Reading from The Six Systems of Vedic Philosophy
http://mahaprabhu.net/test/Sad-darshana.pdf

In today’s sanga, we discuss the last two elements in the Vaisesika philosophy of substance — Soul and Mind.  The Soul or atman is characterized as the eternal, all-pervading substratum for consciousness.  According to Vaisesika philosophy there are two kinds of souls: individual (jivatman) and supreme (paramatman or isvara).  The Supreme Soul is inferred to be the Creator of the World using the same kind of logical arguments we have seen with the nyaya philosophy.

The Mind is considered to be the 9th kind of substance, the eternal sense faculty of the individual soul.  Attention is required to prevent a jumble of information from the senses.  That attention is supplied by the mind along with other functions such as thinking, feeling and willing.  We must be careful to recognize that there is a potential for confusion here, because the Vaisesika philosophy collapses the subtle aspects of Mind and Spirit into one.

The early 19th century German philosopher Hegel provides an interesting viewpoint on the existence of Mind.  In his view, the senses perceive things as singular, whereas the ideas of “next-to” or “far-from” are not perceived by the senses, but are conceptual determinations supplied by Mind.  Ancient philosophers were far more thoughtful about the subtle details of the Mind than today’s naive realists.  It is unfortunate that today’s atomic theorists try to reduce all the rich, subtle experiences of Mind into a monochromatic slurry of particulate matter.

Here is the recording of 07 June 2009 satsanga.

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