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Before proceeding to explain the definition of Parabrahmam with which my last article closes, I beg to inform my readers that in the opinion of Adwaitees, the Upanishads and the Brahmasutras fully support their views an the subject. It is distinctly affirmed in the Upanishads that Parabrahmam which is but the bare potentiality of pragna,*[1] is not an aspect of pragna or ego in any shape and that it has neither life nor consciousness. "H. X." will be able to ascertain that such is really the case on examining the Mundaka and Mundukya Upanishads. The language used here and there in the Upanishads is apt to mislead one into the belief that such language points to the existence of a conscious Iswar. But the necessity for such language will be perceived on examining the following remarks.
From a close examination of Mill's Cosmological theory as explained in my last article, it will be clearly seen that it will be extremely difficult to account satisfactorily for the generation of conscious states in any human being from the stand-point of the said theory. It is generally stated that sensations arise in us from the action of the external objects around us: they are the effects of impressions made on our senses by the objective world in which we exist. This is simple enough to an ordinary mind, however difficult it may be to account for the transformation of a cerebral nerve-current into a state of consciousness.
But from the stand-point of Mill's theory we have no proof of the existence of any external object; even the objective existence of our own senses is not a matter of certainty to us. How, then, are we to account for and explain the origin of our mental states, if they are the only entities existing in this world? No explanation is really given by saying that one mental state gives rise to another mental state as may be shown to a certain extent by the operation of the so-called psychological "Laws of Association." Western psychology honestly admits that its analysis has not gone any further.
- ↑ * The power or the capacity that gives rise to perception.
