The mystics of the East did a lot of analysis of the inner world to gain the understanding of the subtle faculties of the being. Inner faculties of the being are also called as ‘Antah-Karan’. The ‘Antah-Karan’ consists of the mind, the intellect, the Chita and the ego. It is very helpful for the true seeker to gain proper understanding of the inner faculties in order to progress on the path of inner happiness.
Most of the seekers try to do meditation and meditation for them is controlling the mind only. Even the Yogis define Yoga as 'Chita Vriti Nirodha' - meaning the 'Suppression of the tendencies of mind'. For a true seeker, it is important to gain the wisdom of Self after attaining which one can differentiate between mind, intellect, chita, ego and the real Self. Because of the ignorance of the inner world, all the efforts of controlling the mind prove futile. The truly blissful saints, who gained the wisdom of the Self, insist that the goal of the true seeker should be to purify the intellect rather than controlling the mind. Before going deep into the subject, let’s try to understand the inner faculties of the being.
Let’s begin with mind, which is the outermost covering of the inner world and which gets exposed to the material world by means of five senses. Mind is the faculty of consciousness that makes resolution and irresolution. It gives rise to the incessant stream of thoughts based on the conditioning of mind and the deep rooted desires. As are your thoughts, so are your actions and as your actions, so is your destiny. The thoughts of your mind control your mood and state of your being. As long as the chattering of mind continues, the being cannot gain tranquility.
Next inner level of the ‘Antah-Karan’ is the intellect. Intellect is the subtle faculty of consciousness that takes decisions based on your knowledge, realization and experiences. Intellect of the common man remains weak because of the ignorance of the wisdom of the Self. Common man only focuses on gaining knowledge of the outer world, without giving any importance to the inner world.
The other two faculties of the ‘Antah Karan’ are even subtler than mind and intellect. It’s not easy to describe them in words. However just to give you the glimpse, I can describe chita as the mood of the being or the deeper sensation of the being. Ego is the false notion of ‘I’ which is resulted due to the union of your being with the mind.
The root cause of all the sufferings and miseries of the man is the improper alignment of inner faculties - the intellect of the being, which is supposed to be the chief of the mind, became the subordinate of the mind. It is the weak intellect that dances on the tunes of the mind. Mind demands something, based on the deep rooted desires, and intellect begins to think of the ways to fulfill the demand, without even analyzing the repercussions or the purpose of the demands of mind. In this manner the impish mind doesn’t let the being to gain inner peace, even for a moment. Because of untamed mind, the being got caught in the web of this illusionary world and suffers throughout the life.
The goal of the true seeker is to enlighten the intellect- to purify and strengthen the intellect with the help of true knowledge and realization of Self. Only a purified intellect can control the impish mind and calm it down so that it can experience the deep sensation of inner happiness. Eventually the intellect becomes so pure and subtle that it attains union with the consciousness. That state of the intellect is called as ‘ritambra-pragya’. During such a state of intellect, mind experiences the highest form of blissfulness.
The goal of this blog is to invoke eagerness – eagerness to acquire Self knowledge and to have faith in the teachings of the wise men. If you have the zeal, you would seek company of Self realized ones, try to listen to their talks or read their writings for gaining the wisdom of the Self. In this manner the seeker is motivated to spend some time in solitude to perform self analysis and meditation. Eventually the intellect of such a seeker attains purity and the mind attains tranquility. The experienced holy men tells that even if the mind experiences such a blissfulness for as little as three minutes, then the mind will stop hankering for the outer pleasures of the world and the being becomes truly free, which some calls emancipation. It is to be noted that such emancipation can be achieved while living, not after death.
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