Levels of Consciousness

Consciousness can be defined as the awareness of the surroundings. A stone or rock is not aware of the goings on around it: An earthquake or forest fire cannot in anyway influence it.

Plants, on the other hand, have been proved to respond to external stimuli. A man with an axe with the intention to chop down a tree will send a shudder up the tree trunk. In trees awareness of external stimuli like light heat and sound are evident but consciousness is not developed to a high degree.

An organism has awareness of its surroundings only up to a degree that is essential for its survival.

In the animal kingdom, microbes that depend on air or fluid currents for propagation or locomotion can be considered to have zero dimensional consciousness. That is, it is unaware of its movement along the x-axis of the Cartesian coordinate.

Take the case of an earthworm or centipede. It crawls along a surface, and in its progress is aware of the linear distance covered by it. Suppose an earth worm in its progress in a particular direction comes across a pebble on the way. It cannot overcome the obstacle and therefore takes a deviated route. Although it is aware of the distance covered, it is not conscious about the space covered by the original and deviated directions. We can assume that the earthworm has a mono dimensional consciousness.

Consider the movements of a cockroach. It is aware of the distance and area covered by it during expeditions for food or mates. However, it cannot distinguish a man leaning against a wall and the picture of a person propped against a wall. In short, its awareness is two-dimensional. While the area covered by the x and y coordinates is understood by it, it cannot conceive the thickness of objects defined by the z coordinate.

Mammals including man have three dimensional consciousnesses. That is why you can distinguish a picture from the object. To define the position of an object in the space you need to apply x, y and z coordinates. If an animal can distinguish a picture from the object, it has three dimensional consciousness.

Although mammals have three dimensional consciousness like man, in the case of man, it is much more developed. Objective thinking, abstract reasoning, storing memories of past events or facts for future use etc are unique in man.

Man has three dimensional consciousness of the highest order known in the Universe. This does not mean that man’s level of consciousness is the highest possible level in the Universe. In the first place, three dimensional consciousness in man is of a greater order than in animals. Similarly, different men can have different levels of consciousness.

Is four dimensional consciousness possible in human beings? The fourth dimension is supposed to be time. If a man has four dimensional consciousness, he can see the future, which is hidden to common man. Such people who can prophesy the future are called prophets or seers. Some people are congenitally endowed with the faculty of perceiving things to happen. Some others may be able to acquire such gifts by meditation and spiritual practices.

If you cut a lime into two pieces, the cross section is a plane, a two dimensional figure. If you take the cross section of plane, for example a sheet of paper ignoring its small thickness, what you get is a straight line, a one dimensional figure. Further if you intersect a straight line with another you get a point which has no dimension. It follows that a point with no dimension is the cross section of a mono dimensional figure, and one dimensional figure is the cross section of a two dimensional figure and every two dimensional figure is the cross section of the three dimensional space. It can be argued that the three dimensional Universe as we see it and perceive is the cross section of a four dimensional universe to which a few have occasional glimpses. Similarly, worlds with any number of dimensions are possible. When we deny such possibilities, we are like cockroaches who would deny the existence of a three dimensional world simply because their brain cannot perceive it.

Teleportation, a technique by which an object in a locked up room is taken out without actually unlocking the room can be explained if we agree that a four dimensional world exists. The performer enters the four dimensional world which exists side by side with the three dimensional world. The lock and key apply only to the three dimensional world. So he goes in and comes out with the object and

re-enters the three dimensional world.

Heaven and hell, life after death, and many religious beliefs which atheists deny can be explained if we admit a four dimensional world around us. We reason, positioning ourselves in the three dimensional world, and refuse to admit anything which our limited consciousness cannot perceive. You are asked to measure the voltage of a power line and what you have with you is only a metre scale. Do not argue that that the power line has no electric current passing through it simply because you are not provided with a suitable instrument to measure it.

Adam and Eve and the First Sin

Adam and Eve, according to the Bible, were the first parents. Until they sinned against God by disobeying Him, they lived in the beautiful garden, the Paradise. Satan the devil tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. On the advice of his wife, Adam also ate the fruit, and infuriated by their disobedience, God drove the couple out of the beautiful garden. Henceforth, man was destined to live by toil and die eventually. Originally, God intended the crown of all His creations to live without poverty, hardships or death ever threatening him.

