Sever Connections, Overcome Illusion

Consciousness cannot be fragmented. It can only alter its mani-festation and seek expression in different forms. This alteration - energy being converted into mass - results in life forms and the universe. It appears that each form is separate and unique. The sense organs are specifically designed to further refurbish this illusion of separateness. As the process of segregation of consciousness further evolves, it creates an illusory spatio-temporal grid. Breaking the symmetry or congruence of the nirakaar or unmanifest into a spectrum of forms and shapes is Creation. The frequency of this energy gets scattered within a band. At the highest end of this spectrum is zero entropy energy - pure awareness, God or satchita-nanda - and down the hierarchy, the entropy keeps increasing, resulting in a plethora of forms and figures which is Creation. Pure awareness gets distorted into a split awareness, gene-rating a subject-object dichotomy and subsequently identity, ego. At the subatomic level, the building block of all matter accor-ding to one theory is the string, which is actually energy vibrating at different frequencies. Entire Creation being illusory is that Creation is actually energy manifesting in different frequency bandwidths and each object represents a cons-truct of a particular frequency. Sense organs then trick the brain into believing the separate existence of all that it sees, feels and hears. This master programme weaves the trichotomy of the seer, the seen and the process of seeing. What my eye sees may just be a transduction of the signal in a preset pattern at a specified locus in the microprocessor called the brain. What my sense organs perceive may just be a function of their programme. Any visual image is actually an interpretation of the incident - light falling on the rods and cones in the retina. The brain thereafter is programmed to interpret these inputs. So the interpretation of any object would essentially be a derivative of this programme. The interpretation of the incoming data from cognitive apparatus has inherent limitations. The brain receives all signals and through a complex relay system helps in interpreting them. This system itself may be subliminal and may produce incongruous conclusions. In the phantom limb phenomenon, wherein a person feels like scratching a non-existent (amputated) hand, the brain refuses to accept the non-existence of the limb because the specific area in the brain that represents the hand remains functional. So it may just be possible that the hand which i am scratching is a construct of a brain pre-wired to believe its existence. Could the consciousness apparatus become conscious of its own self? The only way it can perceive itself is by effacing itself completely, and merge into the vastness of universal consciousness. This would end the deceptive trilogy of the seer, the seen and the process of seeing. This assimilative technique is the only method for perception to perceive itself. The merger is a quantum leap and cannot be achieved by the reductionism approach, which is moored in the “observer and the observed” realm. Yoga is aimed at disconnection. Yoga is defined as Chitta-vritti nirodh. Chitta is the cumulative awareness of all the sensory experiences and vritti is the intense desire for sensory gratification. This disconnection is in effect overcoming sensory deception.

The writer is a consultant neurosurgeon. 30 Nov 2007, 0024 hrs IST,

E-mail: drdeepakranade@gmail.com