Dr Harish Chandra delivered a two-hour talk on Inner Sciences: Can We Prove Them?

Here is the summary of Dr harish session.

Last month we discussed that the inner sciences must be provable. Then we went on to discuss pleasure and pain – something the life experiences lead to. It is the inherent nature of our consciousness that we feel pleasure and pain. Then we asked, in the words of the ancient Sage Kapila, what could be the universally painful experience and universally pleasant experience, if any. Kapila had observed that hunger and sound sleep are the universally painful and pleasant experiences, respectively.
Let us now examine how Kapila made these observations and brought spirituality within the purview of a scientific inquiry. He observed that the sound sleep is the universally pleasant experience that has been experienced by one and all, right from an infant to the oldest person on the earth. Its universality is two-fold: 1) Every human being has had a taste of it, and 2) Whenever we have the sound sleep, we enjoy it. It should be pointed out here that the sound sleep is the deep sleep without dreams, called susupti in Sanskrit. While we may overlook sleep as a trivial event, Kapila's outstanding genius saw much within it. First and foremost, the sound sleep is an experience when our body and mind domains are void of any conscious voluntary functions. Any other life experience is made possible by a certain activity level in our body and/or mind domains.
For example, when I drink a cup of coffee and if I am enjoying its taste then my body and mind are functioning. My taste buds come in contact with the coffee and the mind is very much "connected to the 'taste signals' being brought in by my sense organ of taste." The particular taste signals, being to my liking at the particular moment of time, gives rise to the sensation of pleasure. Let us now discuss another kind of life experience when I am bodily inactive (except for the involuntary functions such as breathing, blood circulation, etc.) and I am lost in recollecting some past pleasant events. I find the recollection of the past pleasant events as a pleasant experience and during this experience certain "voluntary functions" take place in the mind domain.
In contrast to the above two instances (the first one related to the drinking of a cup of coffee and the second one pertaining to the recollection of the past pleasant events) when the body and mind domains are voluntarily active in the first instance and the mind domain alone is active in the second instance, the sound sleep is characterized as an experience when both, the body and mind domains are void of any voluntary functions. Kapila says that the fact that 'I' enjoy sound sleep when my body and mind domains are inactive means that 'I' am something beyond my body and mind. That 'I' is truly the 'me' and my true consciousness. That is my spirit, my soul.
Furthermore, according to Kapila, the sound sleep is found to be pleasant by everybody and at all times, and therefore, it demonstrates that there is a source of absolute pleasure, called ananda. This Sanskrit word denotes an experience different from the typical joys and pleasures of the life that it has no negative counterpart as the other synonyms have (for example, sukha-duhkha, santi-asanti, etc.). Indeed, this absolute pleasure is possessed by the Cosmic Spirit that permeates through the entire universe. The Cosmic Spirit is called saccidananda in Sanskrit – this is a compound word made of sat, cit and ananda, meaning it is existent, consciousness and blissful.
The creation allows our tiny individual spirit to look forward to the absolute pleasure that has its infinite abundance in the infinite Cosmic Spirit. The Cosmic Spirit would share its tastiest sap with the deserving souls. The creation gives us an opportunity to demonstrate that we deserve the tastiest sap of ananda. By default every one of us has been enjoying the sound sleep as if to be reminded at the end of the day that "do not get lost in the world for the temporal pleasures that come and go, and never become permanent." The fact that the sound sleep comes to every conscious being as default bears a condition that we are unaware of its real time pleasure. Though the sound sleep is universally pleasant yet we have no real time awareness of that 'universal pleasure.' However, it's a wonderful 'out of the world' experience and it leaves sufficient after-effect that once we are awake, we recall that 'I enjoyed the sleep.' As if the Cosmic Spirit would like us to become more deserving to obtain the absolute pleasure in its real time conscious mode. Kapila said that this indeed is the objective of the human life and is possible only in the human life though all species enjoy the sound sleep. He then goes on to elaborate the principles of Yoga to realize this objective, and the same Yoga principles were further elaborated by Patanjali in his classic Yoga- Darsanam at a later time. It is heartening to see that the present world is making a conscious shift from the religious spirituality to the scientific spirituality when it is exploring more of itself inward while sitting for meditation.
In summary, Kapila proves that a tiny spirit exists within us because we feel the pleasant nature of the expereince known as the sound sleep, called susupti in Sanskrit. During the sound sleep, both body and mind domains are void of voluntary functions. Therefore, the entity that recollects at the end of the sound sleep that "I had a wonderful sleep" or "I enjoyed the sleep" must be an entity beyond the body and mind domains - that entity is my true spirit further inward to the domains of the body and mind. Indeed this is my true spirit that enjoys a cup of coffee and the recollection of the past pleasant events when the body and/or mind domains play merely the role of an instrument. Parenthetically, Kapila makes another important observation from the fact that the sound sleep is a universally pleasant experience. He says that an entity does exist in the universe that is abundant of ananda, a Sanskrit word for universal absolute pleasure. That entity is the Cosmic Spirit.
It should be sufficient at this stage to say that both the spirits, namely the tiny spirit of an individual human being and the Cosmic Spirit in the universe, are provable. As we will discuss the inner sciences further, we will get further closer to their understanding. Center for Inner Sciences (CIS) is committed to traversing this exciting journey with you in such a manner that it utilizes the myriads of the human faculties, and without forgetting that the bottom line is to enjoy every moment of this journey. The next article will emphasize that the human life must be lived in a dignified manner using all our potentials – both, the head and the heart. CIS believes in a rational approach that appeals to our head and get closer to the humanism that resides in the heart of every human being.
- Dr. Harish Chandra