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THE HOLY TRINITY.
615
The brain is, however, not the choser, since choice belongs to the ego, and also since the brain is composed of matter which is unconscious by nature. What connects the ego with the brain is the central organ of mind which is composed of too fine a material to be visible except to clairvoyant vision. The nature of the matter of which this central organ (the dravya mana) is composed, is evident from the fact that it is in touch, at one end, with the finest nervous fibres of the brain, and, at the other, with the subtile and superfine substance of will which is absolutely beyond the reach of sense-perception. The dravya mana is distinguishable from manas, which is but another name for the individual will as appearing in the form of desire; for while the physical mind is only an instrument in the hands of the ego for deliberation, training, voluntary motion and intelligent speech, the desiring manas represents the dynamic energy of the ego itself inclined in a particular way or ways. In different language, the manas consists in the energy of life bent on seeking gratification in respect of the four generic forms of desire, namely, dhára (food), bhaya (fear), maithuna (sexual indulgence) and parigraha (attachment to worldly goods), and laden with the impurities deposited by the four kinds of passions-anger, pride, deceit and greed-which arise from and are rooted in desire. The dravya mana, on the other hand, is not characterized by passions. It is intended, like a system of switches, to regulate the traffic between the ego and the outside world, and discharges its function by transmitting different kinds of movements. But it does not originate motion, for that is the function of
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