Book: II

The Marga of Knowledge

Chapter: I
Sarashwati is the Hindu goddess of learning: and following the Hindu spirit, she is the embodiment of knowledge in her most common form she is seen holding a book in one hand, while carrying a veena or lute with the other (veena ranjita pustaka haste, as the Sanskrit mantra which is sung in her praise describes her) she is the answers to human beings eternal questions about life, mind, matter, consciousness, evolution and the cosmos she is the answer to mans fundamental question: who am I? the veena in her hand signifies that we can approach her or knowledge through the marga or path of art through literature, music, painting, dance, drama, etc. (Para. 1) (OK) Vedas the ancient religious scriptures of the Hindus are believed to be of divine origin; they are the spiritual source of Hinduism and are considered to be the container of transcendental wisdom Hindus, as we all know, have a characteristic penchant for myth, and they tend to speak in a language that is metaphorical it is said that Sarashwati was created from the body of Brahma or the Creator; and the Creator uttered the first Vedic hymn when he saw Sarashwati it implies the simultaneity of manifestation and awareness as one is incomplete or meaningless without the other it must be noted that srishti or creation, in the Hindu sense of term, is nothing but the manifestation of the un-manifested they believe that Brahman or the Universal Soul is the un-manifested reality; it neither has a beginning, nor an end; and it is beyond the scope of human perception and intellect this un-manifested reality or Brahman becomes the universe through its lila or divine play; and simultaneously, it becomes aware of its manifestations: as along with

its divine play, also awakens its chetana or consciousness, or vice versa the Hindus believe that, the whole universe, including the human beings are nothing but manifestations of this one uninterrupted reality; and hence they believe that, human consciousness is nothing but an integral part of that divine consciousness which makes them aware of themselves and their environment, which includes the whole cosmos this awareness when organized becomes knowledge or Sarashwati; and Art is a journey along the path of which knowledge is organized and made tangible. Hence to a Hindu art is embodied knowledge and this feeling resonates in the Indian psyche this approach towards art gets resounding moral support from Indian aesthetical theories, especially from Natyasastra (Dramaturgy) written by famous Indian aesthetician Bharata (circa 200 BC 200 AD), where Gods declare drama to be the Fifth Veda Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva were the four original Vedas and after the four Vedas, Art was considered to be the most ideal medium for evoking spiritual consciousness in the hearts of the mass, especially in the age of degeneration: and we belong to this age. (Para. 2) (OK) We belong to this age of degeneration: and we can hear its echo deep inside our heart and hence it seems that, it has become necessary, that instead of creating works that are superficial, soulless and passive, we pause for a while and contemplate; and we reexplore the basic truths regarding the realities of Art and creativity but before we do that, it is necessary that we understand truths that are deeper, regarding the whole creative process, that determines our life, existence, nature and evolution and this is so because, as artists, as we go deeper into things, it will become clear to us that, Art and creativity, like all other human endeavors, are intimately related to the basic process of our life, mind, environment and evolution; and hence, they cannot be understood in isolation Art, as we know from our experience, is deeply intertwined with other branches of knowledge, such as, Science, Philosophy and Religion; and the forces that drive them are not different from one another: along the course of human history, Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion have walked hand in hand, and complemented one another;

and together they endeavored to address, humanitys innumerable questions, regarding the realities of life, mind, matter, consciousness, evolution and the cosmos and Art being one of the discipline of knowledge, fundamentally intends to reach and reveal truth, so as to satisfy the innate human desire for knowledge: and in this endeavor lies hidden the reality of Art and creativity is an integral part of that vital force called life, that drives humanity along the course of knowledge and evolution. Now, this is not at all an easy thing to understand the realities of life, mind, matter, consciousness, evolution and the cosmos: in fact one life is not enough to understand them, if we intend to understand them separately so people, who endeavored to understand them together in one life, intended to find out something, understanding which, will lead to a complete understanding of everything this something which leads humanity towards everything were given different names in different civilizations: and among them were the wise sages of ancient India, who in the spirit of their civilization, culture and language, identified this something as atma, or the soul; or the inner essence of each and every something; and they identified everything, as the Brahman, or the Universal sole; or the inner essence of the whole cosmos; and they finally identified atma with the Brahman and such an understanding led them to a paradigm that is monistic; monism lead them to believe in the basic oneness of all things and events; and monism encouraged them to rise beyond the surface and search for reality that is within: and they termed monism as Advaitavad the basic tenet of Advaitavad or non-dualism is that, reality is one, without a second from this monistic point of view, if we look at our civilization, society and culture; and if we look at our own self; it will become instantly clear that, the basic crisis that we are in, is one of fragmentation: the basic oneness seems to be missing, and as a result everything seems to be superficial, directionless, mindless, and out of tune and this basic truth regarding the contemporary phase of our culture becomes evident if we look at Art. It is very difficult to understand oneness from a point of view that is not monistic; and that is simply because, on the surface everything appears to be different; and dualism restricts our vision within the periphery that is mundane in sharp contrast to

dualism, oneness is exclusively an internal phenomenon: and oneness leads us to an internal unity that is supra-mundane or spiritual and it is this internal spiritual unity that bind artists with their audience in terms of Art: and it leads them toward enlightenment, liberation and bliss. The spirit of basic oneness leads us to view Art both as a journey, and as an embodiment: journey, from the point of view of the artists; and embodiment, from the point of view of the audience; and it entrusts almost equal role to either of them, in order to bring forth the reality of Art now, following the above spirit, if we consider Art to be a journey, along the path of which knowledge is organized, and made tangible, our concept of Art becomes essentially dynamic, and its scope vastly increases and such a perception integrates Art with the mainstream human journey along the path of knowledge and the journey along the path of knowledge, is once again an integral part of a journey of an even greater dimension: a journey, which can aptly be compared with climbing the steps of heaven; and which in fact is the journey of highest order, called evolution again, following the same spirit, we can view Art as organized or embodied knowledge now, it must be noted that, the path along which awareness is organized, and embodied or made tangible, is primarily intuitive and such primary organization and embodiment of awareness, is then secondarily organized and embodied by our intellect, in terms of ideas, concepts and imaginations the scope of the primary organization of awareness, is considered to be infinite; and its embodiment, is considered to be pure the scope of primary or intuitive organization of awareness is considered to be infinite because, intuitive organization of awareness is not a discrete phenomenon: rather, such an organization of awareness is an integral part of a far greater cosmic process, in which awareness is organized along the path of cosmic evolution; of which our evolution is an infinitesimal part again, such an embodiment of awareness is considered to be pure, because, truth here is not defiled by intellectual interferences, in terms of conceptualizations, imaginations and abstractions: truth here exists as unadulterated reality, and not as some idea in sharp contrast to the intuitive phenomenon, the scope of our intellect is limited to secondary organization of our primary

intuitive knowledge, in terms of concepts, ideas and imaginations; and making them tangible in terms of myriad signs, symbols, words, rhythms, patterns, orders, etc hence, higher truths, which defies mundane ideas, rationalities and imaginations, elude our intellect but to our intuition, such higher truths unfold as direct and unconditional experiences: and we, in general, consider such experiences to be spiritual or supra-mundane and according to the Hindu ethos, the sole end of such experiences are pure knowledge; and the purpose of pure knowledge is to evoke the inner spirit of man it is said that, pure knowledge leads humanity to moksh or liberation; and liberation is considered to be the ultimate goal of human evolution and from this viewpoint, Art, both as a journey, and as an embodiment, is supposed to lead humanity towards that end. Since, we consider Art to be a journey along the marga or path of knowledge, hence it is supposed that, Art will lead us to nowhere but truth: and until we reach truth our journey of Art is assumed to be incomplete and this is no ordinary truth that we are talking about: we are in search of truths that are of highest order and according to the Hindu ethos, the truths that are of highest order, are conceived as absolute truths; while the truths of lower order are considered to be relative truths or maya there are several marga or approaches to knowledge as we just said, and Art is one of them, the others being Science, Philosophy and Religion; and each one of them are supposed to lead us to the same core truth the biggest challenge to humanity is to reach truth that is unconditional and absolute; and in order to do so, man needs to overcome the hurdles of impure knowledge: the mirages and quick sands of maya; and then only, they can hope to reach the land of pure knowledge: and that is our endeavor. As we know that our individual lives are limited and conditioned; hence the journey towards truth may remain incomplete in ones individual life but the process will continue; because, the apparently individual journey of one single artist or scientist in actual reality is an integral part of a larger continuous process: a process, which can aptly be described as the spiritual evolution of the whole humanity this evolutionary process brings forth an Einstein after Newton or a Kandinsky after Gauguin. (Para. 3)

Advaitabad or non-dualism led the wise Indian sages to view everything from a cosmic viewpoint in Indian art, this cosmic vision is symbolized as the third eye: and it is assumed to be the jnana netra or eye of knowledge this cosmic vision enabled the Indian sages to interrelate worldly life, mind and matter, with the cosmic life, mind and matter; and it further enabled them to interrelate worldly manifestations, awareness, knowledge, embodiment and evolution, with the cosmic manifestations, awareness, knowledge, embodiment and evolution and such a cosmic vision empowered them to rise above the mundane limits of human senses and intellect and experience everything as one single phenomenon of cosmic dimension and these sages in their state of dhyan or meditation experienced this cosmic phenomenon as a dynamic field of pure vibration, which is essentially of nonmaterial origin and nature and they identified this cosmic phenomenon as chetana or consciousness: and they considered consciousness to be the primary reality and ground of all being. Such a cosmic view leads us to perceive our individual worldly life, mind and matter, as waves in the ocean of consciousness: as we know that, a wave is nothing but a manifestation of the ocean itself; and all the elements, properties and forces that contribute toward the formation of a wave, are actually the elements, properties and forces of the ocean itself; similarly our worldly life, mind and matter, that contribute toward our manifestations, awareness, knowledge, embodiment and evolution; are actually the manifestations, awareness, knowledge, embodiment and evolution of the whole cosmos and as we can only detect the existence of an extremely narrow range of electromagnetic radiation, that we know as light; while the rest of the whole spectrum operates beyond the scope of our mundane eyesight: similarly our life, mind and matter that are mundane, can detect an extremely narrow range of cosmic phenomena, that fall within the narrow range of our worldly manifestations, awareness, knowledge, embodiment and evolution. The non-dualistic outlook of advaitabad leads us to perceive life, mind, matter, manifestation, awareness, knowledge, embodiment and evolution, as one single process of cosmic dimension and in such a process, the journey and

the end are not two different things: rather, a journey in reality is an embodiment of the path, and in this embodiment lies its end and from this point of view if we perceive life, mind, matter, awareness, knowledge and evolution, they will appear both as a path and as an embodiment and this path and embodiment that we are talking about, are not any external phenomena, but an internal one. We need to realize that meanings are complex constructions of our intellect: but if we shift our mind from meanings to feelings, then each and every term that we use every day appears to us in a new way for example, life appears to us either as a vibration or as a rhythm, pattern and order; and every form of life, from bacteria to human beings, have their own vibration or their own rhythm, pattern and order now, mind, body, matter, nature, environment, etc, are terms that are intimately associated with the phenomena called life; again each one of them appears to us as certain vibration or as certain rhythm, pattern and order the vibrations or the rhythms, patterns and orders that are body, mind and life, interact with the vibrations or the rhythms, patterns and orders that are matter, nature and environment; and such interactions bring forth a world in which they all manifest and simultaneously become aware about their existence and along the process of life: or along the flow of vibrations, in the field of dynamic vibration, body, mind and life, embodies rhythms, patterns and orders of higher degrees, and evolve in the process and this organization of body, mind and life along the evolutionary path is specifically the phenomenon that we identify as knowledge. Perceiving knowledge from this perspective identifies it with the processes of life, mind, body, manifestation, awareness and evolution it implies that each and every cell of our body are knowledgeable enough to lead a life of their own: they know how to take birth, take food and oxygen, and produce energy; and they know how to lead a collective life again the higher organs and systems that they form, know their individual and collective functions: for example; our heart knows exactly what amount of blood to pump; and our pancreas knows exactly what amount of insulin is required; and each one of them know how to synchronize their functions with one another it is knowledge that enables a sperm to fertilize an egg; it is knowledge

