Awakened Conscience

The bondages that human beings are likely to suffer from are not purely physical – they are psychic and spiritual as well.

The fundamental cause behind physical bondage lies in the psychic realm.

The tortures, the exploitations, of human by human are no doubt physical phenomena, but these events have their source in the human mind: the pains and agonies experienced by those afflicted persons are more psychic than physical.

Thus ultimately, the root of bondage is in the mind. Mind is independent from matter, but not altogether dissociated from it; it has some direct association with matter.

Food, clothes, education, medical treatment – these are the material needs of human beings.

The world of the 5 fundamental factors is material. But it is not purely physical or psychic.

It also touches the fringes of the spiritual world.

For example, psychic diseases may create such an unhealthy situation that the spiritual atmosphere may be badly affected.

Take, for instance, those for whom religion is the stock-in-trade.

They may do many things that may seriously jeopardize the entire spiritual world.

Because of their anti-spiritual misdeeds, the affected people might become apathetic to spirituality.

Thus the disease, though fundamentally psychic, has some direct relevance to the material world and also to the spiritual world.

The demoniacal human beings of this type:

• deprive their fellow humans of their physical wealth
• deceive them in the psychic sphere and of their precious spiritual treasure

These people are bearing enormous refuse with them.

These people with defective mentality are wallowing in:

• geo-sentiment
• socio-sentiment
• ordinary humanistic sentiment

They have not done any good to society, nor can they do so in future.

They do not have any such capacity.

A strong determination must be taken to rectify them.

When you do so, you will notice that those who refuse to be rectified will be destroyed – they will be completely annihilated.

Such people attempt to cover their harmful or defective sentiments under a veil of hypocrisy.

For instance, vocal revolutionaries talk glibly of revolution outwardly.

But in their hearts, they want to avoid revolution.

They say one thing openly, but they do just the opposite in practical life.

It is very hard to identify such gilded human chameleons.

At least, the reactionary forces can be easily identified: they are openly antagonistic to anything which they do not like.

They say directly, “We won’t allow this to happen. We won’t grant liberty to the people. We won’t provide them with full-stomach meals. We will keep them languishing in poverty… or else where shall we find menials for our domestic chores?”

However, it requires some knowledge of human behaviour to identify those people who are difficult to detect.

Study

There are 2 ways to fight against those who are knowingly or unknowingly motivated by geo-sentiment.

1. Through study

2. Rationalistic mentality, rationalistic outlook

This means intensive intellectual analysis.

Intensive study is internal assimilation, subjective assimilation of objective happenings.

You should remember that existence is also an event, an external event.

The assimilation of events is achieved through study.

The entirety of knowledge does not come within the scope of study.

Knowledge can be divided into 2 categories:

1. Parájiṋána, or áptajiṋána [transcendental]

2. Aparájiṋána, or práptajiṋána [non-transcendental]

Transcendental knowledge:

• operates in the purely spiritual world
• derives its inspiration from the Cosmic Centre, the Universal Nucleus

It has nothing to do with:

• worldly gain or loss
• exploitation or administration
• imperialism, fascism or any variety of ism

This transcendental knowledge will inspire people to move in the purely spiritual world.

It will inspire them with countless elevating spiritual ideas.

It is also called self-knowledge.

Some people hoodwink the simple and semi-educated unwary masses to achieve their selfish ends by nominally using this transcendental knowledge or name of God or incarnation theory.

• These deserve extreme reprobation.

Transcendental knowledge comes within the scope of purely spiritual philosophy.

Here our main concern is non-transcendental knowledge related to this material world.

There are so many defects or drawbacks in study as well.

Even in the case of intensive study, one may commit errors.

Illiterate person can still study by learning by hearing others’ discourses, so that no one is handicapped in this regard.

Study does not mean only the study of books. Study is of 2 types:

1. Literal
2. Non-literal

Those who can read and write can avail themselves of literal study, and those who cannot read can benefit from non-literal study by listening to others.

Regarding non-literal study, people can collect much information from the material world by coming in contact with different objects through their various senses.

There is a necessity for both literal and non-literal study, and human beings can avail themselves of both.

There may be defects in both literal and non-literal study.

Thus, knowledge acquired through study should not be accepted as absolute.

There are 2 kinds of defect:

1. From ignorance

I might be reading the work of a person who has defective knowledge.

• That defect may be passed on from person to person.

2. From change in tempor [time]

A certain book was written at a particular time, or certain knowledge was imparted at a certain time.

That book or that knowledge expresses a certain reality according to its own temporal perspective.

But the moment there is a change in time, then that reality loses its validity.

In my childhood, we used to read in geography books that Allahabad was the capital of Uttar Pradesh (Uttar Pradesh had a different name then).

But now that is considered erroneous due to change in time, because Lucknow is now the capital of Uttar Pradesh.

After the shifting of the capital due to the change in the time factor, what was written in that book in those days is now confusing.

So if the internal, or subjective, assimilation of external objectivity is effected through study alone, it may be wrong.

Suppose you collected certain knowledge through study, but the knowledge thus collected is defective.