Hi. Does everything happen automatically inside and out in ourselves? Personally, I felt that in my mind everything happens automatically (thoughts,feeling etc.) and mind decides all the actions of the body so similarly body is also running automatically because mind runs automatically which drives all the actions of the body. So, am i right sir?
—neeraj pandey, India
Dear Neeraj,
I just watched an interesting four-part video (30-minutes each) on YouTube called Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds. Here’s part 1 (it’s important to watch all 4 parts):
This video does not address the consciousness of maya (evil) nor the role of the guru but overall I think you will find it interesting.
The question of the relationship of mind to the senses (including the so-called objective world around us) is one of those questions for the ages. Patanjali in the famous Yoga Sutras has a lot to say about this. So a simple email response is “simply” out of the question. But here are a few points for you to consider coming from an enlightened sage (rather than mere philosophers or speculative thinking or scientists):
1. Patanjali posits that the outer reality that we encounter and consider meaningful to us is principally a function of our mind: our karma, our attitude, likes, dislikes, our projections, memories (true or false), function of reason, expectations and so on.
2. Patanjali says that our experience of life exists so that we might find our ultimate freedom from delusion and experience of moksha, final liberation in samadhi – that we might come to know that all things, whether of the mind or of the senses, are the product of one underlying reality which is called by many names, including Brahma.
3. These statements above however DO NOT imply that objective reality is solely the creation of our mind. Other minds exist that need to deal with their own realities in their own way. There is, in other words, a macro as well as a micro reality and mind but both are the products of the One Mind (of God).
4. Prana, or energy, is the first underlayment of physical reality. This force, both micro and macro, has its own intelligence. Hence the functions of the human body operate more or less independent of our conscious mind. Prana operates all beings, atoms, molecules and energies. Our “ego” or personality is no more “real” than anything else. But the consciousness or witness to our ego IS real. God watches God through Self-awareness. We were created to pierce the veil of the illusion of our separateness first from all other beings and creation and then, finally, with the Creator.
I hope these remarks are useful!
Blessings and joy to you in the contemplation of the One!
Nayaswami Hriman
Seattle, WA (USA)
www.hrimananda.org