that enables us to spend ten months in our mothers womb; it is knowledge that enables us to grow up, survive and evolve in life this knowledge we have acquired along the path of evolution; and this knowledge we have embodied in our mind and body and similarly, a bacterium, a plant, an insect, a bird and an animal have acquired knowledge along the path of evolution; and this knowledge they have embodied in their mind and body. And since we know now that the reality of our mind and body are rhythms, patterns and orders; hence we can say that we have actually embodied our acquired evolutionary knowledge in our rhythms, patterns and orders and along the course of evolution, we reorganize our rhythms, patterns and orders in order to accommodate or embody knowledge and this knowledge that we have embodied in our rhythms, patterns and orders is our inborn or inherent knowledge: and the faculty which enables us to organize and embody this knowledge in our rhythms, patterns and orders is known as intuition. Now, it is not very difficult to perceive our cosmos also as a rhythm, pattern and order; and in this cosmic rhythm, pattern and order are embedded innumerable rhythms, patterns and orders: such as our galactic system, our solar system, our planetary system, our ecological system, our social system, our tribes, our families, our self, our organ systems, our cells, the molecules, the atoms, etc; each one of them are rhythms, patterns and orders by their own right thus, there exists a hierarchy of rhythm, pattern and order in which we exist in perfect synchrony and just as the knowledge that is embodied in an unit cell of our body is its own knowledge, and at the same time it is an integral part of our own our pool of knowledge; so also the knowledge that is embodied in our self is our own knowledge, and at the same time it belongs to the cosmic pool of knowledge and hence, the wise Indian sages, considered the whole cosmos as an embodiment of pure knowledge, which is infinite: and their sole intention was to access this infinite pool of knowledge and in order to do so they discovered a technique called yoga: yoga is a technique of meditation through which they could fine tune the vibration of their self with that of the cosmos during the brief period, when their vibrations were interlocked, they embodied cosmic rhythm, pattern and order: such an embodiment led them to Brahma-jnan or cosmic

knowledge; and it left them in a state of ananda or transcendental bliss Brahma-jnan is pure cosmic knowledge of highest order; and hence, the Indian sages considered it to be the end of all margas or paths of knowledge: be it Art, Science, Philosophy or Religion Brahma-jnan leads us to the fact that: the ultimate reality is one without a second; and this is the highest truth. (Para. 4)

The faculty of our mind that enables us to reorganize primary intuitive knowledge is known as intellect; and in that endeavor pure primary knowledge undergoes an abstract treatment in terms of concepts, ideas and imaginations and our intellect further enables us to embody these concepts, ideas and imaginations in terms of myriad signs, symbols, words, rhythms, patterns, orders, etc, so as to make them tangible now, Brahma-jnan is considered to be pure, because it is cosmic awareness that is primarily organized by the intuitive faculty of human mind; and it remains embodied in ones rhythm, pattern and order and since it is not subjected to any abstraction, it is considered to be unconditional, unlimited and absolute: Brahma-jnan is considered to be absolute, as it is knowledge that is independent of sthan or space, kal or time, and patra or individual outlook here, sthan or space, kal or time, and patra or individual outlooks are intellectual concepts or mental maps that act as abstract reference points: such conceptual frames of reference tend to condition and limit the absolute character of cosmic knowledge and render it impure. The wise Indian sages considered knowledge to be a cosmic phenomenon they assumed that, the dynamic field of vibration or consciousness, which is the underlying reality of the whole cosmos, goes through a rhythmic cycle of manifestation and non-manifestation as the cosmos becomes manifested, it simultaneously becomes aware of itself; and this awareness is simultaneously organized and embodied in its rhythms, patterns and orders; and this is an ongoing process this primary organization of cosmic self-awareness is the phenomena, that the sages understood as knowledge; and the faculty that enables the cosmos to organize and embody its self awareness is an attribute that is inherent in the cosmic reality, which they identified

as intuition and in the rhythm, pattern and order that is cosmic, evolves a hierarchy of innumerable rhythms, patterns and orders of ever varying dimensions, which resonate together in perfect harmony, as we just mentioned and according to the sages, the reality of these innumerable rhythms, patterns and orders are embodied knowledge: and the knowledge that are individually embodied in the myriad rhythms, patterns and orders, are integral parts of the cosmic pool of knowledge, that is infinite and pure and we as human beings, identify ourselves with a particular range of rhythm, pattern and order; and we associate ourselves with a particular range of knowledge: and it is our rhythm, pattern and order, that enables us to reorganize knowledge that is already primarily organized and embodied in the cosmic reality and the faculty that enables us to do so is identified as our intellect. Abstraction is the starting point of human journey along the path of evolution it is our ability to bring forth this abstract world of concepts, ideas and imaginations that has made us different and distinct from rest of the rhythms, patterns and orders, with whom we share rhythms, patterns and orders of higher dimensions: such as our fellow animals, birds, insects, plants, bacteria, etc, with whom we share our common ecological system, planetary system, solar system, etc, that binds us together and through abstract coordination of innumerable concepts, ideas and imaginations in terms of myriad signs, symbols, words, rhythms, patterns, orders, etc, we bring forth the reality of language, in which our abstract intellectual world is embedded and in this abstract intellectual world, we use language in order to construct hierarchies of concepts, ideas and imaginations, that emerge and propagate as specific disciplines of knowledge, such as Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion thus, these so called disciplines of knowledge are abstract intellectual hierarchies, that intend to reorganize our primary organization of awareness in the body of language. (Para. 5)

Part: II
The disciplines of knowledge that we conventionally pursue within the limits of our intellect, be it Science, Art, Philosophy or Religion, are assumed to have two basic sides or directions one, that of enquiry and the other, that of expression; and without either of them the subjects are considered to be incomplete in principle for example; Physics wants to know the ultimate reality of matter, and that is its fundamental enquiry; and it conceptually expresses its concepts and ideas regarding matter through the language of Mathematics if we look closely then it will becomes clear that these two assumed basic sides of each and every subject that of enquiry and expression are unwittingly associated with the two basic faculties of human mind that of cognition and communication now, cognition is associated with enquiry, as reality is conventionally presumed to be pre-given, and one is tempted to believe that mind is a kind of mirror or camera that captures an objective reality and human communication is almost singularly associated with language, which may either assume verbal or nonverbal character; while nonlinguistic communication takes the back seat and are largely ignored the predominance of linguistic communication in human life generates an apparent picture that lead people to identify communication with expression and such a perception lead most of us to believe that communication is essentially a language and an expression and the whole exercise takes for granted the supremacy of human intellect. But in reality cognition is a process through which we bring forth our world; and this is the underlying hint of Indian mythology that tells us the tale of Brahma and Sarashwati (Ref: Chapter-I; Para 1 and 2) it not just suggests the simultaneity of manifestation and awareness as one is incomplete or meaningless without the other; but also associates non-manifestation with nonawareness, as we will see later in the course of our discussion and it implies that the wise Indian sages intuitively realized that mind and reality arise together hence reality is not a pre-given phenomena; rather we interact with our environment both individually and collectively and bring forth a world of our own and the reality of communication lies in the process through which we coordinate our

behavior; and such a coordination can either be linguistic or nonlinguistic for example, a drop of tear or a piece of smile is powerful enough to communicate the state of our being. On the basis of these understandings we would like to approach knowledge in general, and Art in particular, from an alternative viewpoint every artist who is deep into art will possibly agree on this one basic feeling, that all artists in general have toward towards Art even if his art is conditioned and confined within the limits of petty human intellect; and irrespective of his ideas big or small, and imaginations lofty or mundane; and beyond his concepts that fuels and fills his art every artist intuitively feels art to be a journey: a journey along the course of which life unfolds itself and that is possibly why the journey of art is usually identified with the journey of life of an artist and this is essentially a mental journey; and in the process of this journey, art, life and mind get connected, get fused together and becomes one and the same is true for science, philosophy and religion and this implies that human existence, which include the process of ones life and mind, is a journey along the path of knowledge human mind as we can all feel has an inherent tendency to walk along the path of knowledge this journey of human mind along the path of knowledge may be described as its evolution; rather its spiritual evolution and it evolves through the marga of Art, Science, Philosophy and Religion. (Para. 6)

Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion are the four basic approaches along which, concepts, ideas and imaginations hierarchically propagate, and bring forth realities regarding life, mind, matter, consciousness, evolution and the cosmos, in terms of languages that we identify as scientific, artistic, philosophical and religious approach and language together make a discipline

The disciplines of knowledge that we conventionally pursue within the limits of our intellect, be it Science, Art, Philosophy or Religion,

are assumed to have two basic sides or directions one, that of enquiry and the other, that of expression; and without either of them the subjects are considered to be incomplete in principle for example; Physics wants to know the ultimate reality of matter, and that is its fundamental enquiry; and it conceptually expresses its concepts and ideas regarding matter through the language of Mathematics if we look closely then it will becomes clear that these two assumed basic sides of each and every subject that of enquiry and expression are unwittingly associated with the two basic faculties of human mind that of cognition and communication now, cognition is associated with enquiry, as reality is conventionally presumed to be pre-given, and one is tempted to believe that mind is a kind of mirror or camera that captures an objective reality and human communication is almost singularly associated with language, which may either assume verbal or nonverbal character; while nonlinguistic communication takes the back seat and are largely ignored the predominance of linguistic communication in human life generates an apparent picture that lead people to identify communication with expression and such a perception lead most of us to believe that communication is essentially a language and an expression and the whole exercise takes for granted the supremacy of human intellect. But in reality cognition is a process through which we bring forth our world; and this is the underlying hint of Indian mythology that tells us the tale of Brahma and Sarashwati (Ref: Chapter-I; Para 1 and 2) it not just suggests the simultaneity of manifestation and awareness as one is incomplete or meaningless without the other; but also associates non-manifestation with nonawareness, as we will see later in the course of our discussion and it implies that the wise Indian sages intuitively realized that mind and reality arise together hence reality is not a pre-given phenomena; rather we interact with our environment both individually and collectively and bring forth a world of our own and the reality of communication lies in the process through which we coordinate our behavior; and such a coordination can either be linguistic or nonlinguistic for example, a drop of tear or a piece of smile is powerful enough to communicate the state of our being. On the basis of these understandings we would like to approach knowledge in general, and

Art in particular, from an alternative viewpoint every artist who is deep into art will possibly agree on this one basic feeling, that all artists in general have toward towards Art even if his art is conditioned and confined within the limits of petty human intellect; and irrespective of his ideas big or small, and imaginations lofty or mundane; and beyond his concepts that fuels and fills his art every artist intuitively feels art to be a journey: a journey along the course of which life unfolds itself and that is possibly why the journey of art is usually identified with the journey of life of an artist and this is essentially a mental journey; and in the process of this journey, art, life and mind get connected, get fused together and becomes one and the same is true for science, philosophy and religion and this implies that human existence, which include the process of ones life and mind, is a journey along the path of knowledge human mind as we can all feel has an inherent tendency to walk along the path of knowledge this journey of human mind along the path of knowledge may be described as its evolution; rather its spiritual evolution and it evolves through the marga of Art, Science, Philosophy and Religion. (Para. 6)

