunciation, of desire, the general ideas (collectively knowledge) can be freed from the load of matter under whose weight they are choked and smothered, and transformed into gratification-seeking, worry-generating tendencies. Apart from the material adjunet, there can be no tendencies for the soul; they will all become knowledge the instant they are freed from the material impurities by which they are now overwhelmed. The effect of worry in smothering the natural buoyancy of the soul is worthy of notice. It is not that only big enterprises or objects engender the biggest worries. A small thing-even a strip of cloth no more than two or three inches wide and eighteen inches long termed langoti—may give rise to sufficient worry to upset any one and to mar the manifestation of joy. True joy can, then, only be realized when all the desires are gone, and gone for good, from the heart. This is tantamount to saying that those who are completely rid of the companionship of matter enjoy, uninterruptedly and without effort, the free-functioning de-light of every type of idea, no longer smothered by the influence of desire or worry or matter! Joy, like everything else that pertains to the nature of spirit, is a simple, that is to say, an uncompound state. It is not made up of parts, nor composed of particles of matter or some other kind of material. No parts or particles are thinkable in connection with it. Page #87 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 78 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT Indestructible and uncreate, it must have been there all along, not in a manifested but in the unmanifest state, lying locked up within the crippling embrace of an inimical material agent. Nothing short of a material agent will suffice to keep down a function, or to render a natural condition or state unmanifest. The breaking up of a worry-complex takes place in the central organ of the mind, for in other parts the covering of matter is too thick, in normal circumstances, to be altogether destroyed. In more definite language, it is the attention in which the relaxation of tension is effected that way. This also explains the fact that as soon as attention is engaged again in the attainment of the object of another worry-complex the exhilaration of joy is lost at once. Physical pleasure is the agreeable effect of the state of well-being of the organism, or produced by external things. Physical pain is the reverse of this. Both pleasure and pain would be impossible if the soul were rid of the body. But spiritual joy would be infinitely intensified by the mere fact of the riddance of all flesh, the sole source of all mischief ! The soul is a substance that can feel its own modifications. When these modifications are agreeable, they constitute pleasure; when they are disagreeable, they are termed painful. When modifications under external Page #88 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 79 influences have ceased, then it can only feel its own natural state. It must have a natural state of feeling for modifications to come in. Unfeeling substances cannot be made to feel anything, much less pleasure and pain and happiness. The innate natural feeling of the soul is joy, which is smothered under external burdens. When the foreign burdens are lifted off temporarily glimpses are caught of this natural joy in the shape of the emotion of freedom. When they are completely removed, it is left in the state of eternal freedom. It will be a continuous unending feast of Happiness which the soul will enjoy then! All external objects are potent causes of worry, hence in the nature of a burden on the soul. They have to be acquired and protected and retained, and re-acquired if lost. When the mind deliberately gives up the sense of attachment for them, it is released from so much burden of worries as corresponds to the amount of its relinquishment. If objects are renounced altogether, the greatest amount of happiness should result. Those who have perfected themselves in renunciation are truly happy! How shall we imagine this inner feeling of a simple substance like the soul? As a quality of its being ! Qualities may become dormant and inactive under foreign Page #89 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 80 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT influences, but they are never destroyed altogether. When rid of all its burdens the quality of joy will manifest itself fully in the consciousness of the soul. Thus, the joy that is independent of the physical body and the mind (memory or imagination) appertains to the soul itself. When it is fully realized it will supersede all the different forms of pleasure which will then be reduced, on account of the destruction of their cravings, that is, impulses, to so many general or generalised ideas. Pleasure and pain are not felt in the central organ of the mind, which is only the seat of thought, not sensations, though it can recall and revive any sensation at will. The fact is that the soul fills the whole body and is capable of feeling the affections, like pleasure and pain, in different parts of it. If the soul did not fill the whole body and was seated only in a central part, say, the lotus of the heart, then, it would have to depend on a messsage from the seat of affection. But no message can actually communicate a pleasurable or painful sensation, e.g., one of burning. For it is a message about fire, not fire itself which can be sent along the nerves. If actual fire could travel over them they at least would be burnt up all along the route! If a man at Calcutta heard that his house in New York was on fire, he would be merely distressed by the intelligence, Page #90 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH but he could not feel the actual sensation of burning. The same must be the case with the soul on the arrival of a distressing message from one of the bodily outposts. Then, again, the sensation of burning would be confined to the place where the soul itself was seated and would not be experienced on the spot,' as actually happens. 