Creative Mystery of a Prepared Mind

Newton wasn’t the only person in the world on whose head an apple fell. Yet, it was Newton who immediately grasped the meaning of gravity after this experience. When Einstein heard that a painter had fallen from the roof, he asked the painter how he felt while falling down. The painter’s reply that he felt weightless propelled Einstein into formulating his General Theory of Relativity. Both Newton and Einstein and countless other discoverers of truth produced great ideas from every day observations because their minds were in a state of preparedness.

A prepared mind is the sanyam of Patanjali’s Yoga Darshan. How is the knowledge perceived by the prepared mind? Knowledge is of two types – internal and external. Internal knowledge is the outcome of information stored in the brain and churning and processing by deep thought. External knowledge is gained when deep thought interacts with it in the knowledge space. This interaction takes the place then the prepared mind produces a thought whose template matches the object of perception in a lock and key type interaction leading to knowledge. A sensitive brain can identify itself with any idea or object in the world. Once Sri Ramakrishna, while in a heightened state of awareness saw a person walking in the grass and felt as if that person was walking on his chest.

Knowledge about the universal consciousness or God or how the Universe is made already exists in knowledge space. Access to this space is time-dependent and not person-dependent. So even if there was somebody else, other than Newton or Einstein, they would have received the knowledge provided they had a prepared mind. Many people get similar ideas simultaneously and independently – the renaissance period in Europe and spiritual awakening in India in the late 1800s are examples of this serendipity.

We cannot think more than what already exists in the Universe. At best we can discover the already existing truths. Thus the products of even our wildest dreams and imaginations exist some where in the universe. Mental preparedness helps us discover them.

Mental preparedness is achieved through hard work and great discipline. Even if some people are predisposed to discovery, sanyam has to be inculcated. Knowledge comes only to those who pursue it vigorously. Will power plays an important role – hence the saying that God helps only those who help themselves.

When a person is in deep thought the ego sense vanishes. Ego arises when the inputs from the senses are active. In deep thought the person’s concentration blocks the sense inputs and hence the ego sense is suppresses. Therefore a continuous practice of yoga and sanyam can help sublimate the ego into universal consciousness. Then there is no ego, the prepared mind should be able to perceive the universal knowledge. This does happen sometimes during the dreaming process where the “I” is partially absent. Thinking deeply about something helps one discover profound truths even during the dreaming process. Kekule saw the structure of the benzene molecule in a dream. Gandhi too got the idea to undertake the Dandi March from a dream.

Deep thought or sanyam besides producing happiness also helps the brain offload memories. Yogis have known all along that through yoga one can shed the sanskaras or memories and achieve liberation. Recently scientists have photographed for the first time the formation and dissolution of memories in brain of rats. It is quite possible that under intense stimulus of sanyam the same dissolution of memory take place in humans.