When the Bible was written, this story had probably been in circulation for many centuries in the Middle East. Without any natural barriers to prevent the easy and essential demographic movements in the vast semi arid area, this legend of an era of plenty and happiness had been told and retold down many generations.

Started undoubtedly by a genius, the legend tries to explain the uniqueness of human misery in the whole of animal kingdom. All other animals and insects and plants fit perfectly in the grand pattern of the universe. They have no miseries, worries, poverty, old age, fear of death or disease. Wretchedness, like superior intelligence and perception, is known only among humans.

Undoubtedly, eating of the forbidden fruit is symbolic of something else. Some believe that it was the sexual act. This argument is foolish and absurd. Man, like all other animals, has the sexual instinct and to forbid it is not only wicked but also preposterous. The God that forbids sex is the creation of a perverted or troubled mind.

What, then, was that actually symbolised the forbidden fruit?

Sex was intended as the supreme act and expression of love without conditions between man and woman. Man was of course blessed with the supreme physical, mental and spiritual elevation and pleasure out of the sexual act. But when a man has sex with a woman, and when there is no love between them, the couple are having physical pleasure only, that is, they are indulging in degraded sex.

Man could eat and enjoy the pleasurable taste of fruits and nuts and other edible things in nature. But when he eats to enjoy the pleasure it is something else. You can make a pair of shoes in which your feet are perfectly comfortable. But you are not expected to cut and shape your feet so that the shoes fit perfectly.

The perverted way of satisfying two of the basic needs and gifts was the first sin. In order to have plenty of foods, man started agriculture. Gluttony and sex for physical pleasure only, followed. When man cut the first tree to satisfy his exaggerated needs, he started on a path to destruction from which no going back was possible. Instead of living in nature in harmony with it, he tried to modify it, and mould it to his advantage and fancy.

Man’s level of consciousness dwindled and he has fallen to the sate of an intelligent animal from the state of a god. His wisdom and intelligence are curses rather than assets. Animals in the jungle fare much better than man.

As man ‘advances’ in technology, his soul diminishes in excellence, and most modern men and women are intelligent but soulless animals. The way out of this quagmire is the undoing of human civilization, which is clearly impossible.

The Importance of Yogic Exercises

Human body and mind are, possibly, the greatest wonders in the whole universe, except the partially understood universe itself. With functions and faculties as varied as imagination, intuition, logical reasoning, empathy, and sense of colour, beauty and rhythm, human mind is unique in this universe.

Human body too exhibits peculiarities unparalleled in the animal kingdom. No other animal can make movements as varied as man. For example, he can balance himself on two feet and perform amazing things, almost defying the exigencies of the laws equilibrium. He can swim, dive, climb trees, perform a somersault, stand on the head, and so on. Man’s complex brain controls all such movements, which, in turn, is stimulated by such movements.

In short, when the movements of your body parts, muscles, and joints are wide and varied, your brain works meticulously and in turn, gets stimulated. When the movements are restricted and limited, your brain does not receive the required stimulation and consequently, your mental functions, especially those relating to spiritual experiences, tend to diminish.

Primitive men and women were adept tree-climbers, because, like most other primates, man originally lived in trees. Later, he started to build huts and lived in them but did not forget the skill to climb trees. To collect honey or to pick fruits and nuts he continued to climb trees.

Later, man became a farmer abandoning his life as hunter gatherer. This obviated the need for long journeys on foot and the necessity to climb trees. When the movements of his limbs and muscles became limited and restricted, his brain ceased to get sufficient stimulation he used to get in the past and, consequently, his mental life especially the spiritual leanings and experiences became limited.

Tree climbing and clambering over steep rocks call for coordinated functioning of a number of muscles, which no other activity requires. The feet are turned upward, abdominal muscles are put into action and the thoracic and limb muscles are simultaneously put to use. Settled life in farms took away at least sixty percent of all muscular movements the ancient man used make. In urbanized people, muscular movements are still limited. Ask a town dweller to cross a stream treading on a log laid across it. A simple day- to-day activity for even a child in the countryside, the task is a formidable and often impossible one for an urbanized man.

