The Prophets and Pure Reason
by Satheesan N. Kochicheril / PureReason.org

The mind is capable of attaining its own freedom from social reasoning to be guided by the best intelligent system existing in the Universe which for practical purposes can be called God. Even though this freedom is the birthright of every mind by virtue of the human birth, it gets superimposed by the social reasoning, the effect of which delimits the expression of the mind. The ones who completely declared freedom from the reasoning of the society, the prophets, were conscious of the higher moral system existing as part of the reality, 'The Truth'. This regaining of the original consciousness, the state of 'buddhahood', is the 'enlightenment' that all the prophets received. Though adherence to the Truth is basic to the continuation of God's system, and to the welfare of everything created by God, human societies guided by reductionistic rationalism devise many systems which are purely contrary to the system of God.

The adherence to the moral system of 'the Truth' expresses the never-ending culture of the human mind. Love for the creations of God is highly essential for its well being because emotional interaction is possible only with them, the 'objects of culture'. 'The Brhad-Aranyaka Upanishad' says that living beings must be dear to one not on the basis of relationship, but because of the presence of the soul in them. This is the expression of the mind that transcends time and regions. Here the mind is not limited by any reductionism such as religion, caste, nationality etc. This is the real potentiality of the mind, the mind that takes cognizance of 'the Truth', and 'the Truth' is not subject to any faith that religions speak of. This sensibility for the pulse of life in Nature gets mutilated under the influence of the reason based social systems to which the individuals are made to subscribe by the social groups that have formed at different levels. 'The Brhad-Aranyaka Upanishad' also speaks of the absence of love under the influence of such systems: "The worlds have deserted him who knows/ the worlds in aught else than the Soul"

As civilizations progress, there will be many systems manipulating the consciousness of people. The development of these systems and other things that we form as part of our progress, the 'objects of civilization', are based on reasoning. Reasoning is inherently weak because it is based on perception, conviction, and motivation. Of these, the major factor that can affect the reasoning of the human mind is motivation, which has the ability to override all the other factors. Actions and systems originating out of reasoning have no validity outside reason because their foundations are built on the shifting sands of reason. They are the products of 'reductionistic rationalism', where as a better social order is available when systems work on the basis of 'holistic rationalism' which is in conformity with God's system.

Carl Gustav Jung, the father of analytical psychology, said: "We should never identify ourselves with reason, for man is not and never will be a creature of reason alone, a fact to be noted by all pedantic culture-mongers." ('The Collected Works ' Vol. 7) The part of the mind that gives expression to the timeless aspect, the inherent culture of the mind, is guided by Pure Reason (holistic rationalism). At this level, the human mind is in tune with the Truth that the prophets spoke of. The Truth is the only moral force and it is firmly founded on the system of God/Nature. The regaining of the sensibility of the soul is based on the knowledge that it gets of the Truth. The Upanishads of India deal with the expression of the mind that transcends the social mind, and attains the sensibility of the soul ('atman'). Jung says: "The transcendent function does not proceed without aim and purpose, but leads to the revelation of the essential man. It is in the first place a purely natural process, which may in some cases pursue its course without the knowledge or assistance of the individual, and sometimes forcibly accomplish itself in the face of opposition. The meaning and purpose of the process is the realization, in all its aspects, of the personality originally hidden away in the embryonic germ-plasm; the production and unfolding of the original, potential wholeness." ('Two Essays on Analytical Psychology')

The sensibility of the soul is essentially attached to the ones given under section A and detached from the ones give under Z in the table below. This speaks of attachment and detachment in spirituality. Christ spoke of this process thus: "It is like a mustard seed. It is the smallest of all seeds. But when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a great plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky." Prophets from Moses to Mohandas Gandhi and the Taoist sages of China expressed the inherent sensibility of the soul, and the way of 'the Truth' that supports life. "This present life is like the rich garment with which the earth adorns itself when watered by the rain. We send down from the sky. Crops, sustaining man and beast, grow luxuriantly: but, as its tenants begin to think themselves its masters, down comes Our Scourge upon it, by night or in broad day, laying it waste, as though it did not blossom but yesterday. Thus do we make plain Our revelations to thoughtful men."- 'The Koran' (10:24)

Though equality of life is the absolute reality, societies that took shape out of prophets became expressions of civilizations leading to the establishment of religions and castes. Gandhi: "I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such beings as crawl on earth. I want, if I don't give you a shock, to realize identity with even the crawling things upon the earth, because we claim common descent from the same God, and that being so, all life in whatever form it appears must be essentially one." This is the expression of the state of 'kevala'/'brahmanya', the state that brings back its essential sensibility to the mind. Sankara says:('Sarva Vedanta Siddhanta Sarasangraha') "There is a limit to the love of the various things that confer happiness upon a person; but the love of the Atman knows no limitation." When people decide the nature of religion and spirituality, the outcome very often deviates from the inherent sensibility of the mind, and thus becomes disastrous to its sanity. The prophets were the intellectuals of their times who saw flaws in the man made systems. "The perfect man has (the charge of) the world; is not the charge great?….His discrimination detects everything false, and no consideration of gain moves him. He penetrates to the truth of things, and can guard that which is fundamental." ('The Sacred Books of the East' Vol. XXXIX 'The Writings of Chuang Tzu') It is a pity that the expression of 'the Truth' has disappeared from these religions.

The expression of Pure Reason is available in detail at www.purereason.org. Pure Reason helps every one to understand prophets and sages all over the world. Enlightenment is the only way to end ignorance.

A	Z
God-made System	man-made systems
Morality	immorality
Culture	Civilization
Pure Reason	reason
Nature (God's Art)	Arts of Culture
The Laws	man-made laws
Holistic Rationalism	reductionistic rationalism
Upgradation of Consciousness	degradation of consciousness
Timeless Expression	timebound products
Spirituality	the structure of religions
Kingdom of God	man-made empires
Objects of Culture	objects of civilization
Nature	man-made objects
Love for God-made Objects	love for man-made objects
Humanization	Dehumanization
God	gods, devils
Civilizations accommodating Culture	Religions expressing Spirituality