The foundations of Art, Science, Philosophy and Religion are rooted in human intellect; and human intellect is an integral part of human mind; hence it is natural that our journey to decipher the realities of these disciplines of knowledge should start with our mind human mind is a multilayered mystery and only a little of which we can ever decipher in spite of all our efforts, and the reason behind it is not very difficult to analyze here the subject and the object are one and the same, we have to understand our mind with our mind only, and we do not have any other option human mind conceals more than it reveals; still the first thing that becomes apparently clear to us is that, the specialty of human mind lies in the diversity and vastness of its spectrum and range of cognition, and the enormous complexity and richness of its domain of communication it implies that human enquiry is multi-layered and multi-dimensional and so are its

expressions. Now, cognition and communication which are identified as the two basic attributes of human mind are not its exclusive prerogative they are rather the fundamental characteristics of all living things, starting from the minutest of bacteria, to the mightiest of humans in school we have all studied Biology, and there if we remember, it was taught that bacteria can distinguish food, from what is not food; and they can also distinguish an warm environment, from a cold environment; similarly, green plants can distinguish between light and darkness; and they can distinguish water that is less saline, from water that contains more of it; so on and so forth it implies that even a bacterium or a plant in the garden has an active faculty of cognition possession of this faculty conclusively proves that even bacteria and plants have a mind in their own way again if we follow our pet animal, we can easily understand whether it is hungry, or on heat, whether it is in an attacking mood or scared of something these animals communicate not just with their cries; rather they communicate with their whole being, which is manifested through their various body movements; for example; dogs may communicate by wagging their tail or by making it stiff; and their communication exposes distinct traits of their emotions we can apparently follow what they are willing to say in other words we have an access to their mind and can feel its existence. But animal communication when compared with that of human beings seems to be vastly limited an animal cannot explain why it is happy or why it is sad animals cannot write love letters thus animal communication is essentially limited within the sphere of their behavioral coordination, but human communication goes far beyond that and language is the starting point of that journey. (Para. 7)

Human beings interact with their environment, both individually and collectively and bring forth a world of their own, which has its external and internal counterparts. The so called external world of human beings has its equivalence which are being brought forth by other animals and plants by their own right; but the worlds brought forth by them are obviously limited in richness and diversity for

example, the world brought forth by bacteria are a world which ranges from warm to cool, or from food to not food; etc; similarly the world brought by plants is spread between light and darkness, from more saline to less saline, or from more moisture to less moisture, etc. These external worlds that are being brought forth by different species include their predators and preys, and factors with which they cooperate or compete and in the process the world brought forth by each one of them spills over and overlaps one another thus we become a part of the world brought forth by bacteria, while bacteria become a part of our world; similarly, we become a part of the world brought forth by plants, while plants become a part of our world. But we must understand that bacteria or plants do not bring forth human beings or anything else that belong to the human world in the same way we bring forth ourselves and everything else thus our reality is our creation just as bacterias or plants or animals reality is their creation. Now, there are two opposing but widely held perceptions regarding the nature of this so called external reality; the first one among them, perceives the reality to be objective and pregiven; and the second one among them perceives the reality to be an illusion both these views fails to understand the reality of our mind, the reality of nature and the relation between them reality is neither objective or pre-given, nor it is an illusion or non-existing the reality that we perceive is an outcome of the interactions of our mind with our environment in other words our mind and our world emerge together our mind provides us with an apparent picture of our environment which we believe to be our reality. The reality that a bacterium or a plant perceives is the outcome of the individual and collective interactions of their minds with their environment; similarly, the reality that an animal perceives is also an outcome of the individual and collective interactions of their minds with their environment; the same is also true for human beings thus we can conclude that, as the mind develops, as the domain of cognition and communication broadens, mind becomes capable of bringing forth realities that are more complex, diversified and richer in other words, minds become capable of bringing forth realities that are higher and this is exactly what happened along the path of evolution. Human mind is an outcome of this evolutionary process

and the so called external reality it brings forth is only the first step we know that human mind is multilayered, and this so called external reality is the outcome of the individual and collective interactions of the initial or first layer of human mind with their environment and this layer of human mind is determined by the nature of its senses. (Para. 8)

Human mind brings forth the human world it is not just a world of external realities human world typically consist an internal world along with the simultaneous existence of the external world. This internal world is the world of inner realities the realities of concepts, ideas, intellect and imagination. This internal world is brought forth by a layer of human mind which is obviously higher than the layer which is responsible for bringing forth the so called external world and we may call this layer the second layer of human mind. This second layer of human mind is determined by the nature of its intellect, and in this so called second layer lie the foundations of Art, Science, Philosophy or Religion. Now, we must remember that these so called layers of human mind, the so called domains of reality, so called distinctions such as Art, Science, Philosophy or Religion are all abstract concepts mere creations of our mind and they dont exist as water-tight compartments. The so called second layer of human mind with its inherent tendency to distinguish and categories is largely responsible for these innumerable distinctions and in this so called second layer lie the foundations of language. Now, every layer of human mind has its own capacity of cognition and communication that corresponds to the nature of the faculty by which it is determined the capacity of cognition and communication associated with the initial layer of human mind which is determined by the nature of its senses has its counterparts in the animal world, though it is obvious that their quality differs and they differ in degrees human enquiry for food, human expressions of sex are not fundamentally different from that of any animal but from the second layer onwards the nature of human cognition and communication undergoes a sea change and enters an absolutely new paradigm which has no equal in the animal world the so called

second layer of human mind is the real starting point of the human journey an abstract journey into the world of inner realities, the realities of concepts, ideas, intellect and imagination a journey into the realm of Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion an abstract journey along the path of language and it is this journey that has made us unique among Gods creation. (Para. ***8) Now, as we have already discussed that human mind interacts with its environment, both individually and collectively and brings forth a world of its own which has its internal and external counterparts these internal and external worlds co-exist simultaneously and are intimately related in such a way that, they can never be actually distinguished. Human being himself is an integral part of his own environment and of which he can never be separated so as human beings become aware of their environment, they also become aware of their own selves and this awareness is part of one single process in other words, as human mind interacts with its environment, it also interacts with its own self as human mind brings forth a world of its own, it also brings forth its own self. Human mind brings forth its own self both individually and collectively at the same time human mind brings forth itself both externally and internally these internal and external, individual and collective selves are seamlessly fused in human mind. (Para. 9) (OK) We have already discussed that the so called second layer of human mind which is determined by the nature of our intellect has an inherent tendency to distinguish and categories and the first thing that it distinguishes is the self, it distinguishes the self from its environment in other words it creates two basic categories, one, that is self and the other, that is not-self. Along with this we have also discussed that cognition and communication are the two basic faculties of human mind cognition is a process through which human beings bring forth his self and his environment every cognition has its counterpart which can be described as communication communication is limited to behavioral coordination so far the first layer of human mind is concerned, and this is true for the rest of the beings communication incorporates

both linguistic and behavioral coordination, when the second layer of human mind is involved in the process. This second layer of human mind with its inherent tendency to distinguish and categories; and emboldened by its unique ability to enliven these distinctions in myriad shapes and forms in the body innumerable words, does not stop after distinguishing the self from not-self: it goes on distinguishing and categorizing everything it distinguishes the universe, the galaxies, the stars, the solar system, the planets, the earth, air, water, soil; it distinguishes the trees, insects, animals, human beings and what not; it distinguishes the individuals; it distinguishes every cells and every atoms; and the list is innumerable. These innumerable distinctions that are created by human mind and brought into being in the body of words are then conceptually related with one another in various meaningful ways in order to bring forth distinctions of higher degrees such a process brings forth your country and my country, your color and my color, your money and my money, your house and my house; and the process continues in ever increasing degrees my house is big and your house is small, my country is rich and your country is poor, my color is superior and your color is inferior the process is unending and ever-expanding words are the bricks that are laid upon one another in order to build the palace in which human beings live so we can say that human beings live in the abstract world of language human beings use language in order to coordinate these innumerable embodied distinctions in a meaningful way in order to realize their abstract ideas concepts, and imaginations. One such idea made tangible in the body of a language is self, rather the ego self, which in reality do not have any separate existence as we will see later. The ego self is an outcome of the second layer of human mind human intellect distinguishes the self from its environment and interacts with the consecutive abstract distinctions in order to bring forth the ego self, which is essentially a conceptual creation of the second layer of human mind. This ego self is then further associated with all such abstract concepts such as wealth, power, fame, identity, family, class, color, country, etc in the process the ego self seems to look more real than reality itself. (Para. 10)

Now, Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion are all such abstract ideas and these ideas are made tangible in the body of different languages only the languages through which these ideas speak are different from their so called verbal counterparts. The verbal languages through which we speak are largely limited to interpersonal coordination in sharp contrast to this the languages through which abstract ideas of Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion are communicated or made tangible can be said to be universal poetry is not about an individual poet speaking to an individual reader, it is addressed to the universal readership; similarly painting is not about an individual artist speaking to an individual viewer, it is addressed to the universal viewership and what is true for Art is also true for Science, Philosophy and Religion. We have discussed that cognition and communication are the two basic sides or the two basic faculties of human mind now, everything that we perceive, or become aware of are ultimately brought forth by our mind then we can intuitively realize that, everything that we perceive, or become aware of, will ultimately reflect the pattern of our mind in some way or the other now, the whole pattern of our mind is far beyond our grasp as we discussed that our mind conceals more than it reveals; but one simple thing that we can intuitively understand is that: every human enquiry is ultimately associated with the basic cognitive character of our mind, and every human expression is ultimately associated with its basic communicative character hence these subjects that we are talking about, such as Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion, with their characteristic enquiries and expressions are bound to reflect the basic pattern of our mind their enquiries are basically the enquiries of our mind, and so are their expressions ultimately the expressions of our mind hence, the truths that these subjects reveal are ultimately the truths that are embedded in our mind; the realities that these subjects bring forth are ultimately the realities of our mind. (Para. 11) Thus we see that the foundation of Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion lies in human mind on the surface each of these subjects looks different as the nature of their enquiry or the path they apparently follow seems be distinct and different from one another,

but at the core, they are all intimately connected and this is so because, each one of them originates in human mind furthermore, each of these subjects are conceptually expressed by different symbolic languages which also have a common origin in our mind. Hence, when the true nature of our mind will be revealed to us it will become clear that the basic enquiries of each of these subjects are not fundamentally different from one another rather, their enquiries tend to converge on one single issue and it is regarding the confusion created by the first split the so called second layer of our mind which is determined by the nature of our intellect, as we have discussed earlier, with its inherent tendency to distinguish and categories, distinguishes the self from its environment, and creates two basic categories, one, that is self and the other, that is not-self and it is this first abstract distinction which we call first split was pivotal the ultimate decisive factor that catapulted human destiny along the path of human history and evolution. So we must realize that the basic enquiries of Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion circles around the fundamental enquiry of human mind and it is regarding the true nature of self, the true nature of its environment, and their inter-relationship and in this light if we re-view the basic enquiries and expressions of these subjects our point will become clear. Man wants to know himself and he wants to understand his environment, and he also wants to understand his relationship with his environment now, as we have discussed, that, human mind brings forth himself and his environment in other words, it implies that, he himself, and his environment are his own creation, and so is his relationship with his environment, a creation of his own. Now, the biggest problem is that he himself is not aware of this fact he himself is not aware that, he himself is his own creation neither is he aware that his environment, which literally includes everything: everything that he can perceive through his senses, and everything that he brings forth through his concepts, ideas, intellect and imagination, are his own creation his environment that include the smallest of the atoms to the largest of the stars, the minutest of the bacteria to the mightiest of human; the whole of life, mind and matter; force and movement, time and space; society and culture, politics and economics are all his own creation. So, the question that

