THE DIGIFORM LIFE
The human life as opposed to the linear or analogous life of all other beings is digital in the mathematical sense. The quality of life remains a manifestation between the binary 0 and 1, YES and NO, OFF and ON and so on. However, the mystery of its being lies in the interim position of 0 and 1. This is the position where neither 1 nor zero nor any of its negative (opposite) values exist
The symbols 0 represent sin and the symbol 1 represents Purity. Thus a person seen to be pious, doing well, rich in material or any other trait, or just a pleasant personality is closer to being the digit1. On the other hand a person perceived to be suffering, poor in worldly wealth or personal attributes, handicapped or just of unpleasant nature will be closer to the digit 0. Two things are noteworthy. Firstly there may no ideal 0 or 1 and the person can be classified close the applicable digit and secondly, we mean to be unbiased, hence neither 0 nor 1 can be said to be good or bad, they are merely opposite to each other. Therefore a person will perceive an activity as good or bad depending on the circumstances – mindset.
However, at one of these ends are God and his blessings of one kind. A person who wishes to stay eternally at this end will always chant the name of Vishnu, One who balances cosmic wellbeing. At the other end is also God, but with different kinds of blessings for worldly pleasures and fulfillments. Persons who are happy to be at this end will constantly go through cycles of Ups and Downs of Maya as per their Karmas. Then there will be souls who despite being in one zone will transit through the other, either physically or mentally and will be able to decide where they would wish to be.
One end gives us the chance to have uninterrupted pleasure at Gods feet and he will strive to devote his resources to emulate life on the lines of the Shastras and associate with similar people of the society. These souls will have mental peace while following the rituals described in the Vedas and other scriptures. They will master their senses and submit every thing they do to the Almighty. It is these people who will, through selfless service, hint at emancipation of other souls and maintain the gracious presence of the Gods in all their actions
The other end likewise, has all the worldly charms as it is lying in lap of Maya. These souls (perceived as sinners) will always enjoy worldly ways of sin. They will bask in the sunshine of wealth, fame in the eyes of similar sinners and will be happy to offer part of this wealth to the cause of God. This act is always out of fear or greed. They aim to either avert the imaginary wrath of Gods or to beget more of what their senses want. To this purpose they will visit temples, make offerings or any thing in the name of God under the influence of Maya. They are always programmed to sink deeper and deeper into the Sin.
But in this world no one is a perfect 0 or a perfect 1, but close to these digits in varying measures. One may say we all exist in the fuzzy domain between the limits of 0 and 1. Perhaps all people lie in this grey area. These souls constantly seek the pleasures of human birth and are genuinely grateful to God for their being. They will avoid any thing perceived as sinful by and large but do not seek the divine bliss. They prefer other worldly pleasures. They do understand true happiness at the feet of God but are not sincere to break their shackles and lures of this sinful world. It must be understood that the lowest in our being humans is the body and in an ascending order the next is Indriya (perception/sensory), the mind, the intelligence and finally the Atman. The Atman unlike others before it is not part of the human being, it is a separate entity that stays in a sub atomic space (Kaustabh) located close to the heart, but it is not dependent on any body function for its existence. The other parameters are entirely dependent on the body for either nourishment or development. Even intelligence is a result of the observations and analytical powers of the mind; the mind itself being a function of the experience of the body and the indriya. The mind is in constant motion and it presents several facets of the experience and choosing the option becomes a function of the Intelligence (Budhdhi). Since Atman does not take part in actions and reactions of the human being, it is always pure and unaffected by any worldly process.
