Human Nature – Beyond the Limits

Written by Hari Prasad Shastri in 1951

Descartes found that the fact of the existence of Self is self-evident and needs no proof. It is indubitable: I think, therefore I am. Kant postulates several ideas which he calls a priori, that is, they are not planted in the mind from outside but are natural to the mind.

‘I am’ is a fact and not an illusion. Some Buddhist philosophers doubt it and postulate the theory of Annata, selflessness (in the sense of being without a self). But our experience contradicts it. The force which integrates the functions of the mind and gives a feeling of unity to our self is Self. One who says: ‘I have no tongue’, contradicts himself. If he has no organs of speech, how could he say: ‘I have no tongue.’?

Our experience also shows that the fact of the final death of the individual is undeniable. We are under a constant delusion and cannot imagine the death of the body. What has cast this delusion? Death is as hard a fact as ‘I am’. In spite of our care, and the claims of various groups, human beings are mortal.

We are thinking beings, not automata. If we have to undertake a journey, we prepare for it. Even holidays are carefully planned by thoughtful people. As long as we desire a cold drink in hot weather, think of taking an umbrella on a rainy day, tie the laces of our shoes when we go out, we must plan our life.

We need to know how to live best according to the laws of nature, ethics and spiritual wisdom, how to make the best and wisest use of our physical energy, thought-force and our ethical and aesthetic nature: these are the most important matters for us. But we will have to die one day. Yes, we have to. The inevitability of death points to two important questions, and if we ignore these questions, then we are courting a dangerous folly.

The first question is: ‘Does death mean extinction of the flame of consciousness?’ It is unimaginable. It is beyond the range of experience through imagination. No force in nature suffers annihilation. Nothing is lost when a candle is burnt out. Why should the force, which is the subject of all natural forces, suffer extinction?

The second question in this connection is: ‘What must be our main way of life if, as it seems to be the case, we have to leave all one day and disappear from the stage of time-space-causation?’

Mankind is partly animal and partly divine. He desires to possess the one he loves; forsakes the path of duty and beauty to carry out the dictates of greed, pleasure-sense, power and egoity. He tries to hide his motives; he inflicts misery on his fellow men for his material good. This is all the outcome of the beastliness in him. Yet we also expect continuity of joy, and when truly in love, he sacrifices his pleasure and possessions to serve the object of his love. He often feels infinitude in his being, particularly when he is absorbed in music, poetry, beauties of nature and sex-love. In moments of importance, man often goes beyond himself. In spite of himself he accomplishes wonderful tasks. How is it? What force is it which tells man to be good and do good? There is no one who is dead to the good. How can we explain man’s discontent with achievements in the realm of time-space?

Nothing but the immortality of the soul can explain this matter. Generally speaking we seem to live on and on even when death stares at us and the physician has abandoned all hope of our recovery. There are surely germs of immortality of the soul inherent in our consciousness.

It is good to know the facts about nature, to understand its laws with a view to overcoming its tyranny, but a sure and profound knowledge of the nature of the mind and the soul is also essential. It is also vitally important to know the ultimate purpose of life. Every traveller knows the goal of his journey; why should not man know the purpose of his existence? Let us seriously think of the final accomplishments.

Then it is also essential to know of the power which conceals the main issues from us and deludes us into thinking that wealth, health, pleasure, power, name and vanity are the only great values of life. Every object seems to be a composition of the finite and the infinite. A blade of grass is finite. You can measure its weight, length and breadth, analyse its chemical contents and explain the cause of its colour, but you cannot count the number of its atoms and electrons, neither do you know much of its growth and its relationship with the stars or the expansion of its inner life.

Man is no exception to this rule. The colour of his skin, his race, his individual habits, his likes and dislikes are known, but the life which animates him, his soul and the peculiarities of his mind are unknown. Knowledge influences our conduct. The great power-lovers of the world, called conquerors, have been materialists. Attila, Napoleon, Louis XIV, Hitler and Caesar, had no faith in the existence of God or the soul.

Death is an incontestible fact. It is inevitable. But it is the body which dies. To suppose the death of the consciousness in the body is unthinkable. Death being a fact, we should prepare for that radical change which implies permanent separation from those whom we love.

The first item of this plan is to know that all relationships in any form are temporary. To meet means to separate. It is folly to expect that our loves and the objects of the world are immortal. It is clear that the purpose of our life is to unfold infinity in goodness and knowledge, and not to live in the prison of love or hate, likes and dislikes. Let us love knowledge and delight in the extension of our sympathy with reason. Let us wake up to the sense of the immortality of the Self.

Dharma and not caprice is the true mode of life. Let us enrich our life with the practice of dharma and the light of devotion. What will you think of the wisdom of a student who falls in love with his school and wishes to continue in it with no regard to his graduation, duty and legitimate career? A wise person, in the words of the poem ‘The character of a happy life’, is one:

Whose passions not his masters are,
Whose soul is still prepared for death…

Our mind should daily be directed to the eternal interests. The spiritual values are the real values. Primordial substance evolves under the direction of the all-supervising force, omniscient and omnipotent. Yet this power is ‘the friend of all beings’, compassionate and liable to be well-disposed, who is eternal, inseparable essence, the true Self, seemingly conditioned by the limitations of matter, life, mind, intelligence and ego.

The final stage in this evolution is left to the human will. That consummation of the quest is spiritual perfection, transcendence of matter, life, humanity, mind and ego, and realisation of reality.
As the flow of a stream leaps up in disorder when obstructed, so the life, mind and intelligence of human beings break out in distress, restlessness, caprice and folly when life is directed solely to empirical ends. Our chief duty is conquest of death, achievement of ceaseless contemplation of Beauty as indicated in the great declaration ‘I am Shiva’.

The first great step towards absorption in the transcendental is the enquiry into the knowledge of the Absolute—the logical investigation known as Vichara. Shri Shankara says in his ‘Direct Experience of Reality’:

Without enquiry wisdom cannot be attained by any other means, even as the things of the world cannot be seen without light.

Death is a stern reality in the empirical world. Let us solve the riddle, now, today, and it is solvable. ‘The spirit looks forward, not behind! Here in the present our joy we find.’ (Goethe).