6 81 Page #91 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 82 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 22–VARIETIES OF SENSATION Sensations are either indefinite and vague or definite and clear. Indefinite and vague sensations are experienced with the senses other than sight. They are evanescent and cannot be fixed up by attention; hence, incapable of being subjected to investigation. They cannot even be recalled by the memory. Nevertheless they are whole and entire as sensations, i.e., as mental states. There are twelve general varieties of sensations from the point of view of their implications. The sensation may be of a single object, or of many objects; it may be a homogeneous group or a heterogeneous one; the object may be partly (thinly) covered or wholly without cover; it may be steady, or unsteady; it may be moving slowly or rapidly; it may be describable or indescribable. By multiplying 12x4 we get the total number of varieties of indefinite sensations as 48, which may be experienced with the four senses other than sight. The number of the varieties of definite sensations is 288. This is reached by multiplying the number of the senses and the mind, that is, memory (5+1) by the number (12) of the varieties of sensations and the result (72) again by the number of the stages' (4) which occur from the receipt of the external stimulus to (com Page #92 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 83 plete) knowledge. The four stages' referred to are : (1) pure sensing, (2) the attitude of enquiry when the mind tests the nature of the external stimulus with the aid of the mental 're-agents,' (3) the ascertained form of the sensation, and (4) the form fixed up in the proper * setting. Each of these stages stands for a separate and distinct kind of knowledge and cannot be confounded with any other. We thus have 6x12 x 4=288 varieties of definite and 48 varieties of indefinite sensations, the total being 336 altogether. It should be noted that the image present in the mind in connection with the second 'stage' (the attitude of enquiry) is a different kind of thing from the original sensation; it is the latter plus an idea or element that has been contributed by the mind. I hear a voice: this is pure sensing. I then think that it is the voice of a friend, X and proceed to ascertain the fact. This is the stage of the attitude of enquiry. In this I have called up the element of X's voice which now overlies the original sensation so to speak. The third stage' is reached with the ascertainment of the fact that the voice is really X’s. Perception is now definite and clear, and there is the re-enforcement of conjecture by a positive ascertained fact. In the fourth stage' the idea is inserted in the proper setting, that is to say, it is fitted in its proper place, in the associations relating to X. Page #93 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 84 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 23–MATERIAL PARALLELISM Spirit and matter exist together in the body. By itself spirit will be unable to function in the way of the sense-activity, though it will then have full unlimited knowledge, and enjoy it, not potentially but actually. Matter is unconscious and cannot by itself know anything. The association with matter is very very harmful for the soul, and prevents it from the realization of its actual divinity as an Immortal, Allknowing and naturally happy Being. Material parallelism is throughout necessary for the different functions, both physical and mental, which are performed by a sensory-motor organism. Without matter nerves of sensation and motion and their diverse ramifications and associations will be impossible. Nor will there be attention then, and succession of thought will be replaced by the appearance of the entirety of the innate knowledge, simultaneously and at once. Without matter the Central Organ of the Mind cannot exist; and the differences of impulses and character will also disappear in the absence of matter. All would be then left exactly alike. Impulses themselves would then be transformed into the general ideas which they embody. Page #94 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH There is no department, in short, in the domain of a sensory-motor organism, like the human body, where you can do without both spirit and matter. But matter is capable of being separated from spirit completely. This can be accomplished if we do not allow ourselves to be affected by its sense-gratifying properties, that is to say, by refusing to feed the impulses. 85 Page #95 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 86 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT 24-ETHICS That 'virtue is its own reward' is an old saying; and it is quite true. For though virtue may remain unacknowledged and unrewarded by men, it never goes without a reward in regard to the things that really count. He who rids himself of fanaticism and bigotry becomes entitled to Right Faith which comes accompanied by Right Knowledge. He who destroys his evil passions comes into the possession of the spiritual goods that cannot be adequately valued by the finite mind. He who frees himself from all kinds of passions and desires becomes all-knowing, all-perceiving, eternally happy and immortal! Virtues have not to be acquired; they are the opposites of the evil tendencies of the embodied soul, and arise from within, that is to say, of their own accord, on the destruction of the corresponding vices, as for instance, straightforwardness arises as soon as one make up one's mind to refrain from cheating. You have not to learn how to be good, but only how to cease to be wicked! If I give up anger, I at once become serene and peaceful, without the serenity and the peace standing in need of being purchased or otherwise procured from somewhere ! Thus all goodness comes to him who is prepared to desist from evil, and we know what ultimate results goodness is able to achieve for its devotees ! Page #96 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 87 25—THE ORGANISING FORCES OF THE BODY There is a striking correspondence between our impulses