Life – A Process and Karmam ( activity ) : 1

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The philosophy of the Vedanta makes a distinction between existence as such and the experience of any type of existence.

  We may say, if we would like, that a fact or an existence is absolute so far as it goes, and a subjective experience of it is relative. 

 Human life is a psychological process, and not an immutable existence. A knowledge of the functions of the mind is essential to understand life in its fullness. 

 In the observation of the mind we can have no instrument, such as the ones we use in observing, measuring, examining or cleaning outward things. 

 The mind is the student as well as the object of study, when life as a whole is the theme that we wish to investigate and comprehend. 

 In a famous image given in the Kathopanishad, the inner self of man is compared to a lord seated in a chariot, the body to the chariot, the intellect to the charioteer, the mind to the reins, the senses to the horses pulling the chariot, and the objects of the senses to the roads along which the chariot is driven. 

 The Upanishad gives a caution that the supreme state can be reached only by him who has as his charioteer a powerfully discriminative intellect which directs the restive horses of the senses with the aid of the reins of the mind, and not by anyone else who may have a bad charioteer. 

 The meaning of this analogy is that the human individuality and personality are outer forms and instruments to be properly used by the inner directive intelligence towards the great destination of life, and not to be taken as ends in themselves or mistaken for reality as such.
Continues...

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