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.