- The essence of human personality is Atman, the self, which is different from body and mind. Atman governs the body and mind.
- Atman or self is the nature of pure consciousness which gives life to the body and mind
- The essence of the entire universe is Cosmic consciousness. Atman is directly related to cosmic consciousness which is beyond the limits of self-conscious (self)
- The whole universe is an off-shoot of pure consciousness
- According to Visistadvaita, the Individual body is the Cosmic body (Virat). The individual mind is the cosmic mind (Hiranyagarbha). The individual self is cosmic consciousness.
- Consciousness pervades the entire universe and it animates all organic or inorganic matter.
- The degree of quantum of consciousness and the threefold nature of guna is responsible for the difference for the differences in higher and lower organisms.
- Sattvika
- Rajasika
- Tamasika
- The first living creature in the world is the amoeba, from which human beings are developed.
- From the viewpoint of Indian philosophy, even an atom possesses consciousness, but it is characterized as Inertia( Tamas)
- Indian Psychology assumes that individual consciousness is directly related to universal consciousness.
- Knowledge is classified into 3 types
- Direct cognition ( Pratyaksa)
- Inference ( Paroksa)
- Intuition ( Aparoksa)
- Intuition or Yogi-Pratyaksa has been discussed by Vaisesika, Vedanta,, and Jaina and exhaustively by Yoga
- According to Swami Vivekananda, the Mind is Universal. Your mind, my mind all these little minds are fragments of universal minds, little waves in ocean. Hence Indian Psychology doesn’t regard that there is any mystery in intuition, telepathy or extra- sensory perception.
Source: Indian Psychology by Raghunath Safaya