BUDDHI AND DISCRIMINATION
Continuing
with our previous post, it is the faculty of our higher mind that deals with
Discrimination.
In
our 1st theme “Purpose of Human Birth”, we focused on the
following saying of Swami:
From the above gospel of Bhagawan, we get the hint on Discrimination or Viveka. While all the species created prior to the pinnacle of the created species (the human) have Body and Mind, it is only the human, the last in the 8.4 million created by God, has been granted the faculty of intellectual discrimination by the Lord.
Animal kingdom has no doubt, the faculty of
thinking, the mind. But they do not have the discriminative faculty and hence,
as the author often cites the following example while dealing with “discrimination”,
When a lion sees any lioness in the jungle and gets the instinct for getting intimate with the lioness, the lion just reaches out to the lioness and satisfies its physical desire.
It is only man, who is granted the power of discrimination, who can exercise his Viveka to tell himself that he has the moral right only to be with his married wife and not to satisfy his physical desires with any woman he comes across.
When a lion sees any lioness in the jungle and gets the instinct for getting intimate with the lioness, the lion just reaches out to the lioness and satisfies its physical desire.
It is only man, who is granted the power of discrimination, who can exercise his Viveka to tell himself that he has the moral right only to be with his married wife and not to satisfy his physical desires with any woman he comes across.
(In management principle, no authority comes without any responsibility attached to it. Similarly, in the above example, since the lion is not bestowed with the power of discrimination/ intellect, it is not punished for mating with any lioness.
Whereas, a man is graced with the intellect, to discriminate between right and wrong and therefore, if the man shrugs aside his discrimination and takes to the wrong path based on his instinct, his desires, he must be punished and the law of karma takes its course to fill his sanchi with red arrows.
Man looks upto God and cries, why this misery for me, God answers- Am I responsible?? Did I not give you the power to discriminate??? If you did not use it and as a result you are suffering, is it right on your part to blame me?? By gone is by gone, rush to me AT LEAST NOW, so that you do not do such mistakes any more)
God did not proceed to create any more species having created man, for, He thought perhaps, “I have given the highest and the most precious gift to man when I bestowed the power of discrimination, the faculty to discriminate between what is right and what is wrong and then, to choose only the right path.
Hence, there is no need to create any more beings as I cannot grant anything more precious than the power of discrimination to any other being, so, let human being be the pinnacle of my creation.”
Whereas, a man is graced with the intellect, to discriminate between right and wrong and therefore, if the man shrugs aside his discrimination and takes to the wrong path based on his instinct, his desires, he must be punished and the law of karma takes its course to fill his sanchi with red arrows.
Man looks upto God and cries, why this misery for me, God answers- Am I responsible?? Did I not give you the power to discriminate??? If you did not use it and as a result you are suffering, is it right on your part to blame me?? By gone is by gone, rush to me AT LEAST NOW, so that you do not do such mistakes any more)
God did not proceed to create any more species having created man, for, He thought perhaps, “I have given the highest and the most precious gift to man when I bestowed the power of discrimination, the faculty to discriminate between what is right and what is wrong and then, to choose only the right path.
Hence, there is no need to create any more beings as I cannot grant anything more precious than the power of discrimination to any other being, so, let human being be the pinnacle of my creation.”
As a human being you have inherited a vast treasure of
knowledge. You can have access to that treasure only if the mind is made
one-pointed and inward. Beyond manas is the intellect. The power of intellect
guides the functions of the mind.
The power of discrimination is the greatest of all benevolent
forces within. With the help of contemplation and meditation, one should unfold
this power and learn to distinguish right actions from unwholesome ones.
In a post on Surrender in the flow of sadhana in the path of Devotion and Jnana, we
read that after the initial Self Enquiry in the path of Jnana, the student
acquires 4 qualifications (termed as sadhana chatushtaya in Vedanta) and then,
approaches a qualified Guru. One of the 4 qualifications is Viveka or rather, Viveka is the starting point in the path of Knowledge.
At a higher level, Viveka is the discrimination between Self and
Non-Self, that is, the discrimination between the inner experience in the depth of
mediation which is Self and all other experience at worldly level in life which do not align to
the experience gained in the depth of meditation.
Hopefully and with His grace, we shall strive to learn all about the following, in due course of time, through the blog posts:-
Hopefully and with His grace, we shall strive to learn all about the following, in due course of time, through the blog posts:-
- 4 qualifications for a spiritual seeker- viveka, vairagya, shad -sampath, mumukshatva,
- Approaching a realized master with intense craving to know about one reality, the Brahman, knowing which, everything else is known and knowing which, one exists verily as Brahman (Brahmavid Bhramaiva Bhavati) in due course of time through these posts.
- Instructions related to Brahma vidya, knowledge of Brahman, by the Guru to his disciple
- The process of meditation, contemplation and absorption of knowledge imparted by the guru, by the disciple
- Subjective, Intuitive, Intimate, inner experience ( experience of the SELF, not experience with the mind) gained by the disciple on absorbing his preceptor's teachings.
Love.