In India, wise men in the early period of settled life saw the spiritual degradation among people and intelligently connected it to the reduced muscular activity. For those who would opt for higher consciousness and greater spiritual experience, they devised exercises which would simulate the lost movements in the ancient era. They taught their followers the scientific way of regaining the spiritual heights and intuitive wisdom of the ancient man without actually undoing the whole of human civilization.

There are as many as eighty five yogic exercises and their numerous derivatives available. By practising all these, you can cause the movement of every muscle in the body in all possible ways, enhancing the activity of all the systems, especially the endocrine system. The spirituality and consciousness lost to the settled and civilized man are regained while retaining the obvious advantages of modernity.

Asanas, or yoga exercises, are, by no means, an end in themselves. On the other hand, they are only the beginning of the search for realizing the Ultimate Truth. After learning and practising Yama and Niyama which are a set of moral principles, you are initiated into Asanas. As you become adept in Asanas, your mind and body are purified and you become eligible to receive wisdom relating to the Ultimate Truth, which is made possible through Pranayama (yogic breathing), Dhyana (meditation) etc.

Degraded Consciousness of Modern Man

When I was a boy, I used to have severe attacks of a special kind of sinusitis. Acute, throbbing pain at a spot slightly above one or both of the brows on sunrise is the symptom. It persists till the sun reaches the zenith, and thereafter would vanish gradually. Next morning, the same thing repeats itself.

I approached my Uncle, who was a Vydyan ( A practitioner in Ayurveda) He woke me up early in the morning before sunrise, and applied the extract of a kind of leaf with lime on the nail of my right big toe.

I waited for the throbbing pain to appear as usual, but it never came again. I asked my Uncle what the wonderful medicine was and he showed me a climber with pale green leaves. He squeezed the leaves with a little of fresh lime and pressed out the greenish yellow fluid.

How on earth did he know the exact leaf out of the millions of kinds of leaves which would cure my ailment? The ache was on the left brow, but the medicine was applied on the right toenail. There are other simple, surprising cures for many other diseases like kidney stone, tonsillitis, diarrhoea, warts, and even rabies. These are closely guarded secrets handed down from generation to generation.

These cures were certainly not discovered by the trial and error method. The only answer is that, in intuitive powers and in the level of consciousness, the ancient man was far superior to modern man. They lived very close to nature and their worries and cares were fewer. Ancient people applied their conscious minds on fewer matters and their unconscious minds were almost in constant contact with the Universal Consciousness. The Universal Consciousness is the storehouse of all knowledge and wisdom, and ancient people had little difficulty in divining cures for common ailments from nature.

The ancient man lived in nature with few or no gadgets for making life comfortable. He survived by his absolute dependence on nature. The universe is the source and origin of all wisdom, and being a part of it, he inherited such wisdom in abundance. So, the fact that such and such herbs are cures for such and such ailments entered his mind intuitively without the application of the logic of the conscious mind.

As man distanced himself from the lap of divine care and love, he gradually lost contact with the wisdom of the universe. And modern man, urbanized and sophisticated, eating tinned and canned foods, using wheels rather than legs for locomotion, thinking constantly of material pleasures, shutting himself in the cage of inhibitions and egos, is a miserable person.

When did man lose his communion with Nature?

Probably when he settled down and started agriculture. But for millennia thereafter, he maintained his touch with nature, though in diminishing degrees. Modern urbanized man lives by the dictates of his logical conscious mind rather than by the wisdom of nature and the intuition of his unconscious mind.

Sages of ancient India knew of the spiritual degradation faced by man owing to his settled life. So, many of them withdrew into the lap of nature, to pristine forests, and lived exactly as the primitive man lived and attained amazing spiritual heights. Modern man might think that the stories of their supernatural attainments in spheres as varied from spirituality to poetry are exaggerations.

On Meditation

When did you start to have a mind? At your birth? Or when you were six months old? No. You started to have a mind and consciousness right from the moment in which a sperm from your father fused with the ovum from your mother. Since that moment, you started to have an existence, aware of the happenings in the outside world. You heard sounds, shared the ecstasies and anxieties of your mother, and waited expectantly for the return of your father. When somebody threatened your mother, you were afraid.

When you were born, you could recognize the voices of your near and dear ones. Your consciousness was limited of course. The stored up memory made you smile or startle in your sleep. Your consciousness, like your body, was not grown up, but it existed.