and the capacities of the organism to gratify them. The grasping hand is intended to gratify the impulse that would seize its object, the feet, to enable the individual to approach an object of desire or escape from an enemy; the stomach is to receive and digest the nourishment taken. Why this correspondence? Whence this correspondence, if the organizing forces are not the individual impulses themselves ? The impulses survive; they cannot be wiped out with death; for they are rooted in the being of the soul which is immortal. They are active longings, and not mere inert rubbish. They must be doing something when the embryo is in the process of development in the mother's womb. But what else can they be doing there except shaping the bodily limbs and organs by their agitation and vibrations ? It is obvious that some force or forces must be there in operation at the time in the mother's womb. It is also obvious now that the soul itself is present-must be present–in the womb when the organism is being built up. The soul is not a quiescent, un-moving idle substance; it is in association with matter, and in a constant Page #97 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 88 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT state of agitation under the influence of matter. Would it not be silly and senseless, then, to say that such a soul takes no part whatsoever in the process of organising its own body? There is nothing that is so intimately associated with the body as the soul that inhabits it. The connection is so intimate that the soul cannot even turn a hair's breadth in the body. Why should not, then, the formation of the body be influenced materially by the presence and the activities of the soul? Engaged during life in seeking gratification with their specific objects, the soul's impulses would now, that the outer body is discarded off for a time, operate directly on the material of which the bodily organs and limbs are made, and assist in moulding it into suitable forms. We shall thus have to trace all bodily modifications to the individual will itself in the first instance, because it is the repository of its impulses and character ! The body that is made has but two things in common with the past life of its immortal owner. One of them is the soul that is embodied in it, and the other is the bundle of impulses that it (the soul) has brought with itself, in the form of will. The old nervous associations and all else that pertained to the previous life is now gone for good. It may not even have a central mental equipment if the modified impulses which it has brought over from the past do not admit of its being made. The things that it could recall readily then Page #98 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH C cannot now be recalled owing to the loss of the central organ of the mind. Even in cases where the central organ of the mind has been formed afresh old memories cannot be revived for the want of corresponding nervous mechanisms to connect up the impulse with the centres of perception. The impulses in the will would themselves dry up,' so to speak, in such cases for the lack of stimulation from the objective world. In short, the difficulty of reviving old obliterated impulses that have lapsed into quiescence for the want of stimulating excitation from the outside world would be insurmountable, except when they are deeply stirred up from an external cause, to rouse up consciousness. Such occasions might be furnished by the sight' of some object which used to stir up powerful emotions in the soul. For the disappearance of the nervous mechanisms of recollection does not mean the elimination of knowledge and the perceptive faculty from the soul. The disappearance of the old operating board simply prevents the soul from rousing up old memories in the perceptive centres. The buttons and the switches have to be re-established once more, by actual perception; but knowledge is there, and has not to be created afresh. " 89 The knowledge of the past lives is also obtained when the knowledge-obstructing cover (jnanavaraṇa) is thinned or destroyed by or as the result of the asceticism of saints. Page #99 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 90 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT In other cases, however, the recollection of the past is not possible for a reincarnated soul. The reason for the disappearance of the central organ of the mind is to be found in the kind of life the individual might have lived. It would seem that the acquisition of the central organ of the mind is an indication of the yoke of slavery to the senses having been thrown off to a certain extent by the soul. For the lower animals (those endowed with one, or two, or three or four senses and some of the five-sensed species as well) who do not possess the central mental equipment are doomed to live in abject slavery to the senses. They cannot pause, deliberate and think, and cannot learn wisdom by experience. They cannot resist the appeal to their senses, and possess no memory. Again and again they will swallow the bait, in succession, without taking the warning. Those, on the other hand, who have evolved out the central organ of the mind, possess the ability to withstand the temptation. They can restrain themselves and wait; they recollect previous experiences and are guided by their recollections. The difference between the two types, in short, consists in the inability of the one and the ability of the other to withstand the appeal to the senses. In other words, the impulses are overpowering in the one case, but curbable in the other. Now, since the impulses are carried over by the soul from one life to another, those who possess Page #100 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 91 the power to curb them must have learnt to do so in their previous life. They must have disciplined themselves that way. Those who do not keep their appetites under control now, and who have become slaves to their passions and desires must, therefore, be prepared to lose the organ of thought in their next life. They live their life