naturally arises is that: why he is not aware that he himself and his environment are his own creation? The answer is rooted in the so called first split the first split brings forth the self and its environment now, self and environment are nothing but two abstract tokens that make the idea of a distinct subject and object or a distinct observer and observed tangible these abstract tokens that represent various ideas are known as words the first split was followed by consecutive splits, and the process of infinite and unending distinctions followed in the process the sun, the moon, the earth, sky, air, water, tree, animal, life, body, mind, matter, force, time, space, etc, were brought into being and made tangible in the body of words these abstract distinctions brought forth the idea of separate entities thus, human universe emerged as a collection of an infinite number of separate and distinct objects and by the irony of fate, in this world of infinite and unending distinctions, their creator himself lost his way among his creations: and here lies the biggest human tragedy. Now, human mind wanted to relate: rather re-relate this infinite number of distinct and separate objects, which were brought into being in the body of words, with one another and in the process language emerged and with it emerged Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion thus, the difference between them is of approach the difference between Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion is in how they rerelate these infinite distinctions; and in the meanings they derive from such associations and relationships and in order to do so, the human faculty of conceptual thinking and imagination are employed thus, the basic difference between these subjects is of the path they traverse in search of the answer to the fundamental human enquiry. (Para. 12) (OK) Thus, Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion are rooted in the so called second layer of our mind, which is determined by the nature of our intellect, and which is responsible in bringing forth the human world of infinite distinctions and Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion are four of such distinctions in themselves they try to re-relate this world of apparent distinctions in their own way in search of the answer to the fundamental human enquiry regarding the true nature

of self, the true nature of its environment, and their interrelationship it implies that the path they travel are abstract and the differences between them are apparent and relative it further implies that the truths they bring forth cannot be absolute in nature: the so called scientific truths, artistic truths, philosophical truths and religious truths, are all relative and partial in reality Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion together form one single path: the path travelled by human mind in its endeavor to explore and expand the frontier of knowledge in order to know the true nature of self, the true nature of its environment, and their inter-relationship. Since the conventional margas of knowledge we are talking about are all rooted in the so called second layer of our mind, which is responsible in bringing forth the human world of distinctions, it is evident that in order to know the true nature of self, the true nature of its environment, and their inter-relationship, they will have to raise themselves above the world of distinctions they will have to raise themselves above the world brought forth by the senses and the world brought forth by concepts, ideas, intellect and imagination they will have to raise themselves above the world which is limited by cause and effect they will have to raise themselves above the world which is limited by time and space. We need to understand that the terms such as time and space or cause and effect are nothing but our intellectual creations which help us to generate an apparent picture which is far removed from reality an apparent picture which we perceive to be real and until we can break away with and raise ourselves above our conventional barriers of mundane rationality, reality will always remain to be elusive Science, which is limited by the conventional barriers of mundane rationality, tries to understand the reality of matter in matter itself; and Art that is tied to that same convention believes beauty to be an attribute of form and color and in order to raise ourselves above our conventional barriers of mundane rationality we will have to overcome the barriers imposed on us by the first two layers of our mind: the barriers of senses and the barriers of intellect then only we can step into the world brought forth by the third layer of our mind our world of consciousness. (Para. 13) (OK)

Beyond this world of distinctions lies the world of unity accessing this world brought forth by the third layer of our mind, or our consciousness, is the biggest challenge to humanity, as it cannot be accessed through senses or intellect and an even bigger challenge lies in expressing the reality brought forth by it, as the world which our consciousness brings forth is beyond our day to day world of intellectual distinctions, and hence cannot properly be expressed by words it is a world where democracy and dictatorship, time and space, cause and effect, mind and matter, lose their validity it is a world where the distinctions between you and I, plant and animal, sky and earth, air and water, animate and inanimate lose their meaning it is a world where the journeys of Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion converge and complement one another and lead us to the realm of pure, undivided and absolute knowledge it is a world where the true nature of self, the true nature of its environment, and their inter-relationships are revealed. Now, as we know that the world brought forth by our intellect is very different from the world brought forth by our senses; and it is very difficult for someone who is limited within the world of senses to properly comprehend the world brought forth by our concepts, ideas, intellect and imagination: and as to such a person the world brought forth through concepts, ideas, intellect and imagination seems to be vague and unreal similarly, the world brought forth by our consciousness is very different from the world brought forth by our intellect; and it is immensely difficult for a person who is limited within the world of intellectual distinctions to comprehend the world brought forth by our consciousness: and to such a person the reality brought forth by our consciousness seems to be vague and unreal. But in reality none of the worlds that are consecutively brought forth by our senses, intellect and consciousness are less real or unreal than one another they arise with our state of mind, and as the state of our mind changes, reality that it brings forth changes with it as the internal state of agitation of the water molecules rises, its external state changes from that of being solid to liquid and then to gas, and the realities of ice, water and gas are brought forth; and none of them are less real than the other; the higher reality being the fact that each of the external states of apparent stability corresponds to an

internal level of agitation of the same water molecules. We must remember that our eyes can only see a very limited range of the electromagnetic spectrum, but denying the existence of this spectrum beyond its visible domain will be considered unscientific, as human mind has successfully created tools and instruments which enable us to perceive the invisible portions of this spectrum; in other words, science has expanded the scope of our mind, it has enabled us to perceive things that are beyond the scopes of our senses it proves that knowledge can expand the scope of our mind, knowledge can elevate our mind to a higher level, and knowledge enables us to access reality that is higher. The theory of relativity and quantum mechanics has brought into being realities that are beyond the scopes of classical physics; but the higher reality that these theories lead us to, in no way deny the existence of the world brought forth by Newtonian mechanics, which is consistent with the day to day world of macroscopic reality it proves that, the realities brought forth by various levels of our mind have their own parallel existence, but their existences overlap one another as the various levels of our mind are not water tight compartments; and finally because all these realities are ultimately an external manifestation of one single inner reality grasping the essence of this one single inner reality is our goal. (Para. 14) (OK) Now, we have discussed that the world brought forth by our consciousness lies beyond the realm of our senses and intellect, and it is never possible to peek into the mysteries of this supra-mundane world through the myopic lenses of our logical eyesight. Indian sages had an access to this world and they approached it through the paths of dhyan or meditation. Meditation is a process through which ones engagements with the world brought forth by the first two layers of human mind are dissolved once ones mind overcome the barriers imposed by his senses and intellect, he reaches the threshold of the world brought forth by human consciousness in order to do so one has to engage his mind on one single item, such as the rhythm of ones breath, or on the rhythmic utterance of a mantra, or by concentrating ones mind on the mental image of a flame, or a flower, etc and when the sense organs are finally detached and the

thinking mind is completely silenced a feeling of calm and tranquility engulfs him in such state his mind will transcend all feelings of separateness and fragmentation and he will strongly feel an intense oneness with his environment in such state it is said that his mind will re-awake, his mind will become supra-sensitive, and he will be able to feel his own vibrations, and along with it he will be able to feel the vibrations of his immediate environment he will be able to feel that his mind and body are not two separate things he will be able to feel that he himself and his environment are not two separate entities over time and practice he will feel that his mind is slowly expanding and enfolding the whole universe and at the same time the whole universe is enfolding him and both of them are mutually filling one another, flowing into one another, interpenetrating one another, and this is a tremendous experience he will experience the entire environment which now includes the whole universe in a direct way, beyond the barriers of concepts, ideas, intellect and imagination he will feel the universe not as a collection of distinct objects, but as an all-engulfing shimmering light, or as an all-pervading rhythmic sound, or simply as a vibration he will be able to feel that his entire being is vibrating with his environment ,and he is resonating with the entire universe he will be able to feel that his individual vibrations and the vibrations of his environment are basically one single vibration he will finally overcome the first split and all consecutive splits he will feel that his relation with his environment is not one of subject and object or observer and the observed he will feel that he and his environment is one uninterrupted reality he will finally feel the basic oneness of nature and he himself being an integral part of it he will feel reality to be one without a second, and such an experience will invariably leave him with a feeling of transcendental bliss. (Para. 15) (OK) Now, each layer of our mind has its own dynamics, the process through which it brings forth its own world each layer has its corresponding faculties of cognition and communication, and it is never possible to capture the experiences of one plane of mind from that of another plane in exactly the same way for example, when an infant cries the mother can understand that her baby is hungry and

as she offers her breast the child starts to suckle it and stops crying the child is aware that she is hungry, and she knows where to get her food and how to ask for it, and the mother can precisely understand why her baby is crying, and responds accordingly a similar behavior is true for all mammals again, when a deer is hungry it goes to the jungle and eat grass and leaves that are available; and when a tiger is hungry it hunts and eats the deer when these animals are on heat they have sex, they get pregnant, they give birth, they lactate their infants, they have families, they live in groups and they effectively communicate without using a single word. Thus we see that in the world of mother and child and in the world of animals the whole process of cognition and communication as described above do not involve any words, neither it seems to be necessary the whole process of cognition and communication as described in the above two examples occurs within the limits of the first layer of mind; and which is largely the only layer in case of most animals. But this simple enquiry about food changes its dimension as we humans step into the second layer of our mind there, we invariably get entangled into the world weaved out of words and languages we get entangled into the world we have built with our concepts and ideas we get entangled into a world where the basic necessities of our life are determined by the states of business and commerce, by the nature of economics and politics, by the levels employment and wages, supply and demand, etc, and the list is unending thousands of meetings are organized on this issue, thousands of lectures are delivered on them such an enquiry has led to innumerable wars, riots and revolutions such an enquiry has led to unending literature, poetry and drama such a world is beyond all scopes of the first layer of our mind and hence it is never be possible for a child (or an animal) to understand the complex world of human adults: the world brought forth by the second layer of our mind. The realities of our intellectual world are different from the realities of our sensual world, and so are their enquiries and expressions and for similar reasons it is very difficult for most of us, common men, whose minds are largely restricted to logical reasoning, cause and effect, time and space, discrimination, categorization, etc, to understand the true experiences of undivided, uninterrupted, interpenetrating reality

beyond cause and effect, time and space, discrimination, etc, as encountered by an enlightened mind in a state of consciousness the realities of the world brought forth by our consciousness are very different from the realities brought forth by our intellect and exactly for the same reason it is equally difficult for the enlightened one to convey his living experiences of oneness through words as words originate in the second layer of our mind; and since, words are merely abstract embodied distinctions created by our discriminating intellect, they are too limited to express such a profound experience of cosmic unity the true expression of such a state is serenity, tranquility, bliss, detachment and transcendental silence. (Para. 16) (OK) Now, if we compare the experiences of the third layer of our mind which are essentially determined by the nature of our consciousness, with that of the first layer of our mind which are determined by the nature of our senses, we find an apparent similarity firstly, in both these spheres our experience of reality is straight forward, direct and immediate in both these spheres our experiences are not hindered by the interference of ideas and concepts, which is the hallmark of the second layer of our mind and which is determined by the nature of our intellect secondly, in both these spheres the nature of knowledge is intuitive, which is in sharp contrast to the nature of knowledge acquired in the second layer of our mind which is predominantly rational the third similarity, which is very subtle but far more profound is only revealed to an introspective observer and it is regarding the emotional states and its associated vibrations that are involved and manifested in the whole mental process of cognition and communication the point is that, a drop of tear is enough to express our sorrow and a smile is enough to express our joy, and such pure expressions are associated with the first and third layers of our mind the moment we start talking about our sorrow or joy we start moving away from it and we get entangled in the world of concepts regarding joy and sorrow which are woven by words in the second layer of our mind our concept of life predominates life; and our concept of love predominates love; and similarly, our concept of relationship predominates our relationship; and thus, in

