THE GUARDIAN OF DEVOTION (3)

PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE

By Sripad Bhakti Madhav Purl Maharaj

The modern scientists think that everything can be explained in terms of matter. Their conception is that matter is at the base of everything, and that whatever we experience is in reality only atoms and the void. First of all, we would like to present a simple example to demonstrate the unreasonableness of this viewpoint. Then we will present a more viable alternative conception that will incorporate all the aspects of experience in a reasonable way.

Consider a book. It can be seen and felt. A chemical analysis can be made. A statistical analysis of the letters in a book, according to frequency of use, distribution, etc. can be made. But the meaning of the book cannot be ascertained by such studies. The meaning of the book is certainly experienced, but it cannot be explained by any physical description, chemical analysis, or mathematical computation. Then what is it; where does it come from, and how does it arise? All these questions must be asked when we consider the meaning of a book.

“Meaning” is a synthetic thing involving thoughts and feelings. It cannot be analyzed in an atomic way. Thus thought and feeling are considered mental experiences to distinguish them from gross material phenomena. The “meaning” of a book does not actually arise from the letters of the book. Letters are symbols which have their own meanings. Letters are combined to form words which also have their own meanings. Words are combined in sentences which have further meanings. And sentences are combined to form books which have higher meanings. Thus letters, words, sentences and bocks all proceed from an original idea in the mind first, and then a symbol is used to represent that idea.

The author has an idea first and then writes a book. Thus the origin of the idea or meaning of the book comes from the consciousness of the author, not from the book. The reader is able to grasp the meaning of the book because the symbolic representation of the book invokes a mental impression in the reader similar to the one experienced by the author. This is certainly a complex affair which cannot be explained merely in terms of phsyco-chemical analysis, or as arising from the combinations and permutations of atoms and the void.

Love, beauty and consciousness are all terms which are categorically different from the material objects of the world, but which nevertheless are experienced. We must then come to the admission of a subjective as well as objective reality. In fact, one Nobel Laureate in physics, Eugene Wigner, concluded from his study of quantum mechanics that there are two kinds of reality: consciousness and the field of matter. Any observation requires the interaction of an observer with the observed thing, and this produces an irreversible change in both.

Consciousness is the first type of reality because it is the primary, most direct experience. The field of matter is a secondary phenomenon that is detected only through consciousness. Actually, the scientist cannot say what matter is ultimately because behind the ultimate particle of nature is the original idea of the scientist which always precedes the thing which is being experienced or described. Thus network of thought is always placed over the experiences which stimulate the consciousness of any observer.

Just as when light falls upon an object, a shadow is produced, so too when consciousness comes in contact with an object a thought is produced. Pure consciousness is primary. The thought is hazy consciousness. The material object is also part of consciousness which we can call material consciousness. Thus consciousness is the prime cause of everything. This is just the opposite of Darwin’s theory which says that the material things produce consciousness. Consciousness produces matter, but in between, subtle production called thought appears first. Thus everything is associated with consciousness or person. In the oldest days we find that the people of antiquity referred to everything in a personal way: the sea was a person, the sun was a person, etc. This can be understood in the light of non-materialistic world view which considers consciousness as fundamental to matter. Even thoughts were associated with underlying personalities. Even a shadow had its ultimate associated personality. Thus life is an all-pervading fundamental principle. The universe is the biggest thing we experience. It also represents the biggest person or universal consciousness, or God, He is the all-containing person. And beyond the universe lies the inconceivable infinite creation, which, because of our finite nature, can only be detected by faith. But it is not blind faith. As soon as we say “blind” we must imply that there is also a faith that can “see”’ That supersubjective, all-containing consciousness can be seen, but not with our ordinary eyes. Only consciousness can detect pure consciousness.

Modern science can deal only with the objects in the field of consciousness but not with consciousness itself. Actually it cannot even properly explain the object of consciousness, matter, because the consciousness is the underlying principle of matter itself. Matter is the result of personal, localized or limited self-interest. The original pure consciousness is a universally orientated one. We have lost sight of the universal interest, the real center of our lives. We are, in fact, but part of a larger organic whole. It is not a fossilized, static environment that can be recorded in so many scientific books.

Thoughts of man and the universe that go by the name of scientific knowledge are actually attempts to petrify reality and place it in books in the hope of gaining some future adoration by society. Knowledge has come to mean a dry and dead thing, a mere categorization of phenomena of nature which is ultimately a pure mechanism. But this is all based on the assumption that the knowable is dead matter.

Our contention is that the knowable is alive and conscious. It can be experienced or known in the same way that our own consciousness can be experienced and known—synthetically, organically, dynamically. Feeling is an inextricable and fundamental component of conscious reality. We are not afraid of it in the plane of consciousness. Thinking takes a more peripheral role, in a subordinate and not so prominent position Such a conception is anathema to the material scientists because it undermines provincialism, it dissolves fossilism and amalgamates the observing entity into a flowing, living reality in which he is but a small subordinate part of an inconceivably larger whole, which is not so frightening or big as He is personal.

CONTENTS

Editorial
Declaration of the Spiritual Succession
(1) Complete Dedication
(2) Pure Devotion
(3) The Only Enjoyer
(4) The Wave of Love
(5) The Krishna Conception of Divinity
(6) Personal Knowledge
(7) Service to Guru
(8) Marching on to Glory
(9) An Experience on the Way
(10) Advent of Golden Moon
(11) Holy Talks of the Supreme Lord

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