Monday, 17 June 2019

Cosmic and Collective Mind

Artificial Intelligence.
--
वेदान्त-सार (सदानन्दकृत)
विवेक अग्निहोत्री
--
Watching this video.
While watching this, I'd many a questions there in my mind.
This is about what he terms as 'Intellectual Terrorism'.
--
Some 40 years ago, I began going through the Sanskrit text :
वेदान्त-सार (सदानन्दकृत) /  sadānanda -vedānta-sāraḥ
of this Masterpiece of Vedanta.
In the old collection of my Father's books, I was always lured by two most important books.
One was this and another was the कठोपनिषद् / kaṭhopaniṣad.
Whenever I tried to see what these texts are about, it was far difficult an effort on my part when I was some 15 years old. And I always promised to myself; -when I get stabled in some job, earn money as livelihood, I would make a point to go deep in the above 2 texts.
Once I asked my Father :
sadānanda is no doubt the author of the 'vedānta-sāraḥ',
but who wrote the कठोपनिषद् / kaṭhopaniṣad ?
My Father was first a bit surprised but after a minute He spoke to me :
"महर्षि वेदव्यास / maharṣi vedavyāsa is said to have authored all Veda and the related literature."
Till then I had deep respect for sadānanda, but from that day I had far more respect for महर्षि वेदव्यास / maharṣi vedavyāsa also.
--
sadānanda, in His treatise 'vedānta-sāraḥ' on the subject, talks of the Cosmic-mind, the collective-mind and the mind of an individual.
He likens the individual with a tree while the Collective as the flora of a region and the Cosmic as that of the whole earth.
The knowledge possessed by an individual is the totality of jumbled up perceptions, their memory and the reactions that come up through all this mess.
The knowledge acquired so, be of a human or animal or any living being whosoever is but 'intellect' the faculty of distinguishing and discriminating between various objects.
This knowledge though can go on accumulating more and more information, neatly classified and arranged very systematically is not WISDOM.
The problem of communicating this knowledge consists in the fact that the WISDOM; that is an  AWAKENING is inborn and inherited and is never information gathered from outside.
When I first heard of Artificial Intelligence, I was intrigued; -how intelligence could be artificial? To me so far, the 'Intelligence' meant WISDOM that is another aspect of consciousness in a living being that only emerges out from within and subsides there-in again.
J.Krishnamurti distinguishes between the 'intellect' and the 'intelligence' [Years of awakening].
He supposedly equates 'thought' with 'intellect', while 'AWAKENING' to 'Intelligence'.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj in 'I AM THAT' says :
"All knowledge is ignorance."
and;
"God is the the end of all knowledge and wisdom'.
गीता / Gita tells :
इन्द्रियाणि पराण्याहुरिन्द्रियेभ्यः परं मनः।
मनसस्तु परा बुद्धिर्यो बुद्धेः परतस्तु सः।।42
एवं बुद्धेः परं बुद्ध्वा संस्तभ्यात्मानमात्मना।
जहि शत्रुं महाबाहो कामरूपं दुरासदम्।।43
(अध्याय 3)
'बुध्' -the root-word in Sanskrit gives us the sense of 'knowing' that is again of the kind that is gained either through some medium; - be that of the senses, the 'consciousness' / चित्त (the mind), or just the pure awareness of just being irrespective of the acquired knowledge through a medium.
The first is called 'intellect' or 'thought', and the 'conclusion' that is reached at through thought(s) is  therefore is but the ramification of thought(s) only.
The second is though the support of all such intellect, is never a subject to 'intellect'.
This is the difference between the 'बुद्धि' / intellect, and the 'बोध' / the Intelligence.
One knows the 'intellect' through intelligence only and this 'knowing' is not the knowledge / information. While the 'knowing' that is in the form of information / verbal knowledge' is not WISDOM. This is but the 'AWAKENING'.
In intellect there is always the entity (the 'subject') that 'knows', the object that is 'known' and the 'knowledge' that is thought or thought of.
In Intelligence; such distinction ceases to exist, though this is not 'ignorance',
In 'ignorance' the fundamental core-truth is 'ignored' and a superficial knowledge is assumed true.
Thus, this 'ignorance' and the so-called acquired knowledge are but the two facets of the same thing.
Sri Ramana Maharshi in His 'Sat-Darshanam'/ 'सद्दर्शनं'  tells us :
विद्या कथं भाति न चेदविद्या
विद्यां विना किं प्रविभात्यविद्या।
द्वयं च कस्येति विचार्य मूल-
स्वरूपनिष्ठा परमार्थविद्या।।12
Here He classifies the 'knowing' in terms of the 'intellect' that is but another form of 'ignorance' only, and the 'knowing' that is the true 'Intelligence'; -'the AWAKENING' which is the conviction of one's Self .
--
By the way, later on I realized what 'intelligence' means apropos to our common language.
This is like how it is used in 'intelligence gathered', 'Intelligence-Bureau',
Recently, Sri Narendra Modi ji also uses this term.
I can't say what is his idea / impression / perception of this word.
But I do admire his approach.
As he insists upon development, and the development requires the infrastructure, infrastructure is the core-requirement for development, presently, this is the only pragmatic approach that should be given attention to.
--               
Vivek Agnihotri seems to suggest that 'Artificial Intelligence' is the secondary data that the Corporate bodies, Governments and global companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and others collect through their 'services' from their customers / clients.
This further means no data is 'Private' and 'Confidential' in the true sense.
They seem to 'empower' people while 'impoverishing' them at the same time.
They are the latest kind of 'sophisticated' terror people are hardly aware of.
This is what the 'Collective mind' can have access to.
the 'Cosmic Mind' however, is free from the notion of distinction at any level.
It is but the 'Totality' of 'What is', but there is no individual to claim this as his own.
In this 'Totality' the individual, the collective and the Cosmic are but phenomenon while the 'Intelligence' / AWAKENING is ever so pure, innocent and indivisible one without the other.
--   
Summarily, 
The way we look at the world (and our-self as well) is one through thought, intellect and the Artificial Intelligence, or through the Intelligence.
--

   

No comments:

Post a Comment