WITH a view to teaching the subject of psychology philosophy in the same way as one teaches the physical science in the classroom, a humble attempt is made in this book to develop the subject of "psychoscience" in the light of Vedic wisdom. To this effect, instead of focusing on the glorification aspect of Vedic wisdom the initiatives are taken here, perhaps for the first time, to give deeper foundations to various aspects of this grand wisdom in the spirit of modern science. For this purpose, we use analogies from modern science and thereby demonstrate the eternity and universality of certain aspects of Vedic concepts. In fact, the subject matter discussed here is not the last word on the topics highlighted but offers the guideline to several new dimensions of study. It also encourages the younger generation, particularly those who have scientific attitude, to fill up the blanks at several places and to explore further the theoretical developments and applications on these lines, particularly in the fields of personality development and behavioural science.
According to Vedic science, an experience of absolute reality in Nature consists of three basic aspects, viz. its "perception" at the level of gross body (consisting of biological body and senses of knowledge and action), a "rational thinking" about it at the level of micro body (consisting of mind, intellect and ego or self-sense) and a "realization" at the level of causal (astral) body (consisting of soul or the innermost existence that acts as a source of consciousness). It is the consciousness emanating from soul that illuminates gross and micro bodies of a living Being and makes them functional; otherwise the latter are said to be dead. Coincidentally, these three aspects of grasping absolute reality in Nature are in accord with the three-world concept advocated by Karl Popper and John Eccles (1981). The three worlds considered are: world-1, which really exists; world-2, which can be perceived and world-3, which can be modelled by (objective) scientists. Ideally speaking, the world-1 is purely a matter of realization and solely independent of space and time, and the world-2, involving the individual-based processes of rational thinking and perception or the "internalization of the exterior", can be explored in terms of the space, time and the consciousness, or the variants of the latter (like meditation, attention and concentration). The quantifiable and measurable world-3 is the game purely of space-time-mediated models and associated interactions, of course, for the conscious observer whose consciousness is ignored at every stage of modelling, i.e. in the "externalization of the interior" kind of process.
Vedic science focuses on the entire gamut of human experiences, actions and behaviour of an individual through certain fundamental processes taking place inside the human being at the levels of his gross, micro and causal existences and in the background of his conscious Self. Essences of life (EOLs), viz. biological body (B), senses of knowledge and action (SE), mind (M), intellect (I), ego (E) and soul (SO) play an important role in the performance of these actions by a human Being (b) (or by a conscious/functional Self) in the field of worldly objects and stimuli (WO). As per Vedic wisdom, this field of WO essentially consists of five cosmic elements (panca-mahābhūtas), viz. earth, water, air, fire and ether, or their composition and variants. In recent times, a quantitative study of these concepts, of course, as tenets of a Sovereign (subjective) Science of the Self, has become essential for more than one reason, particularly for devouring these Vedic concepts by a scientific mind. An understanding of this science perhaps will inculcate human values better in one's personality.
1.1 "Self", "Non-Self" and "Cosmic Self' in the Cosmos
THE word "Self" is synonymous with consciousness, and the purest form of consciousness that dwells in an individual living Being is called "Self", spirit or soul. The word "self", on the other hand, will be used in this book in the context of the polluted version of the "Self" which is responsible for giving an experience of "I-ism", "mine" or "me". Naturally, the stuff in the body of a living Being without "Self" is termed as "non-Self". These Self and non-Self in the body appear in a localized sense; otherwise, they are supposed to be spread all over in the cosmos in the form of animate and inanimate stuff. It is a different thing that non-self exists in or originates from the Self. Note that the Self while present in an individual, also spreads all over in the cosmos and this fact cannot be denied by any standard whatsoever in view of several human experiences and realizations, and this implies the cosmic character of consciousness. This aspect of the Self, in fact, defines the "Cosmic Self". Not only the Vedic wisdom but also the wisdom of other cultures of the world also has been emphasizing such connections between the localized Self in an individual and the Cosmic Self. Now the question arises as to how these connections work in maintaining the world or cosmic order in Nature. Although the answer to this question has been a subject of study in different philosophies, an anxious aspirant would like to know its answer in modern scientific terms, if possible.
When a person looks into the bewildering and subtle working of Nature (not only at the levels of world and cosmic orders but also at the level of individual), he is really amazed and thereby constrained to postulate a Supreme Controller of things. This Supreme Controller, when considered responsible for the existence (Generator), survival (Organizer) and decay (Destruction) of the entire stuff in the cosmos, it is termed as "GOD" in the English language; otherwise the existence and feeling of such an entity has been perceived by seers of almost all the cultures of the world.
In philosophical sense, an important characteristic that is attributed to all the three, viz. "Self", "Non-Self" and "Cosmic Self", is consciousness and this accordingly links them with conscious, unconscious and supra-conscious features of the stuff in the cosmos. An enlightened individual, no doubt, will require detailed and deeper meanings of these terms; for a layman the term consciousness, however, can be defined as:
Living or a functional Being - his dead body = consciousness.
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