in the senses, and in the senses they will wake up in the next one. They do not live the life of the mind,' and the mind (ie., the central organ of thought) will not be needed, and, consequently, formed by them in their next incarnation. The soul is tied to the levers of movement in the central organ of the mind; but there is no direct connection between these and the buttons and switches of the sensory board. In the lower centres only is the sensation linked with motion. On the highest level of consciousness the mind enjoys the power of choice, of substituting one kind of action for another, even of inhibiting action itself. Direct connection between sensation and action is therefore lacking in the central region of the mind. But if one lead the life of a brute or abandon oneself completely to a sensualist's life, then a direct connection will soon be established between sensation and action, and the freedom of choice gone. The higher centres will both be atrophied for want of use and coarsened by the establishment of the direct connection between sensation and action. No one should expect C THE TRUTH Page #101 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 92 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT that an organ of thought would be organized in the soul's new body after death under the circumstances. Such a being will fall back into the animal kingdom. There is another type of souls that do employ the organ of thought, but only to cause distress and pain to others. They devise newer methods of harassing others, and delight in their work. They will naturally develop the central organ in their next reincarnation ; but their impulses will be the most violent and their souls will be clogged with much matter. These are the people who are destined for the regions of suffering and pain--helllife, is it is termerl, which is, however, terminable, luckily. Those whose impulses are not allowed to run away with their wits will be reborn among men, and those who endeavour to eradicate them systematically, by means of self-rienying austerities, will go to happier surroundings -heavens as they are called—which alas! are also terminable like hells. Virtana, the happy home from which no one ever returns, or cares to return, is attained when the impulses are destroyed altogether. Then no longings are left in the soul, and knowledge is freed from the agitations of the will once for all and ever! The two rules that govern the coming together of spirit and matter, are these : (i) the quantity of matter pouring into the soul Page #102 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH depends on the functioning of the mind, speech and the body, through which we try to carry out our individual purposes, and (ii) the degree of adhesiveness with which matter sticks to the soul is determined by the nature of the individual passions and desires, the worst effect following on the most intense agitations of the impulses. When the impulses are not fed and are resolutely turned down, they begin to die down which means that the adhesiveness of matter in the constitution then begins to lessen and may be destroyed altogether. In this way they can be rooted out speedily, by self-control. Where self-control is not exerted there is a constant readjustment of the material basis of the impulses going on from moment to moment. Existing matter is being consumed in the shape of the constant internal agitations, and new matter is coming in from the outside. From this point of view, the soul is like a tank full of water from which old water is constantly departing by evaporation, and into which fresh influx is pouring in through its feeder channels. If we desire to see the inner tank dry, we should stop the pouring in of fresh frater, by shutting up its feedels, and assist in the Page #103 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 94 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT evaporation of the existing water by lighting a fire (selfdenying renunciation) under it! The difference between the less active and therefore generally ineffective impulses and those that are more active is in regard to the amount of energy with which they may be vibrating, a greater outlay of force being involved in those of the latter type. The more active impulses are constantly seeking gratification with the objects, and imbibing and absorbing additional matter, which again goes to increase their vehemence, thus establishing a sort of vicious circle-craving, gratification, increased craving! In the absence of the object they seek imaginary gratification from recollected sensations, absorbing fresh matter from the material of the sensory system itself. When self-control is acquired and the mind is able to resist their cravings, no further influx takes place, and the existing matter is soon exhausted, destroying the impulses themselves. Page #104 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 95 26–LESIYAS The unemancipated, that is, the embodied, soul is subject to the forces of attraction and magnetism, on account of the association of matter. The principle of attraction lies in the affinity of the pitch, the tone and the intensity of vibrations, in a word in rhythm, which characterises all forms of force, and substances when conceived as force, which they truly are in their ultimate analysis. Different combinations and groupings of matter would have different degrees and types of intensities, rates, pitches and tones of vibrations, and will readily resound in response to congenial vibrations from the external objects, as is the case with the impulses of the will. Now, the principle which governs re-incarnation is this: it is the resultant of the rate, the tone, the intensity and the pitch of the impulses that constitutes character which is the determining cause of the future re-birth. The soul is mechanically attracted and drawn where its internal vibrations (impulses) can find congenial vibrations in the out-side world, and reincarnates there. If it has gone to the regions which are the Kashmir of the habitable world, it will be said to have gone to heaven; if