If humans must make their own mistakes in life and
learn from scratch, every single time, then there is no use in our race being
blessed with six senses. If fire is hot, then it is enough if one human learns
it. Others must be able to benefit from that person’s experience.
Aram
refers to the rules of life embedded in Nature. But, how can anyone observe or
learn these rules of life from nature? Only some things are obvious. It would
be useful if someone who could observe nature, tell us what Aram is.
But, more importantly, how do we trust that person? How
can we know, what that person says is true?
Our ancestors believed in accurately measuring things.
Whether it was a piece of cloth or a basket of vegetables, things had to be
measured. In order to measure something, we need measurement tools.
They also measured truth, that is, how can we believe
that “truth” is actually 100% true? They wrote books that dealt with
measurements and these books are called “Tharkka noolgal”. These formed
the math portion of Tamil literature. It is also called alavai iyal (or science
of measurement). These books discuss the methods used to determine the truth.
(something like, how much truth is there in a sentence that I may speak). A thorough
knowledge of this subject was a pre-requisite in studying Thathuvam
(fundamental principles of creation). Many books on this subject are lost or
destroyed and we now have only 1 or 2 with us now. The following are some
introductory concepts from Sivagnana Sithiyar’s work.
Broadly, there
are 10 ways of measuring truth. These ways are called Pramanams
(Thirukural will discuss this in detail). They measured truth with Pramanam. The
10 Pramanams were condensed to the following three Pramanams:
1. Kaatchi Pramanam (Proof of sight)
2. Anumana Pramanam (Proof by inference)
3. Agama Pramanam
Kaatchi Pramanam (also called kandal alavai in Tamil) is when
someone uses their sense organs to identify the truth. Kaatchi in Tamil means Sight, but Kaatchi Pramanam
refers to other sense organs too. Eg: I see a cat and I say ‘there is a cat’,
or I hear a girl sing and say ‘she is a good singer’, similarly for other sense
organs. But this is not an accurate system of determining the truth because it
depends on (a) the observer’s intelligence and (b) the time frame of the observed action.
For eg, a policeman could see a woman dead on the floor with a knife through
her chest. A man is sitting near her holding the knife. It cannot be concluded
that the man killed the woman. The time at which the murder happened has
already elapsed.
Anumana Pramanam (also called karuthal alavai in Tamil) is
determining the truth by inference. When two objects are closely related, the
presence of one means that the other object is also present. For eg: the
presence of smoke indicates the presence of fire. If is a person is a thief,
there is a good chance that lying can also be found. This method is also not
100% accurate.
The Kaatchi Pramanam needs more explanation. There are
4 types of Kaatchi (Kaatchi in Tamil means sight).
1. Vayir kaatchi (External Sight)
2. Manutha kaatchi
3. Thanvedanai kaatchi
4. Yoga kaatchi.
To understand these, we need to understand how sense
organs work. Just the presence of sense organs alone is not enough to experience
the world. We need the mind to process the data sent by the sense organs. We
all know that we have 5 sense organs. We have a mind that has 4 parts. They are
manam (for analyzing), buthi (for confirming), ahangaram (to
motiviate), and chitam (these 4 parts are also called as andha
karnangal). Chitam is the base from which, and on which the other 3 parts
of the mind are formed.
So. the process of seeing
(hearing/smelling/touching/tasting) would involve an interaction of the mind with
the external organ – let’s take the example of the eye.
This is how our ancestors understood the working of
the mind and they explain:
1. When the eye sees a rose, an image falls on the retina
(this image is also called vayir kaatchi or poriyr kaatchi)and is sent
to the manam (the unrecognized image in our manam is called nrivigarpa
kaatchi).
2. The job of manam is to analyze. The manam searches, in
this case, it analyzes ‘is this a rose, or a cat or a chair’ against the data previously
stored in the buthi.
3. The buthi has all data recordings of not only this
birth but of all the births that we have ever taken (instincts are stored here
like the immediate action of an infant to turn its head to nurse). Buthi
confirms that the image is that of a rose (the confirmed image in the buthi is
called sarvigatpa kaatchi) and sends it back to manam (this recognized
image in the manam is called manutha kaatchi).
4. Now the manam generates a response that is either a happy
or a sad one (for instance, when we see our enemy we have negative responses, a
rose may generate happy response) and this response is called thanvethanai
katatchi and it is felt by our Uyir (or soul).
And that is how, they say, we experience life.
We can forget about the names of all the Kaatchis
and grasp only the concept.
When we are multi-tasking, even though we feel like we
are doing many things at the same time, the response to the sense organs actually
takes place sequentially, in our mind. But because of the speed of the mind, it
appears as if we are typing and singing and listening at the same time. The job
of ahangaram is to keep us motivated and prevent us from getting tired
doing all this mental work.
When we engage in a slightly difficult task, like
listening to music and trying to identifying a raga, or when looking at a
difficult math problem and thinking of a solution, we can observe our mind
doing the analyzing and confirming work.
At the end of this cognition, who or where does the
final experience, positive or negative occur? They say that it is the Uyir also
called Anma(soul) which is the only intelligent part of us that experiences
the final result. The 4 parts of the mind and 5 sense organs do not
possess any inherent intelligence. Just as how when we use spectacles or a
telescope to see things, we don’t say that the spectacle or telescope has any
intelligence. It is the observer’s Uyir that possesses the intelligence. The Anmauses the sense organs to see or hear or taste etc. Anma is trapped inside
the body and its experience is limited to how long our eyes can see (or how far
our ears can hear etc). So, if the Anma wants to experience seeing the Himalays
it has to drag the body along.
Our ancestors found this as a great inconvenience. What
if they could remove the Anma and allow it to experience the world? A direct
experience that would not need any sense organs and body. They researched and
succeeded. And that is called the Yoga Kaatchi.
That is how our ancestors found out about solar system,
the process of evolution, and that the world is not flat, the stages of human
embryo development, the colour of Mars (they even named it after the colour red
–chevvaai) and everything other scientific discovery.
Such a person who is able to remove his Anma and allow
it to integrate with nature, will be able to get a true picture of ‘Truth’.
That person is a Yogi, a human renounced
of all worldly possessions. When such a person says something, it is called Agama
Pramanam. Ramanar, Jesus, Prophet, Thiruvalluvar, Paramahamsar are
all examples of people who had Yoga Kaatchi.
These agama pramanams are not meant to be disputed by
regular humans. We do not have the capacity to argue against their words. If
what they say doesn’t make any sense, or goes against our beliefs then it can
only mean that we haven’t fully understood it. It does not mean that they have
made a mistake or that their words are irrelevant! Thiruvalluvar used his Yoga
Kaatchi to observe Aram from nature and gave us Thirukkural. It is agama
pramanam and hence has 100% truth in it.
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