Part Two
“The one who has understood this world is always happy.”
Manas is the faculty to understand and cognize, though it has the ability and tendency to wander off on its own, like an independent entity. It is, however, the servant of the soul (atma) and totally dependent on it. Nevertheless, without this faculty there could be no cognition of the external world.
Buddhi is the faculty of intellect and is a sort of personal assistant to the soul. Connected to manas, it can find out from the storehouse of the mind (chitta-memories, etc.) about past events.
Now look at me. Two eyes [Babaji raises his fingers and taps his glasses] a nose, ears. Your mind is resting on this body and the atma accompanies it. Without it there can be no seeing. The mind sees and reports back to the individual soul through means of the intellect which says, 'It's Prakashananda.'
It's the same with listening. What hears is not the ears, but the atma, which then consults with the intellect in order to sort out information heard. The intellect is like a storehouse and manas like a honey bee which travels from flower to flower collecting honey to place in it. For whom? Inside is the Queen Bee and it is for her that the bee darts back and forth. She is the soul (jivatma) and when she wants honey she can find it in the storeroom, the intellect.
The faculty of discrimination is also in the intellect because manas collects and brings whatever it can find, good and bad. It is the intellect which sorts out the information using discrimination: this is good, this is bad. Therefore, discrimination lies in the intellect (buddhi), not in the manas. Think this over carefully. If someone says they lack peace, they are referring to the intellect and if the intellect develops a fault, the result is what the world calls madness.
The Creator of Division
Ahamkara is the idea within the mind of being a separate entity - the concept of yours and mine, my house, my wife, my body. For a small baby everything is the same. He cannot recognize his mother and father. Then he eats, grows, and gains strength. As he grows, his illusions also grow: these are my parents, my brother, my clothes, my honor, my knowledge. The sense of 'I' produces these illusions. Actually, everything is the Lord's. From this same ego emanates what we call the world with its division of nationality, creed, philosophy, virtue and sin, pleasure and pain. It is the I who chooses its friends, enemies, guru, and its God. What actually is this I, and what is its source? We should inquire into it in order to find the truth. It was for this reason Baba (Muktananda) used to say 'Meditate on your Self, understand your Self. God dwells within you as you.'
Actually, without the I of individuality the concept of the world would vanish. The truth is that the Ahamkara or ego is illusory. We are not separate from Universal Consciousness. The little I identified with the body is the troublemaker. The true I, however, is the Aham of Krishna when he says in the Bhagavad Gita 'I am in all things and pervade everywhere’. Similarly, when Jesus says, ‘No man comes to the Father but by Me,’ he isn’t talking of Me as a particular body or personality, but of HAM, the universal I.
However, it is through this very vehicle of ego that a man returns to God. Between sun and nature is space. Nature is a product of the sun's rays and depends upon their warmth and light entirely for its existence. Similarly, the little I has no existence of its own outside the Universal I. From one comes many and from many comes one. First there is the one, pure I and from it emerges the little I, the plurality or "many” of separate existence. When the one becomes identified with the body it becomes many. The concepts of mine and yours arise, of duality. From this false I of many, we have to return to the One.
The one who has understood this world is always happy. If you really understand the true nature of this world, you are freed from the opposites of pleasure and pain. The root of the opposites is the sense of I (egotism) which gives rise to laughter and tears, virtue and sin, and so on. If you let go of the I, recognizing that you are not the doer, you are freed. In the Bhagavad Gita God says, 'You only have the right to act, you have no right to the fruit of your actions. It is I who bestows the fruits of action.'
The Mind Is a Charioteer
How then is a man to return to his source without falling into the pitfalls along his path? The body is like a chariot drawn by the five horses of the sense organs-touch, sight, smell, hearing, and taste (the qualities corresponding to the five elements from which the body is composed). The charioteer is the mind, and in his hands are the reins of the five horses. The passenger being conveyed is the jivatma (individual soul) and as it originates from Paramatma (Universal Soul), its journey is a return. However, the five horses give the Charioteer great trouble. The eyes say 'look there and the skin says 'touch this' and so on. Because of this, there is a constant danger of the horses getting out of control and the chariot meeting with an accident. So the charioteer needs good training as to how to control the horses. He must cultivate discrimination and dispassion.
With the help of his faculties of mind and through the power of his actions, a human being can acquire God-like qualities and uplift humanity by self-sacrifice, as did Jesus, Buddha and Ram. Or he can acquire demonic qualities like Stalin, Hitler, and Ravanna, and cause suffering and grief to others. Finally, he can earn the title of human being by cultivating friendliness and love toward his fellow man and learn some degree of mind control.