The Special Created Entity Known as the Mind (II)

The mind-organ, simply referred to as ‘the mind’, is a personality-like entity. It has three states:

§  Wakefulness

§  Dreaming

§  Deep sleep

Since the organism’s or jiva’s consciousness is bound up with the mind, these three states also lead to three states for the jiva.

There seems to be quite a sophisticated ‘wiring up’ of the transcendental and the material here—a sophisticated interplay between the physical (mind) and the spiritual (jiva). The consciousness of the (embodied) pure personality is entirely its own but the mind, through its three states, exerts a limiting influence on it. Sleep is deathly; but purusa, the pure personality embedded within the body, is all life.

The psychical-material entity, mind, seems to be a little different from the other material units in that it seems to have certain special, personality-like features. It occupies the ‘senior most’ rung in the hierarchy of the microcosm. One gets the impression that it is a special material device having ‘intelligence’ specially designed to act as the intermediary between the purusa and the organs of sense and action, of the body. By aligning with it, the spiritual personality becomes organism (jiva)—a resident of the material ecosystem that is creation. The mind-organ, therefore, when viewed in the light of its special function of forging a connection with spirit, does not appear to be as inert (jada) as the other units of the psycho-physical frame of the organism. It is relatively more active and ‘intelligent;’ I think it would be safe to call it a device. However, even in that case, it must always be remembered, it is wholly material.

The thoughts we think are our own, not the mind’s. The mind's ‘consciousness’ seems to consist chiefly of the sensations, perceptions, etc. that it conveys to us, the pure personality, for feeling and experiencing. It may also have some autonomic functions of its own. As a device, of course, as already mentioned, it can be in one of the three states or modes.