the second layer of our mind our concept of reality predominates reality itself thus, in the second layer of our mind our communication loses its straight forward, direct and unhindered character; our expressions loses its purity and simplicity and becomes dislocated and far removed thus, in the process of our human journey we unwittingly undermine the communicative strength of direct expression and the expressivity of pure emotion, though we all are aware that the purity of a drop of tear or a piece of smile are far more eloquent than thousand words. Now, there are so many emotional states in which one can be, such as sorrow, joy, love, anger, hatred, fear, anxiety, etc, and the list is unending; again, each of these states have innumerable shades; along with that, one can be affected by a combination of a number of emotions, such as love and joy, love and anger, love, anger and fear, love, anger, fear and hatred, love, anger, fear, hatred and anxiety, etc, and again the list is unending each of these emotional states, each of their shades, each of their combinations have their own vibrations again, each of these vibrations and their manifestations depends upon the nature of the individual person that he is actually, which, in other words, is his own individual-personal vibration and the situation in which he is placed, which in fact is the vibration of his environment now, taking the whole picture into account let us imagine that one person is being asked by another person that how is he doing, which in fact is the most common question that we encounter almost every day and he can either answer in one word, such as fine or ok, or he may try to explain his situation, which again depends upon unending factors, such as his relationship with the questioner, whether other people are listening or not, whether he will have to catch a train or not, the outside temperature, the available shades, and the possibilities are again innumerable but, to an initiated listener who is well aware about the dynamics of vibration, neither of his possible verbal answers will carry any real meaning, as he knows that the contents of his answers which are merely words and sentences can at most bring forth an approximate abstract conceptual picture of his reality, but not reality itself such an initiated listener will only be concerned about the vibrations that emanates from the persons speech patterns and the rhythm of his body movements and the way he

synchronizes them with that of the person who has asked him the question and in them lies hidden his real situation, his real self. In sharp contrast to the above situation, expressions associated with the first and third layers of our mind are straight forward and direct the communication between mother and child as we discussed above do not call for any word to mediate their feelings the mother and child coordinate their actions and understand one another through their mutual vibrations: their rhythms interlock in perfectly harmony similarly, as we mentioned earlier, are the expressions of serenity, tranquility, bliss, detachment and silence, which are associated with the experience of the sages in their meditative state of enlightenment in such a state, these sages through their advanced dhyan or meditation, fine tuned the innermost rhythm of their being with that of the rhythm of their environment; and in such a state they encountered reality that is higher a reality which appeared to them as one uninterrupted vibration or rhythm and along with it, life unfolded itself in its entirety in front of them, as an eternal rhythmic flow of life and death and to them was revealed the cosmic nature of all relationships: it led them to experience the basic oneness of all things and events, including life, nature and the whole cosmos and it evoked in them a feeling of intimate kinship with the fullness of their environment: with the earth, and with all its elements, including the air, water, mountains, forests, animals, birds, and the fellow human beings; and with the sun, the distant stars, and the whole cosmos and it led them to embrace love that is transcendental and in either of the cases, as mentioned above: the mother and child, and that of the sages, the experiences are profound and expressions sublime; and neither of them are affected by undue intrusion of words, concepts and ideas and the whole mental process of cognition and communication is perfectly brought about, through mutual coordination of their individual vibrations and it is exactly this spirit of expression that seems to be similar between the worlds brought forth by our senses and our consciousness. But in spite of the apparent similarities of experience and expression that are associated with the first and third layer of our mind, the realities brought forth by the nature of our senses and that of our consciousness differ in depth and they differ in degrees of

finenessthe realities brought forth by our senses are largely limited to the surface of our environment, whereas the realities brought forth by our consciousness are beyond the surface the realities of our world of consciousness are much deeper, higher and profound our senses can at most pick up the vibrations of our environment that are on its surface, which are its grosser vibrations in sharp contrast to this, our consciousness can pick up vibrations that are spread even towards its core, which are its finer vibrations. (Para. 17)

Thus, it is clear that the first layer of our mind which is determined by the nature of our senses brings forth a world that precedes our world of intellectual discrimination and categorization as brought forth by the nature of our intellect again, the third layer of our mind which is determined by the nature of our consciousness brings forth a world that is beyond our world of intellectual discrimination and categorization hence, firstly, in both these worlds reality is intuitively experienced as one and the self is experienced as an integral part of this uninterrupted oneness it implies that in the world of senses and in the world of consciousness self do not have any existence which is conceptually distinct from its environment and in these two realms the nature of distinctions and their interrelationships are exclusively intuitive animals can intuitively distinguish between predators and prays; they know whom to chase and whom to run away from; animals choose their mates and bond with them and no concept intrude in between their relationships they are intuitively one with their habitat: no animal can ever think that he is conceptually separate from it in sharp contrast to the world of animals, human world is a world of concepts and ideas in the human world logic and rationality are involved in every step, be it gathering food or finding a mate; and human habitat is part of the techno sphere he has conceptually created in the human world the concept of food predominates food, the concept of love predominates love, the concept of living predominates living, and their nature are determined by institutions, cultures, and value systems that largely run on rationality and logic in the intellectual world of humans, intuition is grossly overpowered by logic and

rationality but intuition plays the predominant role in the realm of the senses and becomes many times stronger in the realm of consciousness the distinctions become finer and the oneness becomes much more intense. Secondly, since the worlds brought forth by our senses and our consciousness remain beyond the reach of our intellect, they are not affected by the characteristic splits of the intellectual world and hence, in these two worlds the issue of first split (between the self and its environment, as we discussed earlier, in Para. 10 & Para. 12 of Chapter-I), and the consecutive splits does not arise and with this doesnt arise the question of an active and intelligent I looking at a collection of passive objects to be exploited at wish and hence, in both these worlds the question of re-relating the split fragments(made tangible in the body of words, as we discussed earlier) become redundant and along with it become redundant ideas, imaginations, conceptual thinking, logical relationship and rational knowledge it is sad but true that, however fascinating may be the idea, however grand may be the imagination, however interesting may be the concept, however penetrating may be the logic, however powerful may be the rationality, they are all ultimately destined to be limited within the narrow boundaries of human intellect, and none of them can ever overcome this limit and since ego self is essentially a conceptual reality brought forth by our discriminating and categorizing intellect, hence in both these worlds there is no existence of ego self the moment we move below or beyond the second layer of our mind, ego self loses its significance. Thirdly, since, in the worlds as brought forth by our senses and our consciousness, the self and its environment are integral parts of one single uninterrupted reality, hence, in both these worlds the question of self interacting with its environment does not arise as because, in these two worlds the self and its environment are not two distinctly separate things, they are rather one single entity interpenetrating one another so we can say that, in these two worlds the self interacts with its own self, as there is no conceptual line demarcating the self and its environment, as it happens in the world of intellectual distinctions for example, each one of us are conceptually aware of our self and our environment; our environment consists of air, water, warmth, food, trees, animals,

other human beings, etc, and the list is unending now, when we breath, we exchange air with our environment, the same air that is inside us is also around us, do anyone of us precisely know where exactly is the boundary, where the self ends and the environment begins; and it is equally true for each and every elements that constitutes us and our environment our self is constantly exchanging water with our environment; seventy percent of our body mass consists of water, so shall we demand that the water molecules that are in our body at any instant of time is part of our self, and the moment one of them leaves us, it becomes a part of our environment; our conceptual demarcation of our self and our environment sounds as absurd as this the carbon dioxide molecule that leaves our body when we exhale is being picked up by the green plant in our garden, and in return it releases an oxygen molecule which we inhale; as there is no line that can demarcate us from our environment, so there is no line that can demarcate the green plant in our garden from its environment, both of us are integral parts of one single reality, we interpenetrate one another, we spill into one another and there is nothing that can separate us. In the process of our life, from the moment the egg in our mothers womb got fertilized with our fathers sperm we started drawing elements from our environment and simultaneously releasing them there only; in the process we were born, we grew up, become old, and one day when we die we return to nature and if we think in this way our individual life will seem to be a wave in the infinite ocean of our environment; and a wave can never be separated from the ocean the words wave and ocean are nothing but intellectual distinctions created by the second layer of our mind, and so are the words self and environment, mere creations of our discriminating intellect. So we can say that the self flows into its environment and the environment flows into the self and they mutually brings forth one another, or become aware about one another and since, in the realms of our senses and consciousness reality is uninterrupted and is experienced as one, and as there is no intellectual distinction between the self and its environment, we can conclude that this awareness we are discussing about, is at the same time the awareness of the self and that of its environment and of course

such an awareness is beyond the scope of our intellect, as it is exclusively intuitive in nature such an awareness can never be interpreted logically within the limits of rational knowledge. Now, once again, the most valid question that arises at this juncture is that, what exactly is the difference between the nature of awareness that results from our senses that precedes our intellect, from that of our consciousness that post-cedes it apart from the fact that their nature of awareness differs in depth, degree and profundity, there is one more vital factor that makes them fundamentally different and that arises from the fact that, in the level of our consciousness, we become aware about our awareness and it is this second degree of awareness that makes its nature essentially spiritual. When we become aware that reality is one and uninterrupted when we become aware that the self and its environment are one single entity when we become aware that all distinctions are apparent when we become aware that our awareness fundamentally proves that our environment, which includes the whole cosmos is aware when we become aware that this cosmic awareness is not possible until the whole cosmos is living when we become aware that our awareness is an integral part of that one uninterrupted cosmic awareness when we become aware that our life is an integral part of that cosmic life when we become aware that our consciousness is an integral part of that cosmic consciousness we become spiritually enlightened and this enlightenment is rooted in our consciousness. (Para. 18) (OK) Indian sages were part of this awareness, and they realized that one can only step into this world of consciousness, if one can overcome all fragmentations and intellectual distinctions if one can overcome the first split, and the consecutive splits (Ref: Chapter-I; Para. 10 & Para. 12) if one can overcome ones ego self, which is an exclusive phenomena of the second layer of our mind, and which is determined by the nature of our intellect. If we closely look at the world of the children we do not find much evidence of their distinct I-ness hence, the children of the rich and the poor, educated and the uneducated, play together hence the color of their skin, the religion of their parents, or the countries to which they belong do not

come in between their relationships children do not find much difference between living and nonliving beings the toys and the dolls with which they play, the plants in the garden where they play, the birds and the bees that sing and dance near their window, the pictures on the wall and the wall itself, the cars which they ride, the bed on which they sleep, the house in which they stay, and everything around them seems to be living and somewhat similar to them the life of their environment comes alive in the paintings they make and they effortlessly communicate with everything animate and inanimate they talk with their dolls, they talk with their pet animals, they talk with the pictures, they talk with the plants, they talk with the birds, and they talk with everything and their dialogues do not necessary demand exact words or appropriate sentences. Fairytales of older days and cartoon films of our present time tries to portray an approximate picture of the world as perceived by the children but it must be noted that, cartoon films and fairytales are mere imaginations of its authors, but the world as brought forth by the children is not a world of their imagination it is their real world. But their world rapidly change as they grow up the intellectual faculty of their mind open up, and they start to distinguish everything they learn it from their environment which they continuously bring forth, both individually and collectively they learn to systematically discriminate and categorize, and simultaneously learn to re-relate them rationally through ideas concepts and imaginations they understand this endeavor as knowledge and they believe this to be the only valid approach to knowledge in human society and they use each and every opportunity of distinction in order to bring forth their selves and they identify themselves with these selves which are essentially their own conceptual creations for example, in the process of growing up one learns to distinguish and identify oneself with ones parents, family and relatives with ones name, surname and clan with ones country, culture and language with ones caste, creed, color, class and religion with ones school, college and university with ones degrees, job, salary and status with ones friends and colleagues with ones wife and children with ones property and bank balance and the list is innumerable and with all these abstract concepts one

brings forth oneself and if he is ever asked that who is he actually, he will confidently answer that he is Mr. so and so, son of Mr. so and so, staying at such and such address, belonging to such and such nationality and faith, having such and such degrees and working with such and such company to him that is what he is his identity and he absolutely associates himself with the realities of the above abstract concepts without a speck of doubt. Thus, the reality of abstract self that one brings forth both individually and collectively through multitude of abstract concepts, ideas and imaginations with which they associate their identity and which is made tangible in the body of words, which are abstract intellectual distinctions in themselves the reality of abstract self within the narrow limits of the second layer of human mind, which is determined by the nature of human intellect, and which by its very character is discriminating and categorizing is known as ones ego self. (Para. 19) (OK)

