Faith Knowledge and Conduct

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

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