Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 10.05.2017 pm, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Friday)

“There are five working senses and five knowledge-acquiring senses. There is also the false ego. In this way, there are eleven items for the mind’s functions. O hero, the objects of the senses [such as sound and touch], the organic activities [such as evacuation] and the different types of bodies, society, friendship and personality are considered by learned scholars the fields of activity for the functions of the mind.

Sound, touch, form, taste and smell are the objects of the five knowledge-acquiring senses. Speech, touch, movement, evacuation and sexual intercourse are the objects of the working senses. Besides this, there is another conception by which one thinks, “This is my body, this is my society, this is my family, this is my nation,” and so forth. This eleventh function of the mind is called the false ego. According to some philosophers, this is the twelfth function, and its field of activity is the body.

The physical elements, nature, the original cause, culture, destiny and the time element are all material causes. Agitated by these material causes, the eleven functions transform into hundreds of functions and then into thousands and then into millions. But all these transformations do not take place automatically by mutual combination. Rather, they are under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”[1]

So, this is a description of the system that we have. What we should understand is this: there are some material objects, external objects – through the information-acquiring sense we come in contact with them. And by the active sense organs we respond to the agitation or to the information going to us. Then something happens in the intellect. And then we shall end up with some consequences. So, there is a gradation between all these different levels. One is the matter, the other is the sense organs, the third is a reaction of some intellectual capacities and ultimately there is the soul.

In the beginning there is only one step ahead – you make a material decision. And then it starts to evolve, and then it’s just like an avalanche. By the combination and by the workings of all these little, little elements they end up in a disaster. Millions of consequences, a very complicated network.

(to be continued)

[1] Shrimad Bhagavatam, 5.11.9-11