Indian sages wanted to know themselves; they wanted to know the true nature of self these introvert sages were introspective by their very nature and their minds were transcendental, and hence they always looked beyond the surface for truth, and they delved into the depth of their mind in their endeavor to reach the core it was not difficult for them to realize that the truths regarding the true nature of self will never be revealed to them until they can decipher the ultimate realities of life, mind and matter, the three basic things of which all things are made. It was not difficult for them to understand the limitation of the senses and the limitations of intellect, and they realized that the absolute is beyond the scope of either of them; and their logic was simple everything that is part of nature, and everything that is manmade are inherently transitory the reality captured by the senses has an impermanent character, as everything that we see around us, everything that we hear, everything that we smell, taste and feel, are transitory in nature days give way to nights and nights give way to days, seasons change, moon waxes and wanes, tides ebb and flow, men goes through cycles of life and death, and the same is true for animals and plants similarly, the reality captured by the intellect also has an impermanent character

monarchy rises and falls, wealth perishes, youth decays, losers give way to winners, relationships break, so on and so forth. The basic premise of these sages was that absolute is something that does not change so naturally, their fundamental question was what is it that does not change?, and what is its true nature? and these sages were in search of something that does not change, something that is conclusively permanent in nature, something that is eternal their existing knowledge failed them to provide any satisfactory answer to their question, but it propelled them to move upstream against all intellectual odds in order to satisfy their spiritual quest and with this search started their metaphysical journey into the realm of the absolute, which they aptly called Brahmavidya Brahmavidya literally means cosmic knowledge; it is the theoretical-intellectual approach along the marga or path of knowledge in order to know or conceptualize the ultimate nature of reality. Now, if absolute is something that does not change automatically implies that something that changes must be relative and in this sense the reality captured by the senses and the intellect were supposed to be relative; they are relative with respect to the absolute this gave birth to the concept of multiple layers of realities, realities that are relative and realities that are absolute these relative realities were known as maya, and maya is not exactly illusion as is commonly understood, maya is only an apparent reality that veils the absolute from the eyes of the uninitiated as time changes, time was considered to be a relative reality or maya similarly, as space changes, space was also considered to be a relative reality or maya life that changes was considered to be maya mind that changes was considered to be maya matter that changes was considered to be maya in other words the world as captured by human senses and intellect was considered to be nothing but maya or a sub-absolute reality. These sages believed that human journey is a journey towards the ultimate truth; towards the absolute hence their primary endeavor was to overcome maya, the veil that do not allow men to perceive the absolute and naturally, the next big question to them was how is it ever possible to overcome maya after long contemplation they concluded that one can only overcome maya if one can completely detach oneself from the world of apparent

realities now, one gets attached with the world of maya through ones senses and through ones mind so they decided to withdraw their senses from the outer world and they endeavored to rise beyond all manmade concepts and ideas they performed this experiment and perfected it over time and this experimentation gave birth to a completely new discipline called Yogasastra Yogasastra literally means the science of yoking or joining; it can be defined as the practical approach regarding the art of union with the ultimate. Yogasastra empowered these sages as they could systematically step jump into the world of consciousness through the paths of dhyan or meditation as described earlier yoga or these meditative exercises unfolded an unforeseen reality that propelled them to move along the path of consciousness to an higher and even higher stage in that stage they experienced reality as pure vibration they realized true self as an integral part of this cosmic vibration they realized that when the vibration of the self is fine tuned with the cosmic vibrations the mind calms down and becomes placid and then one is completely at peace with oneself, and a feeling of bliss engulfs his mind in this state of placidity ones mind becomes immensely sensitive, and hence it can register the finest vibrations that are around him in this state of mind one can intuitively feel the whole cosmos, and one can feel the cosmic oneness. But the biggest problem of the whole exercise was that the experience of the world of consciousness could not be properly expressed through words and every effort of verbal expression literally undermined the real experience hence the sages were in great dilemma: either to preserve the purity and sanctity of their knowledge, and in order to do so they will have to continue with their meditative silence, but in that case the knowledge they have acquired will go with them forever, or to make an effort to reconstruct their experience through words at the risk of intellectual degeneration of their knowledge and they realized that in either case humanity will stand to be the loser as it will be deprived of this unprecedented human endeavor and experience, in quest of pure knowledge in order to overcome this crisis they interrelated the two parallel disciplines of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra that they developed in close succession and these two parallel disciplines

when pursued together complimented one another and propelled one into the marga of pure knowledge which was their goal and anyone who pursued these two disciplines in synchrony experienced the reality as brought forth by human consciousness. Brahmavidya is the science that gives us an approximate picture of reality it is approximate because it is expressed through words, and words are intellectual distinctions thus the picture of the ultimate brought forth by Brahmavidya is conditioned by the second layer of human mind, as it involves ideas, concepts and imaginations. Yogasastra compliments Brahmavidya Yogasastra is the art that gives us the required firsthand experience of reality which is free from the interference of ideas and concepts hence Brahmavidya and Yogasastra together makes our knowledge complete. (Para. 20) (OK) Brahmavidya is cosmic knowledge in the truest sense of term it is the confluence of Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion that leads one to the ocean of pure and undivided knowledge Brahmavidya is basically the grand unifying theory that organically incorporates all the margas of knowledge into one structural whole this spirit of oneness is the basic underlying scheme or the background score of Indian metaphysics and it is this spirit of oneness that has led Brahmavidya to unify the apparently opposing ideas and conflicting realities into one organic whole. We have already discussed in fair detail the three levels of human mind and their associated realities which apparently seem to be conflicting and contradictory, but which are not so as we know now just as when we change the lenses and filters, the images captured by a camera change in front of our eyes, so are the realities as brought forth by our senses, intellect and consciousness change as we move along the first, second and third layers of our mind but we petty human beings out of our aham or ego tend to cling to certain realities that are apparent or maya; and out of our avidya or ignorance cannot see the reality that is all pervading and absolute. The wise Indian sages who were into Brahmavidya also practiced Yogasastra simultaneously as they realized that the ego self is the single biggest stumbling block in ones way into the world of oneness; and plane theoretical knowledge is

never enough to overcome this hurdle, and for that they need to prepare their mind yoga is basically a concentration exercise that trains the mind and makes it powerful and only through yoga the mind can overcome the final barrier of ego and transcend to the world of consciousness. These wise sages rose above their aham or ego through regular practice of dhyan or yoga-meditation and systematically experienced reality that is one and uninterrupted in the realm of their consciousness as described earlier then they interpreted their experiences and reconstructed them in a language that is metaphorical, in order to convey the essence of their supramundane experiences within the narrow corridor of intellect and imagination and if we deconstruct their reality in the context of our present experiences, we get the answers to our fundamental questions regarding life mind and matter and along with that we can overcome the barriers of Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion, and see them dissolving into one another into the marga of pure and unconditioned knowledge such knowledge leads one to the world of achintya or the unthinkable, as thoughts are conditioned and limited by our intellect and imagination such knowledge leads one into a world of intimate experience, where reality is experienced as pure vibration such knowledge leads one to the world beyond language and such knowledge can only be obtained through systematic and simultaneous persuasion of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra. Now let us reconstruct Brahmavidya and Yogasastra in the light of our present experiences of Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion in order to build one coherent system that can primarily answer our fundamental enquiries. It is commonly observed that, when we are angry or agitated the rhythm of our breath tend to become faster than what is normal, on the other hand, when we are depressed or in pain the rhythm of our breath tend to become slower; and the normal rhythm of our breath indicates that we are fine and composed it implies that our emotional state which is conventionally believed to be a mental phenomena is linked to the rhythm of our breath which is assumed to be a physical phenomena; and it further implies that our mind and body are intimately linked and their rhythms mutually reflect one another these sages intuitively realized that our mind and body are not two separate

things, they are rather integral parts of one single unbroken process a process of uninterrupted rhythms and vibrations; so they renamed the part of the body which is made of flesh and blood as sthula sarira or the gross body, and the mind as sukshma sarira or the fine body here, sthula or gross and sukshma or fine specifically refer to vibrations; as they realized that we, together with our environment, exist as pure vibrations in reality they realized that, for one reason or the other the harmony of these vibrations that we call body, mind and environment can temporarily fall out of tune, or may be affected somehow, and in such a case a disturbance would invariably be registered in the system or in the dynamic process called prana or life; and they realized that all such disturbances would be appropriately manifested through various changes of our mental state, and which would be reflected in our moods, sentiments and emotions, and in their associated fluctuationsand they devised an ingenious method through which they could retune such disturbances that affects the harmony of the system these sages called this method pranayam, which literally means control of life they saw life as a dynamic process which manifests itself through various rhythms and vibrations; the nearest examples at hand are our heart and pulse beats, the rhythms of our breath and the fluctuations of our mind they further realized that all these vibrations are interconnected, and since each one of them are various manifestations of one single integral process that included our body, mind and our environment; so theoretically, if they could control any one of them, automatically the rest are bound to come under their control and in order to empirically test this theoretical presumption they started doing various breathing exercises in order to gain control over the rhythm of their breath in the process they realized that through regular breathing exercise one could systematically control the rhythm of their breath; and it was completely a new experience for them, as they realized that when their mind tended to become angry or agitated, they actually could cool it down through back calculation: i.e. by controlling the rhythm of their breath, by not letting it inhale and exhale at a faster rate as it usually happens when one is angry or agitated; and similarly, when their mind tended to become depressed or sad, they actually could

boost it up by controlling the rhythm of their breath, by not letting it inhale and exhale at a slower rate as it usually happens when one is depressed or sad thus they could control their mental state and its associated fluctuations, and in the process gained voluntary control over their moods, sentiments and emotions; and thus they became the master of their mind and this capacity to control the vibrations of their own mind empowered them to demolish their aham or ego, and their way into the world of oneness was cleared and with that they went one step closer towards their ultimate goal: their ultimate goal was to resonate with the cosmos in perfect harmony, and this they conceptualized as moksha or liberation. (Para. 21) (OK) Now, certain things need to be explained and clarified at this juncture before we proceed further firstly, the disciplines of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra were developed in India over a few thousand years; and during this period an immense amount of fascinating, diverse, rich and complex literature on these subjects were produced that serves as a base to each and every the marga of human knowledge we are restricting ourselves to the essence of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra, so that we can get into its true spirit of cosmic oneness, and which will help us to view Art from an alternative standpoint secondly, since the approach of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra are essentially organic, it is never possible to segregate Art from other fields of knowledge, neither it is possible to view it separately from the very process of life; so we need to understand life first in order to truly understand Art thirdly, Brahmavidya and Yogasastra together leads us to the spiritual spiritual is something that belongs to the realm of consciousness; and consciousness, following the spirit of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra is the highest level of human mind which is not conditioned by splits, fragmentations and distinctions; and hence it a realm which is beyond the reach of logic, rationality and language: so, spiritual knowledge by its very nature is immediate, intuitive, unconditional and pure for example, love that is unconditional is spiritual and similarly, heart that is pure is spiritual fourthly, according to Brahmavidya and Yogasastra, reality is infinite, so it neither has a centre nor an end, reality do not follow the laws of

