World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 383

anxiety to equipoise, passivity, and peace is the blessed outcome of the change in inner equilibrium or the personal centre of energy. William James upholds that in mystic experience the subconscious maturation of the higher emotion and the exhaustion of the lower emotion simultaneously produce the edifying experience; whereas, according to Starbuck, in terms of a change in equilibrium, "the movement of new psychic energies towards the personal centre and the recession of old ones towards the margin (or the rising of some objects above and the sinking of others below the conscious threshold) are only two ways of describing an indivisible event."3
Transformation or conversion can be enacted in two ways by: (a) eliminating the undesirable emotions, e.g. anger, fear, worry, etc., by culti vating their opposites; and (b) remaining indifferent to the undesirable emotions, because as long as "egoistic worryḤ guards the door, the expansive confidence of faith gains no presence."4
There are two types of conversion: (a) volitional or conscious conversion where transformation is gradual; and (b) non-volitional or unconscious conversion where transformation is sudden. The difference between the two is only relative. It is not due to a divine miracle, but rather due to "a simple psychological peculiarity."5 A sudden convert possesses "a large region in which mental work can go on subliminally, and from which invasive experience, abruptly upsetting the equilibrium of the primary consciousness may come."6 A slow convert gradually acquires a well developed subliminal region, through the practice of religion.
Let us, now, see how the above discussed psychology is implicit in the philosophy of Advaita characterized as a metaphysics of experience. According to Advaita, the finite personality of the transmigrating soul is what it is because of its adjunct (upadhi) the mind, which is a totality or system or bundle of dormant subconscious impressions. As mentioned earlier, the latent subconscious impressions on attaining maturity, flower into experience in the mind of the individual.
In bondage, the empirical life of the finite personality (jivatva) of an individual evolves from four kinds of impure subconscious impressions.7 They are: (a) Loka-vasana causes concern for social opinion. It kindles dislike for disrepute, and desire for name and fame. (b) Sastra-vasana gives rise to the ego of erudition in three ways. The individual has a passion for study, or is attracted to too many branches of knowledge, or blindly, adheres to the injunctions of scripture. (c) Deha-vasana generates conceit in the body. Its three effects cause wrong identification of the body with the Self, desire for physical charm, and effort to rid physical disorders through impermanent remedies. These three kinds of latent impressions constitute manasavasanas or impressions of mental desires. (d) Visaya-vasanas pertain to the residual impressions born of the actual experience of objects. The notions of
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