Elusive Consciousness

Author(s): Narendra Bhandari, Surendrasingh Pokharana, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 115

them the intelligent action is not performed.
The psychic senses have two aspects labdhi and upayoga. Labdhi refers to potential power of the soul due to removal or annihilation-cum-subsidence of knowledge obscuring karma. Upayoga refers to manifestation of power of the soul on removal of obstructing karma and it is of two types one vested with form, sakara or plural, and the second formless, nirakara or singular. The first refers to jnana and the second to darshana. So bhavendrian essentially mean manifestation of consciousness of the soul as jnana and darshana attributes, which are instrumental in performing the intelligent action by an organism.
The power of action of different senses varies. Vision is the most powerful of all senses; it can sense even an object that is not very clear. Next in power is sense of hearing, it can sense a word that is clear. The remaining three senses, taste, smell and touch, are least powerful, they sense objects that become clear by actual contact. Sensual experience takes place when contact is established with the object with at least one sense. In case of mental experience contact with the object is not necessary. In this case transformation of mental states takes place according to the target subject. The knowledge gained through senses is further augmented by mind. Pleasure and pain are experienced both by physical sensing and mental thinking. Generally experience involves both physical and mental processes. Mental phenomena may or may not involve operation of senses but any sensual activity necessarily involves mind.
4 The Worldly Soul
The worldly soul is impure as stated above. The presence of impurities in the soul can be explained in a simple manner. When you stand in front of a mirror you see your image. The image is not real, it is virtual, but looks like real. The image is gone when you move away as the mirror has no arrangement to store the image; in fact mirror is only a reflecting surface, it is light that forms the image. In the case of an organism it is assumed that the soul acts as mirror. The image of the object in front is stored in the soul and remains in its memory even when the object is removed or moves away. This is the example of use of sense of sight. The soul has been interacting with the environment with all the five senses and mind and the images so formed are stored on each interaction. Over the period of time of its life journey the soul has stored a very large amount of images, which are present as impurity. The structure created by collection of these images, known as bhava karma, is virtual but it has real effect on the soul. This simple explanation is for easy understanding; the actual mechanism of formation of
115