Geometry, and reality cannot be captured by any rational logic of human intellect; hence reality neither has a surface nor a core, so whenever we use the word surface, we basically refer to the vibrations that are gross, and when we use the word core, we refer to the vibrations that are the finest and exactly in the same spirit the distinction between the words external and internal gets blurred, reality is all pervading and so it neither has an internal or external; hence, once again whenever we use the word external, we basically refer to the vibrations that are gross, and when we use the word internal, we refer to the vibrations that are fine the confusion if any are created by our intellect and the abstract distinctions brought forth by it. (Para. 22) (OK) The vibrations we have been discussing all along are in no way material in nature: Brahmavidya and Yogasastra regard consciousness to be the fundamental reality and the primary ground of all being, and it is a direct outcome of knowledge that is intuitive, and experience that is direct hence, in order to understand reality the Indian sages wanted to know the mind first, and exactly that had been our endeavor so long. From the above discussion it becomes clear that the disciplines of Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion are all still very limited in spite of their apparent spectacular advancements as claimed by men they are all ultimately limited within the realm of our intellect it is true that these disciplines in there advanced level could overcome rationality in the conventional sense of term as a result the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics could take shape in physics and for similar reasons abstract expressionism could take shape in art but until they can go beyond the world brought forth by concepts, ideas, and imagination until they can derive a systematic process through which they can reach the world as brought forth by human consciousness till then it will not be possible by any one of them to decipher the ultimate reality of matter, the ultimate reality of life, the ultimate reality of mind and the ultimate reality of art and until then their journey will remain incomplete and along with that will remain incomplete the journey of man. It is true that the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics has considerably expanded the scope of rational mind,

just as a microscope or a telescope has considerably expanded the scope of our vision but what we need to understand is that all these theories will remain incomplete until they can be systematically related to our consciousness and in order to do so science will have to transcend science incorporation of consciousness within the scientific framework will in all possibility result in demolishment of the framework itself and once this framework is broken then with all possibility science will walk its ultimate path this path is the path of spiritual consciousness the path of pure and unconditioned knowledge. And what is true for Science is also true for Art, Philosophy and Religion; and these subjects has their own advantage because they are less rigidly bound within the parameters of conventional logic. Religion in all shapes and forms has an inherent tendency to transcend logic in order to overcome the barriers of senses and intellect Religion transcends mundane logic in order to answer eternal human enquiries regarding life and death; life on earth and life beyond; soul and rebirth; what is good and what is evil; so on and so forth, and the enquiries are unending now, in order to quench the eternal human thirst, these questions of man are answered in most imaginative of ways and most of their answers blindly relate to and rely upon truths experienced by one single individual in some distant past, and most of them lacks a systematic process through which such an experience can be repeated and reexperienced at will by an initiated individual in his own life as a result truths degenerate and become dogmas over time as Science can repeat any of its experiments, so must also Religion be able to systematically re-experience what is true over and over again truth has to be a living experience and not a thing of past Religion need to transcend itself in order to overcome this limitation, and then only it can quench human thirst for eternal truth and if Religion can achieve this, its demarcation with Science will blur and both of them will converge and walk the ultimate human path of pure and unconditioned knowledge. Philosophy, at least in the Western sense of term starts with Logic which is considered to be the ideal method of thought and research such an approach limits the scope of the subject within rational parameters and binds it largely within the realm of the second layer of human mind until Philosophy can

overcome this limitation, it can never step into the world brought forth by human consciousness, as its realities are beyond the scopes of rational knowledge if Philosophy realizes that intuition leads to a higher mode of knowledge and if Philosophy incorporates intuitive knowledge in its domain; then only it will merge into the ultimate spiritual path of pure and unconditioned knowledge; and there it will walk hand in hand with Science and Religion. Art, as we experience now are largely limited to depiction and expression; and these two dimensions render Art a linguistic character. Art that are depictive, either depict a reality as brought forth by human senses; or, depict realities as brought forth by concepts, ideas and imagination, that ranges from obscure to bizarre the former among them are largely limited to the surface, and are restricted to realities that are mundane and external while the later, though internal, and in spite of their apparently deep, lofty, fascinating or out of the box expositions, are ultimately confined within the narrow limits of human intellect. Now, no art is purely depictive, or purely expressive; rather, in each of them, a varying combination of these two dimensions are in play art which are largely engaged with the realities that are mundane and external, and have a predominantly depictive overtone: and which are broadly classified as realisticnaturalistic-impressionistic art, also have a suppressed simultaneous expressive undercurrent in them; as they invariably reflect some artistic emotion of their authors, in the very process of application of colors, etc, however subdued again, art which are engaged with realities that are internal and higher, and have a predominantly expressive overtone; and which are broadly classified under expressionism, invariably have a depictive undercurrent in them: through applications of form, color and line that ranges from intelligent to spontaneous, expressionistic art intend to depict the feelings, internal agitations, emotional states and reactions of their authors, regarding their sensual, intellectual and spiritual realizations. Now, in between these two ends of impressionistic and expressionist art lies a fascinatingly diversified range of art that are engaged with the realities that are brought forth by concepts, ideas and imagination, as we just mentioned; this in-between range can be broadly clubbed under symbolistic art; and such art make good use

of both its depictive and expressive dimensions that are available. Thus the whole corpus of our so called Modern-Contemporary Art, as we can clearly see, is largely limited within the domain of linguistic communication (Ref: Chapter-I; Para 5) its background, history and influences; the psyche of its artists, who essentially believe in, and intend to depict and express their selves, and their ideas, through art; and the intellectual paradigm in which it is embedded: pathetically overlooks the tremendous scope and potential of nonlinguistic and non-intellectual communication in Art but this shouldnt come as a shock, because such non-linguistic and nonintellectual communication in Art becomes relevant and meaningful only in the context of a paradigm which believes that, artistic communication are fundamentally impersonal and universal(Ref: Chapter-I; Para 11): and for that, the artist has to rise above his mundane self and evoke artistic emotions that are not specific to any particular individual or situationsuch a paradigm believes that the reality of specific time, space and character are essentially transitory; and hence, to the truth that it leads is inevitably less than absolute, or maya (Ref: Chapter-I; Para3/Para20) and since such a paradigm considers Art to be a marga of pure knowledge, and as Art is supposed to lead one to truth that is absolute: hence, until absolute truth(Ref: Chapter-I; Para3/Para20) is reached, Arts journey will remain incomplete in essence since truth that is absolute is beyond all scopes of intellectual comprehension (Ref:ChapterI;Para3/Para20); hence, in order to reach truth that is absolute, Art will have to make a transition from the realm of the intellect to the realm of the consciousness: and for such a transition the knowledge and practice of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra are an essential precondition (Ref:Chapter-I;Para20) if we can suitably expand our paradigm so as to incorporate non-linguistic and non-intellectual communication in Art, then Art that will transcend the barriers of intellect and language, will merge into the ultimate spiritual path of pure and unconditioned knowledge; and then only Art will walk hand in hand with Science, Philosophy and Religion: and that is our endeavor. (Para. 23)

Among the four margas of knowledge that we have been discussing all along Art is the one that is in biggest jeopardy this jeopardy is a direct outcome of the confusions and conflicts from which Art suffers the most firstly; the aestheticians who were largely responsible for piling up the abstract theoretical corpus of art were primarily philosophers and only a few among them were serious and regular artists themselves, hence their engagement with art were predominantly intellectual and most of them lacked direct, spontaneous and non-intellectual experience of art; on the other hand majority of the artists who were directly engaged with art through colors, brush and canvas, or through hammer, chisel and stone were either not very philosophical, or were not equipped enough to formally express their innermost creative experience philosophically through words: direct vision and immediate experience are the two legs on which Art walks along the marga of knowledge, and without either of them the discipline of Art remains incomplete the basic spirit of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra is to unify theoretical speculation with creative experience: examples of such successful synchronization of theory and practice are not very abundant in our long, varied and eventful history of art; visionaryartists like Wassily Kandinsky are rather exceptions, than the rule. Secondly; most of these aestheticians were rooted in Western philosophical thought process which has an inherent tendency to coordinate the real with the ideal; and from this point of view, Aesthetics was considered to be the study of ideal form or beauty; and such an ideal is essentially a concept, a creation of human intellect, and it limits the whole journey of Art within the second layer of human mind in sharp contrast to this, Brahmavidya and Yogasastra primarily intend to overcome the barriers imposed by human intellect and transcend into the realm of consciousness, where experiences are direct and knowledge is intuitive; hence the journey of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra is not towards any ideal, but towards the real, rather towards the highest reality art that follows the spirit of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra associate beauty exclusively with truth and reality; and this association finds its profound expression in the ancient Sanskrit phrase: Satyam Shivam Sundaram; it literally means that Truth is the Lord, and He is

Beautiful, it resoundingly declares the equivalence of the Absolute Truth or Satyam, the Ultimate Reality or Shivam, and the Supreme Beauty or Sundaram Satyam Shivam Sundaram resonates the basic spirit of oneness of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra, and it unifies truth, reality and beauty and makes them one single entity. Thirdly; the Western mind is an evolutionary outcome of its history and culture which always emphasized on the fundamentality of matter, it considers matter to be the primary reality and the ground of all being; and such a tradition made people believe beauty to be a property of matter, or an attribute of external form in sharp contrast to this Brahmavidya and Yogasastra regard consciousness to be the fundamental reality and the primary ground of all being; and it is not at all bothered to bring forward any logic to prove this crucial point, because it is well aware about the fact that all rational knowledge and logical thinking are ultimately rooted in the second layer of human mind which is determined by the nature of our intellect, and limitations of which we have discussed in great detail the truth regarding the fundamentality of consciousness is a direct outcome of knowledge that is intuitive and experiences that are direct the knowledge that is founded in Brahmavidya and Yogasastra makes us aware that the reality of matter is essentially rooted in our mind; and along with matter, its associated properties and attributes, are hence, bound to be rooted in the same place; so, even if we assume beauty to be a property of matter or an attribute of external form for the sake of logic, even then they are bound to be an internal phenomena. (Para. 24) (OK) The idea regarding the fundamentality of matter is rooted in dualism, which is essentially an outcome of the first split in the second layer of our mind that we discussed in great detail such an outlook leads one to believe that mind and matter belongs to two separate and distinct realms, and that mind is something that is conscious, whereas matter is something that is passive mind is the observer or the subject and it is identified with the self, and matter is the object that is being observed by the self and that the mind which is identified as the self is the only internal phenomena and the rest that are not-self belong to the world that is external such a thought

process systematically leads to the conclusion that matter is exclusively an external phenomena and since beauty is something that is being observed by the mind, hence beauty belongs to the realm of not-self or matter; and thus in the dualistic tradition of thought beauty is associated with matter. Again, a tradition that sees the conscious mind as something that exclusively belongs to the realm of the internal, and matter that is passive as something that exclusively belongs to the realm of the external, is automatically tempted to the conclude that such a conscious mind is invariably associated with the body that is made of matter rather the mind resides somewhere in the body; and which in other words lead to the conclusion that a conscious mind can never have an existence independent of the body such a thought process led its thinkers to believe that mind arises out of some particular arrangement of matter; and such a thought process carried to its logical extreme led them to presume that life and mind are outcomes of such random associations of matter and in such a tradition it is very natural for people to consider matter to be the primary reality and the ground of all being. In sharp contrast to this, knowledge and culture that are founded in Brahmavidya and Yogasastra make us aware that beauty belongs exclusively to the realm of the spirit, and it is essentially an internal phenomenon such a tradition regards consciousness to be the primary reality, and considers reality to be advaita or non-dual or that is one without a second. (Para. 25) (OK)