When you grew up to adulthood, your unconscious mind, which was once independent and all-powerful, started to be influenced by the thoughts in the conscious mind. Your fears and worries, agonies and ecstasies, hopes and aspirations started troubling it. Your oneness with and absolute dependence on the Universal Consciousness, the Root Cause of All, began to waver. Your wisdom and intelligence, very limited and primitive in comparison with the unlimited vastness of the Universal Consciousness, started to influence the unconscious mind in taking decisions of vital importance, hitherto under the care and guidance of the Universal Consciousness. Your decisions always went wrong plunging you into misery and wretchedness. Your conscious mind troubled and toiled, always in the wrong direction. Happiness is an occasional incidence in the general drama of pain; you would occasionally quote Thomas Hardy.

The unconscious mind will fashion your life strictly in accordance with your own perception of the world. If you think the world a gloomy, dismal place full of wickedness, such a world is in store for you. If you imagine that the people you meet and interact with are invariably villains, you are likely to meet only villains in your life.

Nor is your mind free from thoughts, thoughts of the negative kind, during your sleep. During your sleep, you worry about the future, repent about the past and scheme for the present. Part of these thoughts appears to you as dreams.

If you somehow manage to free your mind of all thoughts, your unconscious mind will once again take charge of your life. You will henceforth meet the correct people, take the correct decisions and your life will be a happy and exciting chain of events.

Meditation, therefore, is the art and technique of emptying your mind of all thoughts. Sit in an erect position, preferably in Padmasan and close your eyes. Try to make your mind free of all thoughts. Breathe naturally and think only of the incoming and outgoing air and count your breaths. Before you reach ten breaths, you will be surprised to find that, in spite of your best precaution, you are thinking about something, most probably about the greatest worry in your life.

Drive out the thought and continue your meditation. Take care that you do not fall asleep during meditation. In a week, if you manage to count a hundred breaths, without any conscious thought entering your mind, you have made good progress.

Level of your consciousness will dramatically improve, and all your dreams will come true. Wherever you go, you will command respect and you will cease to view anybody with envy or grudge.

If you continue practising meditation for an hour everyday, the ultimate purpose and meaning of life will be revealed to you, and you will conquer the division of time as past, present and future.

Dreams, Ancestor Worship and Religions

It is of great interest to analyze the relationship between dreams and ancestor worship, which in turn, evolved into religions.
Man dreams. His sleep pattern is intimately linked with his ability to dream. The events played out in the sleep are far greater in number and variety than the actual happenings in the wakeful state. We forget almost all the dreams we have. But some of the dreams, especially those we have had just before awakening, linger in our memory with astonishing clarity, very often filling our wakeful state that follows with foreboding or anticipation.
Imagine the case of a clan chief who was loved, respected and feared by men and women of the clan. One day he dies. During his life time, he had certain unquestioned prerogatives. For example, he could select the prettiest of the women in his clan as his wives. Or, the heart or liver of the animals hunted down by any member of the clan would have to be submitted to him. These organs of a killed animal were thought to have special powers in increasing a man’s prowess or manliness.
A few days after the death of the chief, one of the younger men, who aspire to be the chief, persuades one of the former wives of the chief to sleep with him. Besides, in the hope of becoming as powerful as the deceased chief, he eats the heart of a boar he manages to kill.
In the following night, the man has a dream. In his dream, the old chief appears before him, angry and shouting, wielding a stone axe. The man wakes up paralyzed with fear. He is certain that, though dead and buried some invisible and perhaps more powerful and knowing self of the chief survives after death. He decides to appease the old chief with suitable atonements. He takes his new wife to the place where the old chief lies buried, and offering flowers and fruits, begs pardon for the inadvertent show of disrespect.
For a while, there is no trouble. But one night, the chief appears again and threatens him. The new chief (he has become chief by now) visits the burial site of the old man again and pays his offerings and obeisance and comes back peaceful and satisfied.
His wife and children and fellow members of the clan accompany him and his awe and devotion spreads in the clan.
Exaggerated tales of the deceased chief’s valour, wrath and blessings begin to circulate not only among his people but also in neighbouring communities with which the clan has social contact.
The new chief also dies, but his devotion to the old chief survives. In a century, the burial site has become a pilgrim centre, and there is small temple there. In another century, the old chief becomes a local deity.
Idols of the chief are made depicting his exploits in love and war. His wife or wives are also deified. Hymns in praise of the god are composed and sung. Tales of favours received through the devotion to the god are numerous. Before going to war or on a mission of love, the blessings of the god are sought.
Philosophers write copiously about the modes and importance of worshipping the god and the metaphysical interpretations of the various rituals and incantations – a religion is thus evolved itself.

