In2-MeC

Prague, Czech Republic
29 June 2004

Beyond "oneness"--the goal of many a frustrated intellectual--is the nectar of Sri Krsna's pastimes.

Microcosmic mysticism

Not only is human knowledge full of controversy, it is a never-ending torrent of information that grows more and more diverse every day. It is beyond the mental capacity of an individual scientist to swallow it all. Even the entire scientific community can't make sense of it. This a problem called "the fragmentation of knowledge. " No wonder some modern jnanis escape from scientific social activity into a mystical realm beyond debate, beyond language altogether. In a lecture delivered at the University of California in Santa Barbara, T. H. Huxley's famous grandson Aldous (1894-1963) said:

the enlightened individual goes beyond grammar. He has what may be called a 'grammar-transcending experience' which permits him to live in the divine continuum of the world and to see the one continually manifest in the many. The enlightened person is, so to speak, after the rise of language; he lives in language and then goes beyond it.

In Huxley's view, knowledge exchanged through the medium of language is unavoidably misleading. To get beyond error a person must leave behind language, which addresses only "the many" outside ourselves. We must reduce our search for knowledge to the unspoken "one" within the microcosm of our individual consciousness. Whatever is manifest as the many outside is only the one within. The mystic humbles himself before that one--his own self--knowing it to be the truth.

We've touched on three axioms of modern knowledge--1) the open individual mind can gradually swallow the universe; or 2) the open (i. e. democratic) collective mind of society can gradually swallow the universe; or 3) the enlightened mind can know itself as one with the universe.

There's little to see in the way of real humility in any one of these methods. Each is a statement of exaggerated faith in the power of the human mind. Each method turns out to be a mental concoction rooted in the false ego, which is a diseased spirit of "I" and "mine. " The first method tries to make the world "mine" by knowledge, and the second "ours" (which is just a collection of "mines"). The third tries to erase by knowledge the difference between "I" and "the world. " "As long as one is a servant of mental concoctions," Srila Prabhupada explains, "one cannot be completely free from the disease of 'I' and `mine. '" The disease of I and mine is a disease of rebelliousness against Truth--the Supreme Person. It appears in consciousness as a spirit of false lordship over matter, and is the root cause of our material existence.

"Our world" is a world of mental speculation

The material creation is meant for rebellious souls who are not prepared to accept subordination under the Supreme Lord. This spirit of false lordship is called false ego. It is manifested in three modes of material nature, and it exists in mental speculation only.

We live in a world of mental speculation, says Srila Prabhupada in this segment of his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 3. 5. 29. To be sure, he does not say the creation itself is nothing more than a state of my own mind. Energies like fire and water do exist in objective reality. But they do not exist in the way we think they do--as objects of our selfish happiness and distress. In the cold of winter, for example, the mind associates a fiery wood stove with happiness and the water of a river with distress. In the heat of summer the mind gives fire and water exactly opposite connotations. Such conceptions of fire and water exist in mental speculation only. Thus, as Srila Prabhupada explains in Message of Godhead, the world as we know it "is simply subjective--that is, subject to our sense perceptions as they relate to our processes of thinking, feeling, and willing. "

The waves of thinking, feeling and willing

The three modes of nature ripple through our "I" and "mine" conceptions as the waves of thinking, feeling and willing. The world of mental speculation--which Srila Prabhupada terms "unreal reality"--manifests within those waves. For example, waves of thought flood the conception "this world is mine" with curiosity about the many possible ways to experience this world. Waves of feeling sort "my" sense impressions of the world into categories such as positive, negative, and ambiguous. The intelligence (buddhi) invents ways to help the senses come in contact with positive objects, avoid negative ones, and investigate ambiguous ones. Waves of will push "my" senses to do something about these feelings and plans. When we will something to happen, our sense of lordship over creation becomes frankly apparent.

Thinking, feeling and willing condition the soul to believe himself the controller of the laws that govern "his" world. For instance, as I write this sentence, I think that the room I'm in is hot and stuffy. I know that physical law dictates that a closed room under a bright summer sun will heat up. I feel I should change this situation by getting up and opening the window. And sure enough, willing this to be done, my body gets up, opens the window, and fresh air pours into the room. But this willpower over the laws of the cosmos is illusory, because I do not really know what the law is that I am trying to change.

The law is karma, and what I don't know is what sufferings and enjoyments I am destined to obtain by the work I now perform. I do know I am in this hot room and that I have an option of choice--I can just sit here and tolerate the heat, or I can do something. When I choose to do something, the matrix responds to my desire. I experience getting up, walking over a few steps, reaching out and turning a handle, and pulling the window frame open. But while this is going on, I cannot predict with certainty where material nature is leading me. I do not know whether my goal--to be relieved by fresh air--is really what is in store for me. The breeze may carry a foul stench, forcing me to shut the window immediately. Mosquitoes may fly in and distract me even more than the heat did. The effort of opening the window may trigger a heart attack. And finally, whatever option I choose within the matrix does not substantially change my situation. Whether I open the window or not, I do not change the law of karma. If I am destined to suffer in this room, I will suffer in this room, one way or another. As Srila Prabhupada said, "Everything is already arranged. You cannot change the law. You can simply see how it is working. "

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