MIND--BRAIN ENIGMA
Modern science of
neurophysiology attempts to explore the relationship between human mind and
brain. The questions being often asked are “what exactly is the physical and
functional relationship between the mind and brain? Are they the same or
different?” These queries arose not only in the minds of modern psychologists
and neurologists but in the minds of ancient Indian and western philosophers,
theologians and other intellectuals as well. Ancient concepts regarding mind
and body originating from India thousands of years ago emphasized a holistic
view of mind and body or mind and matter.The Upanishads
and the Sānkhya philosophy of sage Kapila
emphasized that the individual consciousness or Ātman is one and the same with the consciousness of
the universe or Brahman, thus declaring that ‘everything in the universe is the
integral part of Brahman’. (Sarvam
khalvidam Brahma). The Upanishads gave a new insight into the conscious state
of mind by emphasizing that mind and matter are two aspects of the same
reality. Western thoughts about the mind and consciousness stemmed from the
views of Greek philosophers Plato 427-347 BCE) and Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
followed by Rene Descartes (1596 -1650 CE), John Locke (1632-1704 CE), Immanuel
Kant (1724-1804 CE) and many other brilliant intellectuals. They projected a
dualistic view of the mind and brain emphasizing that the substance of the mind
is different from the substance of brain or any other physical organs or
matter. However, most of the modern scientists believe that the mind is a
product of the brain, in effect emphasizing that consciousness is the product
of matter.
Thousands of years
ago Indian sages conducted elaborate in-depth explorations of the human mind,
its function and relation to the gross body. The oldest accounts of these
psychological studies have been detailed in the
Sānkhya System of philosophy of
Sage Kapila and the Upanishads which are
the essence of Vedic wisdom. As per ancient Indian wisdom mind belongs to the
subtle body which is formed out of the fundamental particles (tanmātras) of the
five essential elements called panchabhūtas. The grossification (panchikaranam)
of the tanmātras gives rise to the panchabhūtas or five elements namely space
(ākāṡa), air (vāyu), fire or energy (Tejas or Agni), water (apas) and earth (pṛthvi).
Materials of all living and nonliving entities in the universe are made of these
five elements. Thus the physical basis
of the mind is the subtle aspect of the body and the difference between brain
and mind is only in terms of a measure of subtlety. Subtle matter is more
pervasive and that explains the presence of a conscious mind in each and every
cell of the body complex in a multi-cellular body and in the subtle realms of
the body of a unicellular organism. According
to Vedānta thoughts are vibrations (energy?) as a
reaction to the impact of sensory stimuli brought to the mind by the sensory
system more or less like the impact of stone creating waves of water in a lake.
These thoughts are analyzed in deeper realms of the mind called intellect
(buddhi) and the discriminated thoughts are recognized by the soul which is but
the reaction of the light of the Spirit or Ātman, the Supreme Consciousness. This concept of awareness of the conscious mind is first enunciated by the
Sānkhya system and adopted by the Vedāntic
system later. Swami Vivekānanda has aptly described the genesis of perception according to Sānkhya philosophy, “The affections of external objects are carried by
the sense organs to their respective brain centres from where they are carried
to the mind (manas). The manas conveys these messages to the determinative
faculty, the intelligence (buddhi). From the discriminative faculty the
messages of perception are passed on to the Purusha (the soul) who receives
them and the perception results. The Purusha or the soul gives orders to the motor centres to do the
needful. According to Sānkhya philosophy / Psychology everything else except
the Purusha is material instrument. The material that forms the mind is
composed of subtle matter called tanmātras. These become gross and form the
external matter” (Complete Works, Vol 1. pp.134-135).. “According to Sānkhya philosophy
the‘mind’ is an instrument instrument, as it
were, in the hands of the soul, through which the soul catches external
objects.” Vedānta subscribes to the same
philosophy and psychology when it says, “It (the Ātman) is
the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of the speech, the prāṇa of
the prāṇa, and the eye of the
eye. Wise men separating
the Ātman from these (sensory system) rise out of sense-life and
attain immortality” (Kenopanishad, 1.2).
Modern physiology also would vouch for the fact that
external sense organs are not the real organs of sense, but that they are in
the various nerve centres of the brain. Modern science also agrees on the fact
that subtle centres which constitute the mental apparatus are also formed of
the same material (the embryonic ectoderm) as the brain itself. The Sānkhyas arrived
at this truth centuries before modern science had any inclination
of it.
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