The Ascent towards Supermind, Part II, Chapter XXVI - The Ascent towards Supermind 405

You will examine any kind of higher studies or any kind of studies; all studies are basically nothing but definitions. When you study any subject basically what you are trying to study is definitions. Even a subject like geography if you want to study, which is purely geographical, physical understanding without definitions you won’t be able to understand geography. There are some minimal definitions round which the whole study of the geography lies. Even physics which is purely a matter of pure physical objects, physics also is the study of certain basic words, − what is atom, molecule, properties of density, what is density, what is magnetism, what is electricity? You are constantly trying to find the concepts, definitions. The more definitions you have in your mind, the more clear and precise is your mind.

One of the best ways to educating the children is to make the child very clear and conscious of definitions of the words which are used. This is the quicker way of educating the child’s mind. The more developed mind is one which has great clarities of a number of definitions and something more, plus their interconnections. It’s a new idea that I am introducing. To see an object physically is one level of the physical mind, to be able to define an object by the help of essence and universality.

To define an object by the help of the concepts of essence, identity and universality is an activity of pure mind. This is the preliminary movement of the pure mind but you begin to perceive connections between ideas, between definitions, normally it takes a long time for us to see the connections.

There is famous novel written by one great novelist and in the front page of his novel, there is only one line, ‘there are connections’. The message of the whole novel is, − there are connections. All the time we go on connecting things but to become aware that we are connecting things, to become aware that there are connections in this world, is a new awareness, a freshness in the consciousness. When you see the connections of one and the other, you will feel a sparkling in your consciousness. When you see for the first time a connection between this and that - all detectives are in search of connections. Detectives have to be extremely clear in their minds, without any bias. Pure mind has to function on the data available and find connections between them and ultimately arrive at connections which are inevitable. This is the third idea that I am putting forward. It is only when connections are established inevitably that you can be sure of the truth.

Very often when we say what is the truth there are no direct simple answers. A truth corresponds to a fact, normally. Secondly, truth corresponds to connections and then truth refers to inevitable connections. A developed pure mind is a mind in which there are great perceptions of inevitable connections. A good detective when he comes to your house on any inquiry he sees inevitable connections between certain things, which you do not know about your own house. Because he has developed his pure mind, what is true of a good detective, is true of a good lawyer, good doctor, any proficiency depends upon this. A child has hiccups and the doctor can tell you the connections, inevitable connections as to why there are hiccups for this child, which you and I may not be able to understand. An expert is one, who has seen inevitable connections and out of several inevitable connections there is one on which the good doctor goes straight and says this is entirely because of this and there is no other cause. That is the difference between doctors and doctors. Many doctors can say that this may be because of this or that but the real expert simply says this is entirely because of this inevitable connection. How do you see inevitable connections this is also a sight. In the physical world you don’t see inevitable connections anywhere, things are all pell-mell. What is the connection between this house and this chess board, what is the inevitable connection, there is hardly any. Apparently that seems to be a pure accident, a chance, it so happens – why Anjali has organized this chess on this table, just fancy, looks nice. But a wiser man may be able to detect even what Anjali doesn’t know − why this chess is here. There is some kind of inevitable connection, may be, must be.

Perceptions of essence, identity, universality, perceptions of connections based upon these three basic concepts, and perception of inevitable connections, these three layers of a pure mind, which is a large domain is what we are capable of at our ordinary level, − is all ordinary mind.

At the highest level this realm of pure mind is what we have described until now. When this mind becomes very complex, take for example one single book of Plato called ‘Republic’. It’s a big volume; one of the most famous books in the world. The subject matter of this book is, ‘what is justice’. It is written in the form of a dialogue and the main person with whom the dialogue is made is Socrates. As I said Socrates was fond of defining and the main subject is, what is the definition of justice? That was the question and various ideas of justice are brought forth. The whole book is various notions of justice discussed and after discussing so many definitions of justice like, ‘justice is what the mighty think’ is one definition. Many definitions are brought forth; I am not going into that now. It’s a huge book in which the whole universe is analyzed because of the result of the various kinds of definitions; Socrates is obliged to examine the whole world. After examining the whole world he comes to one conclusion, − ‘Justice is a state where everything is in its own right place, in the right relationship with all the rest.’ This is his ultimate definition of justice, − ‘it’s a state where everything is exactly where its right relationship brings it to be’ and this is one of the greatest definitions of justice.