Thought and Belief.

According to our Indian system of philosophy, there are
Manas, Buddhi, and Chitta which are three separate faculties. Manas  (Mind) controls and coordinates the Pancha
Indriyas . The Indriyas are: two eyes; two ears; nose; mouth and the body
including both hands and legs. The Indriyas gather sensation through seeing;
hearing; smelling; tasting and touching. The sensation is transmitted to the
brain (the instrument of Buddhi) through the mind. In return the mind receives
instruction for response from Buddhi . For adequate response Buddhi may seek
information from memory or Chitta. This is a mechanical activity in a
normal healthy person. Consider the example: You see a person on your way. The
moment you see the person you recognize him as your friend and act accordingly.
In that split second your system has undergone all the steps mentioned above.

So long as these three faculties operate we are not
disturbed. There is this fourth faculty AHAM which converts the purely
mechanical function to one of personal function. ‘I’ enters in the picture. In
fact this ‘I’ is the first thought in us. This thought drives us through out
our life.  All we have to do in our life
is satisfy it’s wants; allay it’s fears and secure it from real or imagined
danger of it’s survival. This ‘I’ thought sees itself as separate from the
world. I AM different from everything else around me is the beginning of a
distortion and an illusion. Since it has divided itself from rest of the world
around, the ‘I’ has a tendency to divide everything it comes across. ‘I’ as we
said, is a thought, it drives our world. We begin our life with a drawback. Do
you see it?

To depend on this thought entirely is unreliable because it
gives a distorted view of the world. Yet all the profound philosophies;
religious books; great kingdoms; great monuments, things of desire and wants;
means of entertainment are all based on the thought alone. Where will it lead?
It will lead to division, confusion and conflict as we see around us and never
towards lasting values in life. This is the lesson Mahabaratha teaches us.  Mahabaratha war took place 5100 years ago,
you can visualize that there were great people of Sanskar on both sides like
Bhisma Pitamaha; Vidur; Dhronacharya; and Kripa Charya on the Kaurava side; and
there were Dharmaraj and Krishna on the Pandava side, besides Veda Vyasa, yet the war was inevitable
because the divisive thought was at play in every instance. We are not talking
of a tradition of good conduct and behavior which is more a matter of common
sense.

      The legacy of
religion and philosophy left behind by our ancestors is what we call Sanskar.
The Sanskar could be a day old or a thousand years old, it is the same thing.
It is the Establishment as coined in the modern social context. Sanskar is
tradition. This Sanskar or tradition builds an enclosure of four walls around
you and would like to make sure that you are imprisoned in it for all your
life. You are so used to it that even if you rebel, you will fall into the trap
some other way because your thoughts are oriented only for a traditional
outlook in life. You can never hope to be free, in the true sense of the word.
The phrase in Sanskrit is, you are forced to float in Samsara Sagara and not
attempt to come out. It is also comfortable. It gives many opportunities, why
will one wish to come out? Freedom on the other hand is very adventurous and
reward uncertain.  If you consider this
Sanskar whether it is ancient philosophy and religion on one hand or modern
science on the other, is an edifice built on belief. It is another matter that
you find a belief no more valid and replace it with another one. It is yet
belief. We give a flavor to it by calling that it is Faith. The whole of Islam
and Christianity to a very large extent is based on this faith. After 12^th
Century even Hinduism is largely influenced by faith.

What is belief?  Consider
an example. Let us say, I accost you and ask you whether you know God? What
will you reply? Will you say, I don’t know, which the correct reply is. More
often you will not say that. You will say yes, I know there is God.   Now
what is this knowledge? This knowledge is based on books. The book is a dead
thing. You give life to it by reading it and accept the contents thereof to
arrive at the conclusion. The book may be a latest one or it may be the oldest
Veda. Alternatively, religious authorities and your parents accepted the
proposition that there is God because their parents believed so in a hierarchy
that goes back to thousands of years. Yet it is a belief and not a fact. We
also do not have time to investigate the matter on our own so we accept the
line of least resistance!  The man who
has seen God will not say so because he will become Bhagwan!

I am not advocating that you should shun Sanskar. All I say
is look at it at its true value in life. Let it not become a stumbling block in
intellectual advancement. You must have an open mind. You will be enriched in
the process.