स्वतंत्र चिन्तन

Question / प्रश्न  51.

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What is :

स्वतन्त्र चिन्तन?

Or,

The Freedom Of Thinking?

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I could have said :

"Freedom of Thought."

But in my opinion, the words "thinking" and "thought" have different meanings.  "Thinking" is a process but "thought" in the Grammatical sense is either a noun-form or a verb-form.

"Thinking" is therefore a process that is done or happens now, in the present.

"Thought" as noun is though of the past or future also, however a "Thought" has inevitably a reference to either the past or the future. Associated with memory or imagination.

Still the "Thinking" and The "Thought" both are a movement in the "mind" of and in the "consciousness", because any movement in the "mind" is always and inevitably belongs to and is subject to the "consciousness" pertaining to some "conscious" being only. A machine can never consciously "Think" and has to follow only the commands given to it. A machine has neither "conscious" mind, nor the sense of freedom that is there in the case of a "conscious" mind.

Consciousness implies "Life" and similarity  "Life" implies "consciousness" or a state of being "conscious".

"Life" and "consciousness" both therefore are neither created nor made, but either are latent or manifest, either happen to appear and disappear in any "organism" efficient enough to possess and be possessed by "Life" or the "conscousness". When and as soon as the "Life" or "consciousness" appears in any organism well-equipped so as to possess and be possessed by "Life" or "consciousness", is called the "birth" of the conscious organism. 

Appearance and disappearance of sentience is therefore coincidental and concurrent to manifestation of "Life" or "consciousness".

Hence the Question could be restructured, reformulated or rephrased as :

What is a conscious mind?

स्वतंत्र मन क्या है?

Before going into this let us see :

What is Consciousness and What is the mind.

Is not consciousness the mind, and the mind verily the consciousness itself? 

In the absence of consciousness could there be mind, and in the absence of mind, could there be consciousness?

The two are but two aspects of the one and the same sentience. Originally it's non-specific, but as soon as associated with an organism, becomes "person-specific", which assumes the form of the "ego".

So, saying :

"One should get rid of or become free of ego" is simply absurd and so ridiculous also.

What is non-specific consciousnesses or mind at one end, is itself the ego or the person-specific ego on the other.

When and as soon as this fundamental and basic error is removed, at once it is  revealed, understood and clearly seen that the person-specific consciousness is but an idea and gets removed itself on its own without any extra effort.

The ego or the person-specific mind is but a bundle of various ideas bound together and held firmly in the idea :

"Like all those so many innumerable persons, I too am but a specific person other and different than all the others, I too was born and going to die someday in the assumed, in an imagined future."

Having realized this Reality, what one could say about if really there is a free mind or consciousness?

When this mind or consciousness is utterly free of all ideas whatsoever, is empty of all thought, yet sensitive and aware of this movement of mind, life or the Awareness, it undergoes a tremendous transformation where the past, the future and the time as such itself is ultimately, finally and totally exhausted is no more.

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