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Re: Atmaa : Do I have one ?
rajaroy@ecf.toronto.edu (Roy Raja) wrote:
> This is what I have been thinking about. Who am I, or Why am I.
> According to Sankhya, there are two fundamental things in universe :
> Purush and Prakriti. Prakriti goes through transformation when universe
> comes into being, but Purush remains unchanged. However since Prakriti
> is inanimate, it can not go through transformation on its own, but it
> happens due to the presence of Purush.
> Let's take another example here of a computer. Computer has a hardware,
> software, but it won't run without electricity. We have a body, mind, but
> we won't be alive without Atmaa. Let's assume there is a computer that
> can think. What should it identify with : its hardware, its software, or
> its electricity? To me it is hard to identify with electricity.
Here, I am thinking aloud. I don't claim to have answers.
We perceive electricity as electrons flowing in copper (or silicon).
That's possibly because we are made of the same stuff as the copper.
If we can visualise creatures that are electrical in nature, living in
the copper as it were, their perceptions would be very different.They
could clearly identify different electrical entities in the waves that
ebb and flow, which to us would be merely fluctuations in the flow.
The computer hardware and software probably cannot visualise such
'electrical entities' and imagine only this continuum called
'electrical energy'. We, who are outside of the hardware/software
mindtrap, if we open our imagination, may possibly be able to
visualise such entities.
Does a wave in the ocean exist or is it simply a clumping of water
molecules? It is born, it grows up, it appears to exist for a while,
then it dashes itself to death on a distant shore. Which is the wave?
The water, the peculiar clumping of molecules or the energy that
generates the wave?
Peace.
SV Singam
Minden, Penang
