Cognition

The phenomenal objective world is said to be illusory, in the sense it is transient, ever changing, impermanent and maay disappear anytime! What we see we believe. But, we do not know wwhether what we see is there is real or not. It is like the 'Golden Deer' behind which even the learned Sri Ramachandra ran and got into trouble. Apart from things like the silver in the conch-shell or the rope appearing like a snake in dark, there are real life disappointments, too. What we so eagerly sought after turns out to be very disappointing.  The world appears yellow to jaundiced eye. It is the defect of the eye, a disease due to bile emission that causes things to appear yellow and the things are actually not that! The error is correct with improvement with the health. The eye can see what lies ahead provided there is the focused attention and mind is the instrument behind this cognition; along with the mind there is intelligence (buddhi), ego (ahankar) that determine what tone sees. There are a number of factors besides the person's eyes, mind, buddhi and ahankar and capacity to understand what one sees. There is a stage in everybody's life that decides what one sess and understands! At young age as a child, the capacity starts from almost nil to some what limited; this may not improve through out life in some people's case.Some go on improving their ability and reach as high as possible and even get recognition for this ability. So nothing is certain about who sees, what he understands and whether it is the whole truth. 

    Howverm, tehre is something else that we are speaking about here. It is about the subtler aspects that detrmine what appears! Even the sciene has come to the conclusion that what we see as solid is not solid since it is made of insignificant invisible parts! The spiritual texts describe the evolution of the universe the same way as science does; physicists dealing particles, waves, sounds and biologists speaking about cells and chemists speaking about enzymes and amino acids and DNA all come to the same fundamental truth. There is some indefinable secret power behind this creation. There is some catalyst that turns H2 and O into water. There is an unending chemical activity entering in and coming out that decides the diverse objective universe. Behind all these lies only one supreme power, shakti. In fact, our body is nothing but a bundle of cells, chemical bonds, and a vibrant energy principle.

   Hence, we can never know what is ahead of us! We blindly run after fulfilling our desire and feel disappointed when we attain them. Leave the house locked for a month and see that everything has deteriorated; however clean you have left them, dust has covered. The Law of Entropy works. There are a number of factors working behind our thoughts, ideas, images and imagination, and by the time what we see and experience everything has come to naught! This is the cause of illusion. Nothing is real for certain here.Expectations bring disappointment. However, our happiness does not dependonany extraneous things, persons or issues, but the Self.The Atman, the Self, is always happy and contented since it needs nothing! Rather it supports all that weare seeing and experiencing!