MY NOTES ON PHILOSOPHY

Somebody had asked me a few questions in a philosophical forum after reading my The many angles of God and Knowledge. My answers are given below.

1. Who hijacked our consciousness during our sleep and returned it

to us safely the moment we woke up in the morning? 2. What is the need of hijacking our consciousness during our sleep? 3. What is the need of returning it in the morning? 4. If death happens during our sleep, why the hijacker fails to return the consciousness to the owner in the morning? 5. If our consciousness is hijacked during our sleep, how could we say in the morning that we had a nice sleep during night? Something was aware of the proceedings during our deep , something was enjoying the solitude of sleep and that awareness was continuous during our wakeful state. Thus, we could make out this statement. This awareness is I. What is it this 'something'? The body, mind intellect? Body was

there but the mind was not there. Mind was not there and so emotions were not there. Mind was not there and so sensations were not there. Mind was not there and so, thoughts were not there. Remember, a wakeful mind can never go to sleep. When crowded thoughts are there, we cannot sleep. So, sleep is a mindless state. Mind has gone to its very source. What is this subtler source? Oriental philosophy gives a clear answer. The entity 'I' was there watching the whole proceedings during our sleep as in the wakeful state. 'I' means pure existence, one level of awareness, one level of pure consciousness. It requires no proof. Do we require any scientific proof for our individual existence? I exist this is the only answer. We never ask ourselves - am I dead? Even if we are in a pitch dark cave, we need not search for a torch to see whether we exist or not. This self endorsing consciousness is what is termed as 'I'. 'I' exist even in our sleep. It is an individualized awareness. It is this awareness that tells our consciousness in the morning that we had a good sleep. See, awareness cannot be defined in words. It can only be experienced but not defined in so many words. We have a tendency to believe that only wakefulness presents any sort of consciousness. Consciousness is always present and throughout this entire universe and beyond. Body is gross. Mind and intellect are subtler. I is very subtler. The indwelling awareness or the indwelling spirit is the subtlest. Subtler concepts cannot be easily defined or grasped by the still grosser entities. For example, earth is gross. Water is subtle. Fire is still subtler. Air is subtler than fire. Space is the subtlest of all. Subtle means it can hold all that are gross up to that stage. This means Space can hold air, fire, water and earth. When I say that "I" is subtler, it means that it can hold mind, intellect, senses and body within its capacity. This means that "I" is inclusive of all of these as a tree is included in a seed. Do I change with the change of time? No. The I when I was four years old is the same I that I presently am. So, there is a

changeless dimension beyond the body, mind, intellect sphere. Again, if we took a review of our personal nature, we can see that despite changing circumstances over a long period, there is an inherent Nature within us that has remained so changeless. We may call them traits, certain inclinations etc when it comes to defining this inherent Nature. This stream is very personal to every individual, as we can see. So, there is a changeless sphere within everyone of us that can be coined as I and Inherent Nature. This sphere is certainly beyond the material plane and is more or less connected with the sphere of consciousness.

2. What is the practical side of any knowledge in human life? Do we

learn anything for practice alone in life? Knowledge has not such practical purposes alone. Only time can tell. We are only throwing seeds upon the sands of Time. It will do its goodness in the evolution of human mind, in the process of human life. We will certainly be blest by such knowledge in times of necessities. No knowledge was ever a waste. Thirst for knowledge, quest for knowledge doesn't know any limits. Man is in long contemplation on the various concepts of life. God is one such concept and man is in contemplation on the various aspects of God as well. This article is the outcome of one such ramification. One more thing. Practicality is decided by the degree of application, attitude of mind. It doesn't lie in the object. It does lie in the Subject, ie in the individual attitude. Objects of the world do not offer us anything. It is only the Subjective mind that discovers the importance of the objects, the various relationships, the importance of a particular knowledge etc. From this angle, no scientific knowledge too has any purpose in our life unless we have an attitude to apply it in our life. What is the practicality of 'Theory of Relativity' for a savage living in deep forest or even for a layman? What is the practicality of the knowledge for a layman that another earth is surviving at a distance of 20 lac light years away or 1 liter of water is available in 20 or 30 tons of lunar soil? Think philosophically and you can discover the trivialities of human knowledge. But, man is in long contemplation and

reflection on various subjects.

3. We can determine the belief of others only

according to our individual scale. There is no other scale possible in our life. It is only with our mind and intellect that we can measure this world. We can't see the world through the brain of others. Our individual scale is a combination of various factors - views regarding society, religion, art, literature, music, philosophy etc. This is how your belief is viewed as superstition by me and vice versa. Our scales need not coincide. That is all. Belief and superstition these are only relative ideas. My belief can be your superstition and your belief can be my superstition from different angles. Every individual has his own system of belief. This is an unquestionable parameter. This means, everybody has a scale. It can be Metric system our or otherwise. It is more important to ask oneself - where do I stand - rather than asking where do others stand. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx