Sūtra 4.4 [Nirmāṇacitta—Artificial Minds]

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation of sūtra 4.4 [nirmāṇacitta—artificial minds]:

निर्माणचित्तान्यस्मितामात्रात् ॥ ४.४ ॥

nirmāṇacittānyasmitāmātrāt || 4.4 ||

(4) When the Yogī constructs many bodies, have they only one mind or many minds? (In reply to such a question it is being said—). All created minds are constructed from pure I-sense.

Ancient and Modern interpretation:

Araṇya explains,^[1] when the mind of a yogī is barren and unproductive as a burnt seed through the acquisition of discriminative knowledge, its natural activities cease for want of latent impressions. Such yogīs, however give instructions on spiritual knowledge and piety for the benefit of all creatures. It is said that this is done by them with self created minds i.e. by pure I-sense which is free from fluctuations and latencies thereof. These created minds can be terminated at will. Hence, they do not collect latencies of nescience and do not give rise to bondage.

Araṇya says,^[2]

In powers acquired through other means, i.e. by virtue of birth etc., the person having them excercises those powers involuntarily, whereas in powers acquired through yogic concentration the case is different as each exercise of power is completely voluntary. In this case the power is employed for the purpose of destroying afflictions such as desires, hatred, etc. and is thus destructive of latent impressions.

Osho says, artificially created minds proceed from egoism alone. He gives ^[3] example of a just born child. He smiles at mother as he knows that she will be giving him food for survival. This ego creates artificial mind and as child grows, these minds have different egos.

Taimni explains^[4] this with the example of a seed getting transformed into tree with the help of environment and natural forces. This seed has inbuilt power and this exists all around us in every sphere of life. This is established in mahat tattva. Only difference is it takes time for tree to grow, but production of ‘artificial mind’ takes place instantaneously.

Apavarga or liberation is not possible unless the cittāśaya is free from all vāsanās and saṃskāras.

The storehouse of the saṃskāras acquired through cycles of births and deaths is so vast that it is not possible to empty the citta in one life time. The purpose of creating artificial minds is to get rid of saṃskāras very quickly. It must be noted that while the ‘natural mind’ which one acquires through evolutionary process is illuminated by puruṣa, the artificial minds are constructed from pure I–sense. (asmitā mātrā)

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Araṇya, op.cit., p.351

[2]:

Ibid., p.354

[3]:

op.cit., p.15

[4]:

op.cit., p.389