Brahmavidya and Yogasastra experiences the whole cosmos as pure vibration which are essentially of nonmaterial origin and nature; and as we have already discussed that it regards consciousness as the primary reality, hence we can comfortably conclude that these vibrations are actually identified as consciousness hence consciousness is not something which is limited to the mind of an individual, consciousness is a cosmic phenomena, it is rather the primary reality; each one of us, and everything that we can perceive and imagine are integral parts of this reality which is one and uninterrupted and since the whole cosmos is sentient, it is naturally considered to be living and anything that is living goes through cycles

of activity and rest; but it must be noted here that this cosmic life is quite different from the mortal life that we experience on earth, and in sharp contrast to our life that is essentially marked by its limitations, cosmic life is associated with immortality, which in other words imply that the spread of cosmic life is limitless, and which is truly infinite when this cosmos which is pure consciousness is at rest its vibrations settles down to zero, and such a state is described as the state of sleeping consciousness; in this state there is no awareness, and hence in this state there is no manifestation; in this state of cosmic rest there is no existence of this universe, and hence in this state the question of mind, matter and life does not arise, and with it does not arise the issue of time, space and causation from this state of rest, pure consciousness moves to a state of activity and vibrations reappear, and such a state of activity is described as the state of awaken consciousness; in this state exists awareness and manifestation, as we have explained earlier that manifestation and awareness arise together (Ref: Chapter-I; Para2/Para5); in this state appears mind, matter and life, and with it does arise time, space and causation. It must be noted that the cycles of activity and rest that we just mentioned are not mechanical or material cyclic movements against time as we experience on earth; they are rather two ends of one hypothetical circle sleeping consciousness or when pure consciousness is in a state of rest implies that there exists no cosmic vibration, or that the cosmic vibration is zero, which in other words tantamount to the fact that everything is in a state of absolute rest: in such a state of absolute rest, time, space and causation cannot exist, neither can exist mind, matter and life such a state is associated with the Absolute, and it is exactly what the Indian sages were in search of from time immemorial(Ref: Chapter-I; Para20); hence they named this state of absolute rest as the Ultimate Reality it is the state in which cosmic vibrations are at their finest level, which equivalents to zero against this state of absolute rest exists the state of activity in which pure consciousness is in a state of action or karma: and in this state everything is momentary and transient, everything changes, hence this is known as the state of sub-absolute reality or maya as described earlier (Ref: Chapter-I; Para3/Para20) in this state vibrations reappear which ranges from

gross to fine; higher the level of mind, finer the vibrations it will register and respond to: highest is the mind that will register and respond to the vibrations that are finest so we must realize that according to Brahmavidya and Yogasastra the Absolute and the world of maya which comprises our universe, are basically two ends of one single reality: hence their existence are simultaneous, and the existence of one implicitly predicates the existence of the other once we rise above the concepts of time, space and causation, we can clearly see these two ends of one single reality eternally flowing together; then we can clearly see that every manifested self which is limited, has an un-manifested counterpart which is unlimited; hence the sages said that each self is finite, yet infinite; mortal, yet immortal; expressed, yet unexpressed Absolute is the reality that is un-manifested, as the vibrations associated with it are the finest or zero, whereas with the world of maya or our universe that is manifested, are associated vibrations that are of positive value and that ranges from fine to gross as vibrations appear, awareness and manifestation appear with it, with it appear time, space and causation and along with it appear mind, matter and life. (Para. 26) (OK)

The Indian sages were aware of the fact that the Absolute is something which is beyond all scopes of intellectual comprehension; hence neither could it be conceptualized through ideas, as ideas always fell short; nor could it be imagined, just as we cannot imagine space-time or n-dimensional space in Physics they were aware that the Absolute could not be brought forth by words, as words are always inadequate and deceptive; words originate in our discriminating intellect and bear in them the spirit of maya the Absolute defied all mundane logic hence whenever they approached the Absolute literarily through Brahmavidya they either spoke in a language that is metaphorical or used a language that is de-affirmative and contradictory, such as: the Absolute is neither this, nor that, and at the same time it is both; as for example, the Absolute neither has a beginning nor an end, for both beginning and end originate and reside in Him and similarly originate and reside in

Him both time and space; light and darkness; stillness and motion; purusha or the inner reality, and prakriti or the outer reality; akash or the sky in which all forms originate, and prana or life in which all force originate; etc: but Absolute is neither time nor space; neither light nor darkness; neither stillness nor motion; neither purusha nor prakriti; neither akash nor prana; etc. As these sages realized that the reality of the Absolute could never be grasped, it could only be experienced: and such experiences by their very nature were nonintellectual and direct, and hence spiritual; and they devised a way of yoga through which they could fine tune or interlock their own inner vibrations with the finer vibrations of the cosmos the sages who were in very advanced stages, through yoga could interlock their finest inner vibration, which they described as their atman or soul, and which is their own un-manifested reality; with that of the finest vibration of the cosmos, which is the cosmic un-manifested reality as we said earlier, and which they described as the Brahman or the Cosmic Soul such a state of unity of the individual soul and the Cosmic Soul is known as samadhi which can aptly be described as a state of perfect mental equilibrium; samadhi takes ones mind to a level which is beyond all levels of awareness and expression, and these sages only became secondarily aware of their state of samadhi or equilibrium when they returned from their highest supraconscious state hence they often compared samadhi with dreamless slumber. When the innermost vibrations of the self rings in perfect harmony with the innermost vibrations of the cosmos, an extremely fine resonance is created; and in such a state of orchestration the mind becomes shanta or tranquil as it reaches samabhava or equanimity; and in such a state of mind one experiences ananda or bliss, and silence becomes his only expression the sages described that in such a state of mind reality of the self and the cosmos is experienced as one uninterrupted stream of vibration in such a state of mind ones awareness becomes cosmic and one experiences life that is immortal, and hence one rises above all mortal and transitory feelings of attachment, attraction, fear, anger, hatred, etc and such a state of ones unity and harmony with the cosmos is conceptualized as moksha or liberation; and liberation was their ultimate goal. (Para. 27) (OK)

Now, as we have realized that the ultimate realities of our existence and environment are pure vibrations, which are of nonmaterial origin and nature; and which we have identified as consciousness: hence, let us think entirely in terms of vibrations or consciousness, and sum up our synthesis so far as we discussed earlier that human minds interact with its environment both individually and collectively and bring forth a world of its own, which typically has its internal and external counterparts and since we are talking in terms of vibrations or consciousness, we can comfortably replace the word mind with self, as we no more differentiate between mind and body as we now realize self to be a set of vibration, that ranges from gross to fine; the vibrations that are gross, are associated with the concept called body; and the vibrations that are fine, are associated with the concept called mind; and these vibrations can never be differentiated for example when we go to some village which is far away from our city, and fill our lungs with fresh oxygen, we feel nice and we happy; can we ever know which part of such a good feeling results from interactions that are specifically physical and exactly differentiate it from our interactions that are mental? and hence all such differences between mind and body are essentially conceptual: mind and body are creations of our discriminating intellect, and hence they are maya. Our self interact with our environment once again we must not forget that the reality of our environment are also vibrations or consciousness, that ranges from gross to fine the vibrations that are gross, are associated with concepts such as surface, external etc; and the vibrations that are fine, are associated with the concept such as internal, core, etc and our self and our environment are integral parts of this one uninterrupted reality: ocean and its waves, as we explained earlier (Ref: Chapter-I; Para18) the innermost vibration of the self, are the vibrations that are finest; and it implies that the vibration which corresponds to the highest order of fineness is obviously the vibration whose value is zero and since zero vibration is associated with a state in which there is no awareness: hence in this state of unawareness or zero vibration, the question of manifestation does not arise; and as we

know now, that awareness and manifestation arise together: hence, we associate such a state of our self with the concept of atman or the soul; and our environment which ultimately includes the whole cosmos has its equivalent which is conceptualized as the Brahman or the Cosmic Soul as we discussed earlier unity of the atman and the Brahman leads to samadhi which we described as a state of perfect mental equilibrium but since samadhi as we know is a state where the self is no more aware of itself or its environment, and hence expressionless; we will restrict our discussion within the realm of awareness. As our expressions essentially depend upon our feelings, moods and emotions, which are associated with our sentiments, attitudes and state of mind; and which in turn arise out of our interactions with our environment and since through these interactions we bring forth our world, our world is essentially colored by our sentiments, attitudes and state of mind and since our environment invariably includes our self, our sentiments, attitudes and state of mind are again influenced by our feelings, moods and emotions thus our reality is a terribly complex phenomena. Now our self interacts with our environment: and since we are thinking in terms of vibrations or consciousness, we must talk in terms of events; and we must remember that events are nothing but dynamic interactions in this field of uninterrupted vibrations or consciousness; and our self that is manifested, is one such dynamic event in the unending flow of this infinite and eternal field of vibrations; and this event called self is made up of infinite number of smaller events, such as our digestive system, circulatory system, nervous system, etc; each of which are in turn made up of innumerable still smaller events, such as our cells; again several events called self make a family, several events called family make a tribe, and the hierarchy of events continues and manifests as our society, ecology, our planet called earth, our solar system, our galaxy and the whole manifested cosmos and as a result of these uninterrupted flow of interactions our beings fluctuate along different degrees of stability and instability around the equilibrium: and the trajectory of our existence goes through various experiences of anger, sorrow, love, hate, attraction, repulsion, fear, courage, etc (Ref: Chapter-I; Para17) and all such experiences correspond to

innumerous interactions or events in the world of maya that we continuously weave. When we are angry or sad; jealous or revengeful, etc, it is evident that we are away from our stability and stand to lose our composure, and it implies that our apparent reality or maya which results from various interactions in the field of vibration or consciousness tend to dislocate us from our stability and we want to return to stability and regain our composure; and once we return to stability, we intuitively become aware of it through our feelings of happiness and peace and it is quite clear that we are stable, happy and peaceful so long the vibrations of our self beats in rhythm with that of its environment; and once they are out of sync, we feel unstable and unhappy, and we tend to lose our composure and peace. As we know that awareness and manifestation arise together and this awareness which is pure, or which in other words is not defiled or degenerated through conceptualizations, manifests itself purely through ones state of mind, and it is purely expressed through ones emotions: and such expressions do not involve any words; and we explained this elaborately through examples earlier(Ref:Chapter-I;Para16) and if we look closely it will become clear to us that both our state of mind and our emotions are nothing but vibrations so we can conclude that both our awareness and manifestation, and hence our cognition and communication in the purest sense are nothing but vibrations and as we have already discussed earlier that even when words intrude our communication, its underlying vibrations convey the true spirit of the abstract exchange of ideas and concepts(see Para: 17) thus we exist and are engaged in a continuous flux of vibrations or consciousness that we define as interaction, awareness, manifestation, and expression which occur ceaselessly and simultaneously: and this is the essence of our existence. (Para. 28)

Now, the primary enquiry of Art, like all other margas of knowledge is truth; and it intends to share its revelations regarding truth, so that its essence can be universally experienced it seems that we have reached at the end of our theoretical enquiry regarding truth, through the disciplines of Brahmavidya and Yogasastra, as the reality

regarding our existence, the cosmos, and the Absolute is revealed to us and in the light of the above knowledge, we would like to explore the marga of Art; and along this path, the essence of Rasasastra will be our rough guide the discipline of Rasasastra can be translated as science of artistic emotions; and it deals essentially with the vibrations or consciousness, which are the underlying reality of our existence, and which include our self, our environment and the whole cosmos the principles of Rasasastra were developed by the Indian aestheticians, over a period which spans not less than one thousand years Rasasastra deals with the aspects of interaction, awareness, manifestation, and expression in the underlying field of vibrations or consciousness, which is our reality: and in which, engenders our feelings, moods and emotions; and which are associated with our sentiments, attitudes and state of mind; and which results from the interactions of our self with our environment the knowledge and practice of Rasasastra enables us to generate a controlled wave in the field of vibrations or consciousness, and consolidate its rhythm so as to orchestrate a harmony in the underlying field and this, according to Rasasastra is the primary function of art. (Para. 29)