Bunch of molecules

When we come to know about the body, mind etc we wonder somehow on what these things work. How does the mind think?. What prompts it to think the thoughts ? We know that thoughts come and go and they are completely random. But why do i think a particular thought?. It seems that it is beyond my control. Suddenly i start thinking about something with no connection to my present situation . Sometimes it is triggered by some question or situation. But the thoughts branch out to wild ways . What impels it to think the way it does?.

I know most of you might have wondered about this as an afterthought. The same doubt is expressed by the student in Kena upanishad. Kena means "By whom directed"

केनेषितं पतति प्रेषितं मनः
केन प्राणः प्रथमः प्रैति युक्तः ।
केनेषितां वाचमिमां वदन्ति
चक्षुः श्रोत्रं क उ देवो युनक्ति ॥ 

"On whose instigation and command does the mind get in to the worldly objects? On whose desire does it work? And on whose push is it dumped in to the worldly cycle of samsaara? By whose order does the life breath do its duty? By whose direction and control are the people uttering these words? Which reality is putting the sense organs (like the eyes and ears) in to their respective work? "


The Guru replies in quiet an uncharacteristic mystic style
"That one which is the ear (or the hearing organ) of the ear, the mind of the mind and the speech of the speech is the life breath of the life breath and is the eye of the eye. Those wise men who were able to know it and have understood it leave behind themselves all sorts of attachment. By that renunciation, they attain immortality. "

Instead of saying directly that it is pure consciousness that breathes life into these, the guru says it is the eye of the eye, ear of the ear and the mind of the mind. What this means can be understood like this.

Look at any electric instrument. It has a certain capability. Say a mobile phone or an electric iron.

But it cannot work unless electricity is put into it. So just like that it is the field of consciousness filling everywhere that is impelling to do all the tasks and do the thinking etc. It is the cause but is not intermingled with any of the things. It stays silently behind all illumining this.

As vidyarana swami said during a drama a lamp is kept in the stage. This lamp can illumine all actors whether they are villian or hero and all objects also. The objects require the lamp but the lamp doesnt require them. So it is the pure consciousness that is the source of all things that we see including living and non living objects breathing life force into all impelling them to perform and yet it itself unmoved and untouched by any of them.

However as we have seen this light is clouded by the objects just like the sun when it sets. Even when it sets the moon is shining from its light. So the mind also is shining from it only and just as moon can never be as bright as the sun, the mind is nothing compared to the sun that is underneath .

Let us try to understand this pure "I AM". Now i move in this world as "I am Renjith". This is a knowledge. A knowledge that comes from somewhere and also it arises somewhere. I know that it is not a fundamental knowledge.  I can change my name anytime. So perhaps i can think something much more fundamental . Maybe how about " I am a man". It looks slightly better.

Because whatever be my name , I am still a man.  

Now i ask myself where from this knowledge comes. From outwardly features and various biological factors. What are biological factors?. Most cells in my body have some characteristic(one chromosome) which distinguishes me from a woman. A woman too has cells but they have some characteristic which is different. So I can say more fundamentally " I am a group of cells"

Now what are these cells?. These cells are made of some organic molecules at the fundamental level. 

Mainly hydro carbons and lot of simple water. So " I am a bunch of molecules". 

Now from this bunch of molecules to reach a level of understanding that it is me, some evolution must have happened. There are lot of molecules in this universe. So what fundamentally different is that they seem not to express any knowledge or at least we cannot perceive it. If the universe was devoid of any consciousness then the bunch of molecules would not have come into understanding anything like i do. So that something which yields this knowledge as I am to a bunch of molecules called me is the basic stuff of the universe. 

That basic stuff consciousness which breathes knowledge into a bunch of molecules have to pervade the universe or reality . Living or non living all should be in it . If not ,how did it get trapped in only certain life forms. If there is one such background of consciousness , all distinctions are only of the name and form. All beings and things are only appearances in it. If so what i understand as a group of cells called me is only that -a "group of cells". It is not ME.

I am actually that undivided background of consciousness which is the mind of the mind and eye of the eye. In fact there is only one reality this basic pure consciousness and I AM THAT. 

What appears as the mind is only a modification of me  , an appearance in me. What appears as the senses are also merely minor modifications in me. 

All appearances are transitory and i know that too. But I am untouched by all these changes. Underneath these sea of objects , appearances, changes and imagery i stand  witnessing all of them for ever. As the molecules dissolve into the universe i watch that too.  I have come back from where i was always, the eternal witness.

If  I am that what should i strive for?. What do i gain by effort?.

na puṇyaṃ na pāpaṃ na saukhyaṃ na duhkhaṃ

na mantro na tīrthaṃ na vedā na yajña

ahaṃ bhojanaṃ naiva bhojyaṃ na bhoktā

cidānandarūpaḥ śivo'ham śivo'ham 

from Nirvana Shatakam by Shankacharya