it is drawn into those parts which are like the great waterless sahara of Africa or are the darkest and dirtiest and the dampest quarters of the universe, it will be in hell. Page #105 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 96 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT Rebirth amongst men needs no further explanation now, as it is all a question of the internal vibrations of the impulses in the will. Nor need we discuss the conditions governing rebirth in the lower grades of life-the animal and vegetable forms. Material vibrations are intimately associated with colour from which the soul is free. But because of the conjunction of matter, will, as the repository of character, is also characterised with colour. This cannot be seen by the eye, but can be perceived by clairvoyant vision. The prominent colours are six: black, blue, pigeon-like, yellow, pink and white. There are many shades of these colours, and they change with the change of the impulsions from time to time; but the types are only six. These are termed lesiyās (soulpaints or auras). The lesiyās really represent so many different types of internal vibrations, and determine the future re-birth of the soul. The black is the worst of all, and takes one to the very worst surroundings and regions. The white is the best and is associated with life in the highest heavens. The others account for the intermediate grades of life. From the standpoint of material parallelism, the fusion of spirit and matter is the closest where the gratification of desires is the deepest. It was seen in connection with the feeling of pleasure and pain that they Page #106 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH signified a more intimate union between spirit and matter than mere contact. The deeper draughts of gratification will only go to cement this union more and more, so that matter will literally come to stick to the soul substance, as if glued to it. Through its impulses the soul is constantly drawing subtle invisible molecules ' of matter to itself, and the influx is continuous even during sleep, which does not mean a cessation of all impulsions or activity, as is clear from the phenomenon of dreams. [ The fusion of spirit and matter obstructs the natural functioning of the spirit substance, and limits of various kinds are imposed on it, in consequence. For full knowledge and joy and all the other forms of spiritual perfections are the natural attributes of the soul-substance itself, and cannot be made or manufactured in any way. In trees the soul is so much overwhelmed with material burdens as to be practically unconscious. The lower animal-insects, moths, shells and the like-are just one step more enlightened' than trees. The higher animals, too, lack the mental function to a great extent. Man himself is not always placed at the summit of intelligence. All this differentiation is due simply to the influence of matter, exerted in different ways on the spirit. Transmigration is the form of calamity which is eternally imposed on the unthinking soul, in consequence of its union with matter. Those who perform virtuous 97 ( Page #107 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 98 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT deeds rise higher in the course of their career. This is because the cementing paste of matter is less sticky in virtue than in vice, the one implying liberality and self-restraint and the other the full gratification of one's selfish lustful impulses. When matter is no longer drawn into the soul, by the withdrawal of attention from the objects of desire (in the process of self-contemplation), the impulses are no longer fed, and begin to break up. On the other hand if the material coat becomes too thick, in consequence of vicious living, the soul may be deprived of the conscious function so much as to fall into the lowest grade of life characterized by the barest susceptibility to respond to sensations of touch. In nirvāṇa the soul is devoid of matter and impulses and lesiyās altogether, and only exists as Pure undefiled and undefilable Light ! Page #108 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ Page #109 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ from matter. and freedom Bions and desires Absence of pa donirea ions ; quiescunt boiling point. fanatical bigotry at the Uncontrollable passions; passions. Overwhelming Mild passione. -od pompong Strong passions. Greed Deceit DIAGRAM SHOWING PHASES OF PASSIONS AND BELIEF. Pure Spirit bereft of matter. Pride Anger 1 Faith Pure Right sonality bodily per for the attachment decreasing ledge with Soul know sonality bodily per for the strong love ledge with Soul know edness openmind. CISIO, 1.6., agnosti Scientific, victions false con bigotry Fanaticism Divinity is MAD:- Advernd Saint Tentario Omo whip. With Right Faitb freed from Faith still tinged with Right Faith with strong lerne Right Faith with strong Gross wickedness and (the tinge of superstition ; superstition, partly able superstitious fear for the ceiving. Im durd: Righ t Paith, Rigbodoliity to live up to the mortal, eternally to live unter ignorance; ferocious to live upto the Truth: bodily self; lack of de And Pro Knowler & Ideal in view ; Saintly virtuous behaviour fury ! ability to live up, even Right Conduct behaviour I partly, to the Truth. Page #110 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 99 27-FAITH Faith is the attitude of the mind; the leaning towards a particular group of ideas, that is, a special mental 'complex.' Wrong faith is centred round the welfare of the lower ego, the physical self. Whoever or whatever is believed to be helpful in the interests of the lower ego is readily acknowledged as a patron and protector. The patron of the highest rank is termed god (generally spelt with a capital g). This kind of faith is strengthened by prayer, that is to say, the supposed response by the devotee's god to his prayers. The thoughtless are ever seeking for such a response in the favourable occurrences of daily life, and are never slow to turn the most logically natural causations into a mark of