Matter exists in different densities. There is a gross form of matter and also a subtle form of matter.
A table, for instance, is a solid, but it is gross. Water is a liquid, but it is gross. Carbon-dioxide is a gas, but it is gross too. Space is not gross – it is subtle. It has no form or shape. It has no parts - it cannot also be divided into parts. Space cannot be cut. Space has no attributes also. Because of these characteristics, space is considered subtle. Space is not affected in any way by anything – grosser than it is. You may throw anything into space with any velocity, but space is not affected by it. Many aero planes pass through space every minute of the day but none of them make any impressions on it. Gross things cannot affect the subtle things.
Solids, for instance, cannot penetrate - unless they are given energy for impacting or penetrating with a large force. Liquids penetrate better. Gases penetrate even better. The smaller a substance, the better its penetration – that is, they pervade better. Space is so subtle that it pervades everywhere – it is all-pervasive. Space or mind cannot pervade awareness (which is the Aatma). Awareness pervades space and mind. Therefore, awareness is even subtler than space and mind – it is the subtlest among the subtle things (Anor Aneeyam). Awareness is all-pervasive but it is not matter.
Although all-pervasive, space is still matter. Mind is also a subtle body. It also pervades everywhere. You may imagine yourself to be at any place you wish – and presto, you are already there in your imagination. This is because mind is all-pervasive in a horizon which is known to it. But mind is also matter – subtle matter like the space.
Our sense organs are incapable of sensing the subtle substances – such as mind or space (or awareness). We know many things that we cannot see such as the air, but we cannot perceive them as objects. We only feel their existence; we infer their existence through the effects that they cause. Temperature is another such thing. We know that temperature exists, but we cannot see it. We know that time exists – we see days go by, years roll by, but we cannot see the time. Ultraviolet radiation, Infrared radiation, Microwaves etc are all other examples of invisible entities, whose existence, we recognize only by their effects.
According to Swami Ghanananda, (Meditation, Monks of Ramakrishna Order), there are subtle objects, which can be perceived through the mind, by people who have acquired special powers, which give them this capability.
We can see more (argues Swami Ghanananda) as we improve our instruments of observation. The 100 inch telescope at Mt Wilson can reveal one eighth and the 200 inch telescope at Mt Palmar can now reveal a quarter of all the observable space. Man thus extends the power of his vision through these instruments. Swami Ghanananda believes that there are limitations to this faculty of the physical vision. Beyond a point, perception takes place, not through the senses, but through the mind – when it becomes endowed with some special powers.
Vedanta, seems to have understood better, the nature and the functions of mind, although in an empirical and philosophical manner. This philosophy believes that body is the outward manifestation of mind. The core of the mind resides, not in the brain, but in a sheath called “Sukshma Sareera”, which is concentric to the gross (physical) body.
The next thought is about “Consciousness and the mind”
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