For this a novel method has to be adopted, and that novel method is the very same
one that was adopted by the cub in knowing its own self. We require a very
experienced master to turn our mind back upon itself, and to allow us to perform
that circus trick, as it were, of returning to the background of our own knowledge,
and absorbing all objectivity into the Universal Subjectivity.
Chapter 106THE DUAL PULL OF PURUSHA AND OBJECTSThe awareness of the mind in any given condition is constituted of two phases—
namely, the object side and the subject side. It is like a buffer standing between the
object on one side and the atman, or the purusha, on the other side. Therefore, it has
intimation from two different directions, and it combines the messages received from
the purusha and the objects at one and the same time. This point is elucidated in one
sutra of Patanjali which says: draṣṭṛ dṛśya uparaktaṁ cittaṁ sarvārtham (IV.23). Drastr
and drisya mean the subject and the object. Uparaktam cittam: the mind is
influenced by both these. It is standing in between the true subject, which is the
purusha, and the object. Thus, it has a character of the object, and also a character of
the subject, so that the combination of these two factors makes it a very enigmatic
something. We cannot say whether it is something belonging to the world of objects,
or something which is transcendent—namely, spiritual in nature.
The mind cannot be easily studied because it has the character of materiality as well
as spirituality both combined. The spiritual impact which it receives from the
purusha makes it appear intelligent and assume the character of the subject itself,
while the impact that it receives from the objects makes it coloured in respect of the
objects, and it takes the shape of the objects. Sarvartham means objectively
conscious in variegated manners. The mind has various objects presented before it
on account of its peculiar position between the absolute object and the absolute
subject. The absolute object is the material that is presented before the mind. The
absolute subject is the purusha, or the transcendent consciousness. Hence, we are
pulled from two different directions as minds in our individual capacities. We have
an urge from the purusha side, and also an urge from the object side. So we can
imagine our status in this world.
We are influenced by two contrary sides, or realms, at one and the same time. Thus it
is that we entertain desires for objects and get contaminated by the various
modifications of objects. There is a tremendous impress made upon the mind by the
transformations which the objects undergo in the world outside. But, at the same
time, there is also a higher aspiration present in us. We are mortals with an immortal
aspiration. This peculiar characteristic in us is due to this juncture at which the mind
is placed, by which it is mortal and immortal at the same time—immortal because it
has the vision of what is behind it, from where it receives intimations of immortal
contents transcending its present existence. But on the other side it is mortal, caught
up in the meshes of objective experience and desiring the varieties of satisfaction
which constitute this world of phenomenality.