divine favour. Such a mind is fast travelling on the high road to fanaticism. The difference between information and faith (firm belief) is only this that the element of uncertainty, characteristic of unbelief, present in the former, is wanting in the latter. In other words, faith is free from mental agitation; information is not. Faith arises from conviction, whether it be due to theory or experience; but naturally experience has preference over mere mental ratiocination, since it is tant Page #111 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 100 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT amount to a practical demonstration of the matter of belief. Faith is liable to be assailed and even destroyed by doubt. This happens when something which is irreconcilable with the matter of belief occurs in one's experience to unsettle the conviction. If the doubt is not disposed of naturally, that is, by study and investigation, it will tend to blast faith altogether, unless the tendency to the contrary be too strong to be repudiated by it. In the last-mentioned case it will be smothered, and faith re-affirmed by the will-ing side of life. Right Faith is the belief in the divinity of one's own soul and a disbelief in the patronage of any external protector or god. It arises from investigation, partial or complete. First of all the fury of fanaticism and bigotry is destroyed along with that of the principal passions of the worst-the boiling point-type. In consequence of this sobriety and open-mindedness will accrue to the soul; and it will now seek out the true teacher and hear the (scientific) truth from him. A further sobering down and clarification of the mind will occur, as the result of the discourse, to the soul, whose eyes may be said to have been opened now for the first time to perceive the truth. It will now think seriously on what it has heard, and acquire faith, as the result of the destruction of its doubts, Page #112 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 101 one after another. Increasing satisfaction, consequent on the cessation of the agitations of the points of doubt, is experienced by the thinker as these (the doubts) are destroyed one by one. In the end the complete coincidence between the teacher's word and one's own limited stock of knowledge is marked with the establishment of perfect harmony and the agitation-less state of the mind. This is supplemented by the pulsation of the emotion of true de-light which the soul now experiences for the first time, as the result of being lightened from the burdens with which it was overloaded and de-pressed. It now knows itself not to he a miserable perishable thing of matter, but a real God, Immortal, Omniscient, Blissful and Irresistible! Once the seal of belief is placed on the teacher's word, new groups are formed in the mind, and old ones are destroyed. The impulses, too, are loosened from their roots in the longings of the flesh, and can never be the same again. The lower personality that used to be the centre and cynosure of attention, at all times and under all circumstances, in the pre-enlightenment days, now totters to its fall. Henceforth it can only exist as burnt up cordage. It is nevertheless still potent enough to lend the tinge of strong superstition to thought. The old mythological gods are now gone; but the mind is still not strong enough to withstand trouble; it immediately turns to the new Ideals for help when in distress, Page #113 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 102 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT The rule with faith is that it never fails to translate itself into action. This is so because of the associations in which the ideal in the mind is placed and of the unitary nature of life. The impulses being centred in the mental ideal—whatever it be, whether true or false—cannot but be modified and controlled by it. Thus wickedness may be replaced by piety and saintliness, or vice versa. It is all a question of the ideal in the mind. The stability of the ideal itself is dependent on faith, which may be lost and re-acquired a hundred thousand times in the career of the soul. It is different however with Scientific Faith, acquired as the result of regular study and investigation; for no doubts remain to interfere with its steadiness. Even where certain questions remain to be worked out, as is inevitable for a finite mind, the general grasp over the fundamentals being assured they can only spur one on to further investigation, but are never able to interfere with the settled conviction in the Truth! Page #114 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE TRUTH 102a 28–FREE WILL AND PREDESTINATION. The eternal enigma of Free Will and Karma or Predestination is easily solved. Karmas (destiny) only act through the disposition, by altering and modifying the impulses. Free Will is really only the doing of what one likes to do, that is of the action that is most agreeable to one's nature ! The whole thing is only a question of the standpoint from which the question is approached. If we decline to or do not look into the antecedents of the disposition (individual will), every real action performed hy a living being is free; when the attention is directed to the forces that are responsible for the shaping of the disposition itself, no action is capable of being completely detached from such forces, and therefore free. With regard to the teaching of the Truth, too, it may be said that it will not be acceptable to those whose dispositions stand in the way of its acquisition. They will not be kept away from it by any external force, but only by their own dispositions. As a matter of fact they will rather delight in rejecting the teaching, and claim the privilege of exercising their free will to reject it, as it will not be agreeable to their nature. But what is this free will of theirs it not a type of character which disposes (or rather predisposes) their will against the Truth? Page #115 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 102b FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT Salvation will