Birth and death are two of the innumerable pairs of opposites experienced in the phenomenal world. All opposites are illusions, and so is the case with birth and death. All sensory perceptions create pairs of opposites: pain and pleasure, sorrow and joy, heat and cold. When one of the senses contacts an object, a sensation is received that is carried by the nerves to the brain. It is then attended to by the conscious mind and its memory stored in the unconscious. All sense perceptions are filtered by one’s conceptualization. So through the senses, the mind receives information in its own way according to the concepts it has created for itself. Perception and conception unite in creating the phenomena that are experienced. The mind functions in the external world with the help of the senses, which are employed by the mind. Arjuna experiences grief and sorrow because he has not learned to master the way in which perception and conceptions influence the mind. Each experience that one has in the phenomenal world has its opposite, and each experience exists only because its opposite exists. Heat is given definition by cold, and pain becomes a distinct experience only when contrasted with its complement, pleasure. If one seeks one of a pair of opposites, he is sure to be equally influenced by the other, for the phenomena always go together as a pair. When one is led to a higher realm of reality from whence he can comprehend how the pairs of opposites arise as a unit, he learns to develop the philosophy of non-attachment and thus is not affected by the influence of opposites. Sri Krishna makes Arjuna aware that that which is experienced through the senses is transitory and that the cause of his sorrow and grief is his own deluded, unorganized, and disorderly mind. Teachers in the East always insist on the practice of discipline in order for the aspirant to learn to withdraw his senses and thereby to isolate the mind from the effects of perception. It is the objects of the world and the ways one accepts and conceives of them that create the feelings of joy and sorrow. Discipline is a gradual but steady way of self-training that makes the student aware of higher dimensions of life. Without discipline, the dissipated energy of the mind and the unruly behavior of the senses cannot be brought under control. Swami Rama Perennial Psychology of the Bhagavad Gita commentary, Chapter 2
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 05:00:00 +0000
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