The role of the Atma is to activate – grant activity - to the reaction functions of the body. The actions are generated by the man (mind) and atman itself does not interact with man but has an overall controlling function through sanskaras. The five sensors for perception (knowledge); namely ears, nose, skin (feel), tongue and the eyes and five functional (motion) preceptors; namely, hands, feet, speech, bowels and the urinary tract. The mind is above these ten preceptors. The mind gets continuous feeds from the first five sensors and it takes one final action using or not using the next five. This may be good, bad or non-action. The reason why the body functions exist is to satisfy the basic reason for life. It has been said that life was created from a single cell and to provide momentum to it was instilled with the thoughts of ego, anger and sex. These three factors provided momentum to life. Hence what ever activity the body does it does for these three reasons. To create reason for life God created the Panch Tanmatra Causes; namely, voice (word- akhshara), feel, beauty (form-rup), interest (juice or ras) and smell (gandh). It is true that once life departs from a body and Atman has moved out to mingle with Param-Atman, the ten functions of the body cease. A person no longer sees, hears, and smells, etc. the man (mind) no longer processes these perceptions. We say the body has died. The truth is akin to say the Atman has left the body like one would leave his clothes to wear new ones after he has taken a bath.
The man is not a part of the body, either. As per the 34th Chapter of Yajurveda, it is said that man has immense speed, capacity to work itself by night and day, is located inside the heart and alike a sarathi (chariot driver) who is for ever in command of his steed, it never ages (ajara), knowledgeable of the working of the three tenses of Kala (times), power house to the indriyans (sensors or preceptors of the body), capable of sidhi (proving/ activating), capable of taking a nirnaya (decision), capable of smriti (memory), capable of functioning under the three basic forces of life, i.e. Ego, sex and anger, not dying with the body and understanding of knowledge and sciences. Even then, it has an existence different from the atman. Essentially, atman is Godly and has particle existence whereas the man is a state or nature or prakrati of a person. While atman is pure and always neutral to body functions the mind and which works, with the preceptors and is responsible for the body’s actions and reaction by closely linking itself to body functions. Hence the mind may become dooshit (corrupted) and take decisions on short term assessments which may not follow the pious dictates of Holy Scriptures or cosmic wishes. Atman controls the minds functions through sanskaras and man controls the body functions largely, on short term feeds of the preceptors.
For control of the mind (and also its sensors), it is true that one must go through education and childhood in the presence of Guru and parents. These are the guides of ones destiny. They must learn the true service to God on the one hand and on the other learn the vocation acumen of the family. Apart from Bhakti and skills of lively hood they learn to respect elders, shrishti and all other sciences. This goes on till the age of say 25 prepares one for the Grihasth Ashram, where he will rear children and conduct him self to earn enough for them. God himself has ordained that we procreate, hence this stage is truly the service of God and in order to give a proper platform to his children for their independent survival it is necessary to live the life of Maya. But then, his sanskaras will always make all his actions to first please the God and then follow the routines of the world. He will respect the society, promote good behaviour and generally will be benevolent to all persons touching his life. Once the responsibility of family and society gets reduced, he will draw himself to God once again. Such a person will have done his duty of raising a family and then get back to service of God.
The sinner does not have the benefits of Guru or parents in the true sense. His environment does not let him follow the teachings of good people. Such people try to write their own destiny. They even induce this behaviour in their children. They are lazy and follow shortcuts, mostly not caring where the shortcut will lead them to. Such people are given to fear and greed for pleasures. They have given up God and totally fallen for Maya. These people will never return to God sincerely as the charm of worldly matters is overpowering for them. Such people will always be pained from what ever they achieve or do not achieve. There can not be a sense of completeness and therefore they will always suffer. With no definite charted pattern of living they merely drift further into the sinful ways of the world.
We have earlier stated that neither 0 nor 1 is GOOD or BAD. This is because there is a state of happiness and bliss and when this does not exist we say there is absence of happiness. It is not necessary that there has to be a negative happiness, if there is no happiness. All religions say that man is a sinner and therefore will always be unhappy due to his sins. The sanskaras and ones control of his mind to condition activity for the good of every one is paramount. The GOOD can be realized after the results of ones doing fructify. Thus after a person has helped another needy person to survive in any form, the feeling of fulfillment or well being sets in. Similarly, when one has been knowingly cruel to another, there is a sense of guilt and wrong doing. In both cases the person to whom the acts of goodness or evil were done may never react to the doer and simply accept it as his destiny. Hence, it is right to say only that either 0 or 1 had existed or that either GOOD or BAD existed without reference to the other.