The Win-Win Situation

Love thy neighbour, exhorts the Bible. Any ‘good man’ or god-fearing person ought to follow this command, we have been taught. It is good for your soul, which is expected to reach the heaven after death and experience eternal bliss. To love thy neighbour is something in the nature of a concession or grace from your part to your neighbours, especially when they are poor.
But few are aware of the benefits of loving your neighbour in day-today life. If you are a vegetable grower and your neighbour is a cow keeper, you can buy milk from your neighbour and your neighbour in turn, can get fresh vegetables from you. By your constant patronage, if he becomes rich, don’t feel envious: he won’t, at least, bother you with the request for a loan. Besides, you can buy cow dung or compost from his farm with little expenses on transportation.
Your children and your neighbour’s children can go to school by the same car, share the same play ground or swimming pool. Always wish for the welfare of our neighbours: this will pay off in many ways.
So, the biblical exhortation to love your neighbours is pure practical wisdom, which, in modern terms, is the win-win situation in which both the sides stand to gain.
This applies not only to individuals but to communities and countries also. India and Pakistan, two traditionally hostile countries, can double their mutual trade to the immense benefit of both the sides. What China has achieved in a few decades by shedding its belligerent stance vis-à-vis the West, is anybody’s knowledge.
Here is a story, which I hope you will love to read and would ask your children to read. A fable always helps you view things objectively, without bias, simply because the characters are most often animals.

The monkeys and Bees

In a deep forest in the Western Ghats in Kerala, there lived a troop of monkeys. They subsisted on roots, tender bamboo leaves and fruits - and fruits were very scarce in the forest.
There used to be frequent quarrels among the monkeys – mostly on account of fruits. These incessant quarrels became a headache to the Chief of the monkeys. He would have a dispute or two to settle every day and most of these were about fruits. ‘The neighbour stole some plantain fruits, the wife ate up all the bananas meant for the entire family, the husband did not share jack fruits with his wife and children, the children ate pine-apples before they were ripe’ - these were some of the sample petitions the Chief received every day.
In the forest in which the monkeys lived there were very few fruit trees. The Chief knew that the quarrels were due to the scarcity of fruits rather than because of the monkeys' ungodly love for food.
The Chief thought of many ways in which the problem could be solved. No animal in the forest knew anything about agriculture. The swine, the deer, the bison and the elephants expressed their ignorance and helplessness. Besides, some of them laughed at the old monkey for his insatiable appetite for fruits.
Now the Chief thought of the bees. He knew that they were travellers and travel always improved the mind. The Chief decided to seek the advice of the bees.
At first the bees were very sceptical about the intentions of the Chief. But they were very soon convinced of the innocent ambition of the old monkey.
The bees informed the Chief that fruits were mostly found in villages. The farmers grew fruit trees and they would not let anybody steal fruits from their gardens. In forests, fruit bearing trees were very few and the demand for the few fruits was great.
"My monkeys should get a steady supply of fruits of different kinds. How can I ensure this?" asked the Chief.
Growing fruit trees was the only way, said the bees.
But the monkeys knew nothing about agriculture.
The Chief suggested that the monkeys and the bees should jointly undertake the planting the fruit bearing trees.
The Queen of the bees said, "What help can we render in this matter? Agricultural operations involve a great deal of labour. Beds will have to be prepared, and irrigation will be required. We are tiny creatures and we can't share such hard labour."
The Chief said, "We shall manage all the labour. Your duty will be to report to us where the fruit bearing trees grow so that we can collect the seeds and plant them. During your travels you can learn much about agriculture that you may share with us monkeys. You people can build your hives in the plantation. We can't collect honey from flowers; so also you have no need for fruits. You can ward off the jungle thieves. Thus we will share fruit and honey and live peacefully in the large plantation that is in my mind."
Once the bees were convinced that they could be real partners with the monkeys, both in rights and duties, the bees readily agreed. They saw that they could collect honey from flowers without the bother for long trips especially during the rainy days.
The monkeys cleared a large area, burnt the twigs and branches and planted different kinds of fruit bearing trees and plants according to the advice of the bees. When the other animals saw this strange venture, they all laughed. But the monkeys did not so much as notice such derisive laugher.
As soon as the saplings were planted, the jungle thieves began to arrive in groups. The deer and hares came to taste the tender leaves. For elephants the plantain and banana leaves are choicest dishes. They also would flock in not only to see the unheard of project, but if possible, to have a bite of plantains.
But the bees would not allow any body to enter the garden.
“Who are you to stop our way to the estate?" asked Tusker the Rogue bull elephant one day.
The bees replied, "The monkeys and the bees have jointly undertaken this enterprise. The task of protecting the plants is with us. Come in and you will catch it."
The bees advised the monkeys to fence up the plantation, for they were so annoyed by the numerous visitors and thieves. The monkeys did accordingly and a notice board was put up at the entrance:
TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED

The trees grew up very fast. Within a year the plantains and bananas gave out large bunches. The mango trees flowered in the third year and the jack trees and the tamarinds followed. The trees began to give the monkeys fruits and the bees honey.
The bees stopped going out except on jolly trips. The quarrels among the monkeys became things of the past.
The monkeys gave the surplus fruits to goats and cows in exchange of wool, milk or milk products. The swine and the porcupines would come with delicious roots to get fruits and nuts in exchange.
Thus the success in agriculture paved the way for a brisk trade. The monkeys became civilized. The days of poverty over, the monkeys had enough leisure for music and the arts.
But when the old Chief died, things began to change.
The old Chief had a vision and the bees had great respect for him. Occasionally they used to give him bottles of excellent honey - special honey extracted from selected flowers, as a token of their respect and goodwill.
But the young monkeys began to consider the gift from the bees their birth right. The new Chief and the elders in the monkey clan started demanding honey and this strained the relation between the partners.
The monkeys would try to steal honey from the hives. But the reaction of the bees was never as sweet as the honey they produced. The bees would punish the thief then and there. Such isolated incidents ended in widespread enmity between the two parties.
"It was we that planted the trees. The bees enjoy the honey. It is only fair that they should share the honey with us," said the monkeys.
The bees said, "It was we that guarded the estate from thieves. Besides, we arrange the pollination of flowers free of charge. Above all, just think who taught the monkeys to plant trees. In the original unwritten agreement, the monkeys and the bees were partners with equal rights and status.”
One day a group of young monkeys, while trying to steal honey from a hive, was punished severely by the bees. As they fled from scene, their faces had become so swollen that even their parents failed to recognize them at first. The angered monkeys, in retaliation, stoned the hives. Now the bees hummed out in great swarms and attacked the monkeys. The monkeys had to flee from their estate and take refuge in the forest.
After prolonged talks between representatives from both the sides, a settlement was reached. The conditions of the truce were simple - fruits to monkeys and honey to bees.
But peace was short lived. The monkeys thought that they should exterminate the bees to ensure undisputed ownership of the estate.
The bees thought that if all the monkeys were killed they could live in peace for ever in the great garden.
The monkeys collected dried leaves, twigs and husks of coconuts and stored them near each hive. The bees discovered a deadly toxic material from a tree in the forest. The substance that flowed from the bark, if injected into a monkey's body, would kill it instantly.
In a summer evening some of the young monkeys stoned a hive. The bees attacked the monkeys with the poison they had collected and all the monkeys stung fell dead instantly.
The bees attacked each and every monkey systematically with the poison. They were out to exterminate the monkey clan.
The monkeys lighted the hidden hoards of inflammable materials and the hives, without a single exception, burnt out in the raging fire.
The fire spread far and wide and the beautiful garden was reduced to ashes in a short time.
On a tree in the forest, not far away from the garden ruined by the fire of rivalry, assembled a group of bees who had flown out and saved their lives. They were deliberating what could be done now.
Underneath a group of monkeys also were found. Most of them had sustained severe burns and they were groaning in great pain.
An old monkey saw the bees above her hanging from a branch and she said, “This is the end of every war."