Mysteries of Mind

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Today and Tomorrows Book Agency

Page 92

SEARCH FOR TRUTH
79
said, “I understand that you are going on a journey by train tomorrow. Please postpone the journey because if you undertook it tomorrow, you will be harmed.” The master remarked, “You are a simpleton. I have a very important business to attend. I have to attend a very important meeting of the officers of my concern and it will take important decisions. Everything has been planned beforehand and if I failed to attend the meeting, no decision will be taken. I must go.” The watchman again said, "I appreciate your point but I have a stong reason to dissuade you from taking the journey. Last night I dreamt a dream in which I saw the train you are going to board meet an accident. Please don't go.” Feeling what the watchman had said to be a bad omen, the rich man decided to postpone the journey. The next day there was news that the train in which he was to travel had met an accident and that a number of its passengers had died in the accident. The rich man called the watchman and offered to him a handsome reward but at the same time he dismissed him from his job saying: “I had employed you for watchwork and not for sleeping and dreaming."
Wakefulness implies seeing. To see a thing directly is a definite proof of its existence. All other indirect proofs belong to a lower category. Inference, memory and scriptural testimony are proofs of lesser authenticity. The scriptures have been accepted as authentic only on the ground that their authors had directly perceived truth. If they had not done so, the testimony of the scriptures will be unacceptable. Inference too has been counted as a testimony for the reason that it is based on earlier perception. It had been seen that fire produced smoke. On this basis whenever we see smoke we say that it must be produced by fire. The entire structure of knowledge stands on the basis of direct perception only.
In body-perception we have to see what is happening in the body. The body is active at every moment. We have to perceive its activities. We will be able to understand the hidden as well as apparent truth about the body only by perceiving it. Then comes the question as to how we are to see the body. What method of perception shall we employ?, There are three methods of perception : seeing with open eyes, seeing with half open eyes and seeing with closed eyes. The eye is only one of