thus be open only to those souls whose will shall have become pre-disposed to acquire the truth. The rest will remain involved in bondage till such time as they are able (if at all) to acquire the scientific turn of mind and the leaning towards and the thirst for the Truth! Many who despise and seek to persecute the custodians of Truth Divine now will carry away strong predisposition against Truth itself and will never be willing to acquire it. Theirs would seem to be a hopeless case! Page #116 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE LIFE Page #117 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto him, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled ; notwithstanding ye give him not these things which are needful to the body ; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”-James ii. 14-17. “ All action of the gnostic may be called right action ....Such are they who are restrained by law and fear. For on finding a favourable opportunity they defraud [rise above] the law, by giving what is good the slip. But self-control ..... perfected through knowledge .....makes man Lord and Master of himself.” -Clement (A. N. Ch. Lib., Vol. XII. pages 369 and 455). Page #118 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ BOOK III THE LIFE Faith is the basis of Conduct. False faiths lead to the strengthening of impulses and cravings, in one way or another. They are all centred round the physical personality, whose welfare is ever kept at heart. People beg for boons-long life (immortality they dare not ask from their gods), health, wealth, and the like. Worship is mostly paid to one or more gods through fear of their wrathfulness. Some hold that there is a creator to whom they owe their being and well-being, and to whom they should be thankful. Sad conclusions these. There is no creator of substances, their attributes and qualities to be found in nature. Nature is self-sufficient. If nature can create a creator (for otherwise he will have to have a creator of his own being) it could certainly 'create' other things! As for gratitude, how many living beings are really well off or happy? Shall we look at the moth who is destroyed in millions, or the insect, or the tigers and wolves and goats and sheep that prey upon living beings and tear their flesh or are devoured themselves by others? Is, then, man really happy? Can we attribute happiness to our big men even? The truth is that creation is the cruellest of pastimes to think of; 105 Page #119 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 106 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT it is the most unkind act to perform. For, look at the souls that are fettered and that have been up to this time unable to get rid of the bondage of karma and reincarnation imposed upon them? Can we call the being who placed us under subjection to perpetual misery and bondage and death, merciful, or regard him as a friend? Can he who afflicts one in such fiendish ways be worthy of praise? There is no room for gratitude to a supposed or real creator of the soul's misery. It is robbed and deprived of its divinity, and we are to worship him who is alleged to have done the ' kindly' act! There must, surely, be some limit to intellectual perversity! Fear, too, is unjustified. If you will only try to study yourself you will perceive that you are the author of your own undoing, and may make or mar yourself. Surely, no one, much less a god, can be so idle in nature as to store up your little short-comings to be used against you on a long deferred judgment day, or earlier, when you die! 'Man know thyself '—is the proper injunction to man. Some one has well said: the proper study of mankind is man! Right Faith is the foundation of Right Conduct. It is free from the intellectual repugnancy of regarding another as the creater of one's being and conditions. The soul inspired with Right Faith shakes off the fear of supernatural agencies, and boldly assumes the responsibility for its unhappy states itself, firmly request Page #120 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE LIFE ing' the mythological deities to take their departure from the temple of its heart, where they have lived enshrined so long. The aim in Right Life' is the separation of Spirit (the soul-substance) from matter, by the destruction of all kinds of impulses, the good and the bad ones both from the heart. For matter only pours in through the impulses and will cease to flow in when no impulses are left to act as the suckers of dirt."' " 107 One must try to become desireless absolutely. But this can only be done by degrees. The Path of Progress has, therefore, been divided into two parts, the preliminary, that is less irksome, and the advanced, which is strictly austere. Those who are travelling on the first-named portion of the Path are the householders who are engaged in lessening their desires steadily. The other part is reserved for the saintly ascetics, who have passed out of the householders' stage successfully. Both the paths are characterized by a number of disciplinary rules. Those applicable to the householder comprise twelve vows and the proper method of quitting life when death at last appears to have arrived. The twelve vows are as follows: ― (1) Ahimsa which means 'hurt no one.' Shooting, fishing, hunting, and the use of flesh. are included in this, and, being the worst Page #121 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 108 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT forms of himsă (cruelty), must be given up first of all. (2) Truthfulness, which includes refraining from foul, offensive and filthy speech. (3) Non-stealing, including the avoidance of cheating in any form. (4) Celibacy. The worst form of the sexual license, destroying another's hearth and home and promiscuity, must go at the very outset. Later on when sufficient self-control is acquired celibacy should be practised. (5) Renunciation of worldly goods. Gambling would have to be given up before any progress can be made under this vow. (6) The placing of limits on one's activity in respect to distance. All forms of evil thinking and evil instruction will have to be abandoned under this vow. (7) The refraining from purposeless evil. (8) The imposing of limits on the enjoyment of thegood' things of the world. (9) The restricting of the field of one's activity still further, from time to time. (10) Meditation to be performed three times daily. (11) Fasting. Page #122 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE LIFE 109 (12) Service (especially of saints) and the giving of gifts of food, medicine, knowledge and fearlessness (protection). The householder endeavours to perfect himself in the observance of the above vows during his life. If successful, he will pass out into sannyāsa (the Higher Path) before the commencement of old age. The last or the death-bed vow, so to speak, concerns the proper method of dying. When death dors come (not before) the householder should resolve to die with the utmost degree of calmness and tranquillity, remembering his high Ideal and the nature of the Soul. During life the layman pursues some honourable occupation as a means of livelihood, engaging himself in study, charity and self-control, and worshipping (idealising) and following the Divinity (as manifested in deified perfect man), the saintly Preceptor and the Word of (the spiritual) Law! The above is very briefly the description of the householder's life. The saint also observes certain rules which are as follows:-- (145) The first five vows of the householder, but characterized by absolute severity. He will not even cook his food himself; he will not utter untruth and unpleasant speech under Page #123 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 110 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT any circumstances; he will retain nothing of the worldly goods (not even the loinstrip), except a little gourd of water for the purposes of purification (not drinking), and a soft feather brush to gently remove small insects from his person or seat. (6-10) Five kinds of vigilance. He will avoid causing hurt to any form of life even by his reflex activity. He will be careful in walking, in speech, in food, in handling books and in the disposal of his bodily products, so as to avoid injuring and causing pain to the lowly forms of life that are destroyed in thousands by one's carelessness. Bodily appetites and automatism cannot be controlled otherwise than by the observance of these five forms of spiritual vigilance. (11–13) Three forms of control, that is, the con trolling of the mind, the speech and the body. The saint will naturally be required to observe the death-bed' rule of conduct if death intervene before nirvāṇa is attained by him. The above is the briefest outline of the saintly conduct. The saint is required to be ever-ready to face Page #124 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE LIFE 111 death; he should have no longing for life. If trouble come, he should not seek to avoid or escape from it. * Suffering' is a part of his life; and he must not shirk it. He retains all the good practices he acquired in the householder's stage; and spends his time only in study and meditation and the enlightenment of the seekers after the truth. He is not allowed to eat more than once a day. Wine is forbidden to the Traveller on the Path in both stages of the journey. Virtue and vice both lead to a continuance of the bondage and transmigration, though virtue leads to good conditions and vice to undesirable ones. The union of spirit and matter can only be prevented when the impulses-good ones as well as bad ones--are destroyed completely. This does not mean that the man who has transcended virtue will be a vicious one, or an evil-doer and a rogue. No, not at all; he will now do neither good nor evil to any one. Evil he gave up long ago in the householder's stage, and he cannot take to it again, without falling from his high position. He will retain that merit, and now acquire the additional one of ceasing to bring himself into contact with the outer nature even for the purpose of doing good to some one. The only good that he will now do to others is to enlighten them as regards the truth. When he attains nirvāṇa he will leave behind a memory and an example to inspire others, to escape from the clutches of death and disease Page #125 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 112 FAITH KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT and to attain to the Supreme Status of Godhood, which is far too high for virtue to aspire after. It is possible that one may regard some of these rules of conduct (Right Living) as too difficult to be observed. His remedy is to adopt such of them as he can with ease and without putting himself to unnecessary strain. If he is impressed with Right Faith, he will himself soon begin to long for their observance; and will be unable to restrain himself from doing so in the fullness of time. It will be unfortunate if he find fault with them; because that will imply lack of understanding and appreciation of the doctrine of Truth, which will stand in the way of the very acquisition and sustentation of Faith! Page #126 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ WORKS BY C. R. JAIN Name of books. Rs. a. 1. The Key of Knowledge, 3rd edition ... 100 2. The Confluence of Opposites, 2nd edition ... 3. The Jaina Law, annotated... 4. The Science of Thought (Jaina Logic), 2nd edition ... 5. What is Jainism (Essays and Addresses) 6. Discourse Divine 7. The Practical Dharma, 2nd edition... 8. The Sannyasa Dharma 9. The Householder's Dharma 10. Atma Ramayana 11. Jaina Psychology 10 12. Faith Knowledge and Conduct 18 13. Risabha Deva, (The Founder of Jainism) 4 8 14. Atma Dharma ... 15. Where the Shoe Pinches (Politics) ... 041 16. allands (Urdu translation of "The Confluence of Opposites") bound in cloth 17. Tarot ... ... 08 18. Jaina Penance (in preparation) 2 0 19. Glimpses of a Hidden ce in Origi nal Chi 20. Righ Serving Jin. To be had fra (1) TT 037208th.org lishing House, Bijnor, U. P. (India). (2) The Sandu Pustakalaya, 571 Patiram Street, Delhi (India). ... का 1 0 Serving JinShasun 0 4 gyanmandir@kobatirth.org