Abstract
The very sense of “I and mine”, “you and yours” and “me and the other” is brought to us by the “humble” and often taken for granted presence of consciousness. Consciousness has a ubiquitous presence in our daily sensations, cognitions, feelings and memories. It is consciousness that defines and customizes experiences for us. It is consciousness that defines our personhood. The unitary and subjective nature of consciousness brings along the greatest puzzle of humankind, namely, the self. In fact today, self, experience and consciousness have become the triune face of the most complex puzzle in the medical, philosophical and psychological arena attracting many a mind.
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Notes
- 1.
Adi Sankaracharya (8th c. AD) founded the school of Advaita Vedanta. Tunchettu Ramanujan Ezuttacchan (16th c. AD) is known as the father of Malayalam (native language of Kerala) poetry. He developed a unique idiom combining the vernacular and Sanskrit words in his writings. Sri Narayana Guru (19th c. AD) was both a social reformer of his times and a philosopher on the lines of Advaita Vedanta.
- 2.
Kerala is the southernmost state of India.
- 3.
Atmabodha is called a “prakarana grantha”, (primary text) authored by Sankaracharya, consisting of 68 verses in Sanskrit. Harinama Kirtanam is a poem written by Ezuttacchan which later became a household name in Kerala for its simple rendering and philosophical depth. Atmopadesa Satakam is a set of hundred verses (in Malayalam) and is considered to be the masterpiece of Sri Narayana Guru. The original text is cited from the translations in (1987), (1996), and (2000) respectively of the works of Sankaracharya, Narayana Guru and Ezuttacchan.
- 4.
For easy reading, common spellings are used for Sanskrit and Malayalam verses without diacritical marks.
- 5.
In this chapter, I make two different mentions of “self”: self implies the bodily limited psychological entity defined by memories. Self implies pure consciousness, which is inclusive and not limited or defined by a particular experience or cognition, and is the ontological basis of “self”.
- 6.
The translations of the Sanskrit words/expressions are of the author.
- 7.
The five “prana” are prana, apana, samana, vyana and udana, controlling sense perceptions, excretory functions, digestive functions, circulatory functions and growth, respectively.
- 8.
suksmangam bhoga sadhanam
- 9.
anadi avidya anirvacya karanopadhih ucyate
upadhitritayatanyam atmanam avadharayet
- 10.
“Mirror neurons” are neural structures that are active during sensations and emotions both in one’s experience and also when they are perceived in others.
References
Dennett, D. (1991). Consciousness explained. London: Penguin.
Ezuttacchan. (2000). Harinama Kirtanam (12th ed.). Kerala: Vidyarambham Publishers.
Menon, S. (2001). Towards a sankarite approach to consciousness: A discussion in the context of recent interdisciplinary scientific perspectives. Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 18(1), 95–111.
Menon, S. (2002). Structure of mind and structured mind. Indian Philosophical Quarterly, 29(2–3), 334–344.
Sankaracharya (Trans.). (1987). Atmabodha. Bombay: Central Chinmaya Mission Trust.
Sri Narayana Guru. (1996). Atmopadesa Satakam (2nd ed). Kerala: Narayana Gurukula.
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Menon, S. (2014). Self and Transformative Experiences: Three Indian Philosophers on Consciousness. In: Menon, S., Sinha, A., Sreekantan, B. (eds) Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Consciousness and the Self. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1587-5_16
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