ભગવતી ... આદેશવત ...

ઈન્દ્રિયોએ પસંદ કર્યું 

શૂન્ય થઈ ગ્રહણ કરવું

ભગવતી સ્થાને સમાવું

આદેશવત અનુસરવું...

એક એકનું હોવું આગવું

મનુષ્ય બાહ્યસંચાર જોગું

ભગીરથ હતું એ ઘટવું,

હઠવું, સમાયોજિત થવું!

માતશક્તિએ સ્વયં ધર્યું

અગ્રે સ્થાન કાયમી, પૂરું

પૂંઠે મૂકી દીધું જણ દેહજણ્યું

ઢાંક્યું કવચ માતૃત્વ તણું.

આવાગમને પટલ બનતું

જે કંઈ સ્પર્શે, ચકાસતું -

હડસેલતું, ઓગાળતું, સમાવતું.

અંતરે દિપ્તમય હવે બાહિરે ઝળહળતું...

પ્રભુ! પ્રભુ!

સાદર...આભાર...

- મોરલી પંડ્યા 

મે, ૨૦૧૮

We receive the perceptions of the five senses, sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell and translate them into knowledge in our sense-mind. The term used for this in the philosophy of India is Manas. This sense mind accepts the sensations of the senses and translates them into an indirect experience or knowledge of the objects of the senses. But this sense mind is larger than and independent of these five senses. It can experience directly through direct modifications in its purest form of action. The changes we perceive known as emotions are an example of modifications directly affecting the sense mind and our becoming aware of them through direct experience. Love, hate, anger, fear all create waves that change the substance of the sense-mind and thus our experience of them. These emotions, while often conditioned by specific triggered impulses coming through the five senses, in fact are independent of them and can arise spontaneously within without a specific trigger at a specific time, through the action of memory, reflection or even sympathy.

While the senses make us feel and treat the world as different and other, in fact, they are distorting the deeper truth of the oneness of all the manifested universe. This leads us to the opportunity to experience the world directly through Manas without necessarily using the intermediary of the senses and thus getting a more direct experience, or even, developing new and additional senses beyond the five that we are comfortable with using through long habit, to extend the range of experience that the Sense-Mind is able to explore.

It is because of the long-standing habit of the sense mind relying on the five senses that we do not ordinarily experience or recognize the direct cognition capabilities of the sense mind. In various states such as hypnosis or dream, we can see the sense mind in some cases liberated from the senses, and a whole new world of experience begins to open up. This is an indication of a capability that can be potentially developed and extended even in the waking consciousness.

* The Life Divine, Chapter 8, The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge

Flower Name: Cassia roxburghii

Significance: Refinement of Sensations
Manifold, complex, perceiving the variety of details.