[Advaita-l] Cotard Syndrome and Brahman Realisation

Vidyasankar Sundaresan svidyasankar at hotmail.com
Wed Jun 6 07:14:50 CDT 2012


> > b. our SAstra-s do not teach that the mind is completely different from
> > matter. They
> > tend to identify it with the heart, whereas neuroscientists focus on
> > the brain, but
> > the fact remains that the SAstra-s actually agree with modern science
> > in saying that
> > the mind is material. This is unlike a lot of old Western thinking on
> > the mind, which
> > has got supplanted by modern scientific thinking about it; and
> 
> 
> On death, does the mind go to the next body as per our sastras?
> 
> >

Yes, but so what? That does not argue against the material nature of
the mind. The subtle body goes on to the next physical body. Other
than manas and buddhi, the subtle body also includes the five sense
organs, the five action organs and the five prANas, in subtle forms.

"Mind vs. matter" is a dichotomy that is alien to Indian philosophical
thinking, but it has a long tradition in Western thinking. Neuroscience
is challenging that dichotomy nowadays in its own way.
 
And if modern science and the SAstra-s happen to agree on a point or
two, nobody is saying that they have to agree on every dotted i and 
every crossed t.
 
Vidyasankar 		 	   		  


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