The 5 Kosas or Strata of the Mind

5. In the bodiless mind there is no doership, no feeling of pleasure or pain

Death is the separation of the mind from the body.

After death, the sense of happiness and sadness cannot exist in the unit.

This is because nerve cells and, partially, nerve fibres are necessary for perception of [physical] pleasure and pain.

So the popular dogmas and beliefs are completely wrong, that a bodiless soul will:

• be happy with certain observances
• be miserable with such-and-such acts
• satisfy its revengeful propensities

6. The sight of ghosts is created by the cittáńu (mind-stuff) in concentrated thought

Actually spirits and ghosts do not exist.

When in a frightened, indignant, or hypnotic state, a person attains temporary concentration of the mind.

• His mind-stuff then takes the form of the object imagined.

In such a state, one sees the vision of one’s thought externally as well.

Thinking about ghosts and spirits in solitude, he or she sees them also in the open.

I call the external vision of the internal thought as “positive hallucination”.

Conversely, in such a state of mind an existing object may appear as non-existent.

• I call this negative hallucination.

Those that say that they have seen a ghost do not lie. Only the delusion of the mind appears to them as visual perception.

If hypnosis is thoroughly introspective, one may mistake one’s own entity for a spirit or ghost.

In such an event, the person behaves in such a manner that people start saying that So-and-so is possessed by a spirit.

Theomania or theophanic possession is also of the same variety.

3-7. The requital of an action is guided by the (divine) longing for welfare

Even behind the requital of an act (the fruits that follow the completion of an act) lies the divine desire of benevolence.

The punishment for an evil act teaches one to keep away from evil doings.

The reward for a good act teaches people to do good acts.

3-8. Out of the intense desire for mukti (liberation), one attains one’s sadguru (perfect master)

When a vehement desire for emancipation wakes up in a person, he attains his sadguru on the strength of that desire.

9. Only Brahma is the guru, no one else

Brahma alone is the guru.

Brahma alone directs the units to the path of emancipation through the media of different receptacles or bodies.

10. Obstacles are the helping forces that establish one in the goal

Obstacles are not foes on the path of sadhana [spiritual practice], but friends.

They only do service to a person. These obstacles lead to the battle against them. This counter-effort alone carries the sádhaka [spiritual aspirant] to his cherished goal.

11. Prayer and ritualistic worship become a source of confusion

It is useless to pray to God for something, for He is sure to give what is necessary. Solicitation or importunity in the name of worship is nothing but toadyism and flattery.

12. Devotion is ideation on God, not flattery of God or ritualistic worship

Being merged in the constant thought of God is devotion. Devotion is not related to the chanting of hymns or ritualistic worship with different paraphernalia. A devotee may perform these, but they are not an indispensable part of devotional sádhaná.

Footnotes

(1) “Living structures” did not appear here in the previous English edition. “With living structures” is a rendering of “jaevii dehe” in the original Bengali sentence. –Eds.