Ego and Thoughts

Drik Drisya Viveka 3

Verse 10

Ahankaralaye suptau bhaveddeho'py acetanaḥ ।

Ahankaravikasardhah svapnah sarvastu jaagarah ॥ 10॥

When the Ego disappears in deep sleep, the body also becomes unconscious; the Ego is in its semi-manifest state in dream; it is fully manifest in the waking state.

In this work the word Ego is used where normally the word “Mind” is used in other Vedanta texts.  This is done in order to emphasise the role played by the Ego in entrapping the Jiva into this Samsaric delusion.  In the state of deep sleep the body becomes unconscious as Ego does not identify itself with body and merges itself in the causal ignorance which is characterised by the non-apprehension of empirical objects. As the result of past karma is not noticed then one becomes unconscious of one’s body in that state. In this state of deep sleep there is no perception of duality.

In the waking state the ego experiences the gross external objects by means of its internal organs. The ego and the non-ego which constitute the entire world of experience are both cognized in the waking state. Therefore the full manifestation of the Ego happens only in the waking condition.  In the dream state the Ego does not perceive any object external to itself. The seer, the objects seen and the act of seeing which constitute the dream experiences are only the mental modifications of the Ego.  In dream it is the mind alone of the sleeper which appears both as the ego and the non-ego. The dream experiences, though they appear during the dream state as outside the body of the seer, are only modifications of the mind from the standpoint of the waking state. Therefore from the waking standpoint the dream state is only a partial manifestation of the Ego.

Verse 11

Antahkaranavrttischa chitih chaya ikyamagataa ।

Vasanah kalpayet svapne bodhe akshairvishayan bahih ॥ 11॥

The thought modifications of the inner equipment, by their identity with reflected Consciousness, project impressions in the dream state and, in waking, objects outside with the eyes.

This verse discusses the vrittis i.e. thought modifications in three avasthas, Jagrat, swapna and sushupthi i.e. waking, dream and deep sleep states just as the previous verse discussed the role of Ego in these three states.  There is no mention of deep sleep in this verse as thoughts are almost zero in that state and there is no consciousness of the inner equipment i.e. mind,intellect, chitha and ego, and no experiences in this state,   In the dream state, the thoughts are generated by the semi-conscious mind from one’s own past experiences registered in memory. Out of the activated vasanas, a subjective universe is projected. These vasanas are registered in the memory in the waking state, some recently, and some in the distant past including previous births and creations. Thus the dream experience is created by the thought part of the semi-conscious mind.   In the waking state, the thoughts go out through the sense-organs like the light beam from a flash light and illumine the external world. The mind material is the ‘light source’ and the thought,vṛtti, is the ‘light beam’. Five such vṛttis come out through the five sense-organs and whatever is in the field of these vṛttis is registered and experienced by the mind and thus the objective external world is experienced. The external world is experienced only because of vṛttis.  Vṛttis are responsible for the subjective world in dream and the objective external world in waking.  The thought part of the mind also functions by its association with Reflected Consciousness, Thought associated with the Reflected Consciousness registers the absence of experience in deep sleep, activates the vasanas in dream projecting an internal world of experience, and in waking, projects an external world of experience with the help of the sense-organs.  We should remember here that that one’s experienced world of pleasure and pain is the world of Iswara’s creation transformed into the world of one’s own creation under the influence of one’s thoughts of Ahamkara and Mamakara.

Verse 12

Mano'hankṛtyupadanaṃ lingamekam jadatmakam ।

Avasthatrayamanveti jayate mriyate tatha ॥ 12॥

Constituted of mind and ego, the one insentient subtle body, goes through the three states; it is born and it dies.

The words ‘mind and ego’ represent the two kinds of thoughts seen in verse 6 earlier.  The ‘Characteristics of Thought’ is the subject matter of this verse. Firstly, thoughts dwell in the Antahkarana, i.e. Mind and Ego, where Mind stands for the mind, intellect and memory. Thoughts are thus very much the essence of the subtle body equipment within us. The subtle body which is the parent body of mind-thought part is called Lingam in this verse. The subtle body consists of the five organs of knowledge, five organs of action, five-fold physiological systems called prana along with the mind and thought. All these together constitute one unit as subtle body and the subtle body is inert by itself but becomes sentient with its association with Reflected Consciousness. So the subtle body as well has the three states of experience; waking, dream and deep sleep. Besides the three states of experience, the subtle body has also birth and death. But subtle body’s birth and death is different from that of gross body. The subtle body packs up and leaves the gross body at the time of death of physical body. Then it goes to its new body (the next birth) and unpacks all its components into that body to continue existing through that body which can be called birth in a new body. The death of subtle body occurs truly and verily only when all the karmas it carries get exhausted in Videhamukthi.

-------------------------------