(From my notes dated 10/05/1995 on Chinmaya Literature) My first encounter with the world of Vivekananda was in 1970 and

my first contact with the Chinmaya literature was in 1995. I began with his "Kindle life' and soon discovered a new language and voice. He was not saying anything new but he was systematic in his approach. The language was simple and direct and the voice was that of a teacher revealing facts in steps. It was all very catchy and impressive. From this external world he went to the elements of our internal world and aspects of human experience. An experience essentially has three factors i.e. 1. the subject or the experiencer 2. object or the experienced and 3. the act of experiencing. Chinmaya points out that whereas the modern science took up the study of 'the experienced', our Vedanta took up the study of 'the experiencer'. This is the basic difference between the two disciplines. And what did our Vedanta discover? What did it reveal?

An act of experience constitutes response of four factors1. the physical 2. the psychological. 3. the intellectual and 4. the spiritual. Physical means our five senses. From this stage onwards it becomes psychological or mental in its elements. And then we assess the experience with our intellectual quality. The spiritual or the concept of truth above all concludes our experience. Every experience gets through these four stages that are within us. We may not notice at all about this complex process that takes place at these four stages. The experience in toto becomes an instantaneous one. It is almost like an immediate response or reaction. Suppose a cake is offered to you. Your senses feel for the shape and taste of it. The mental man in you may prefer the cake to be taken after sometime. The intellectual man in you may warn you that you are a diabetic patient. The spiritual man may weigh the truth of the situation - whether the cake is harmless at the moment, whether the cake may cause any discomfort. Thus, there are four different types of men within our own consciousness i.e. 1. the physical man. 2. the mental man. 3. the intellectual man. 4. the spiritual man. In general, a totally physical man will be after sensual pleasure. A totally mental man will be indecisive/emotional and somewhat lunatic. A totally intellectual man will be too dry, less romantic and too practical in approach. He will be like a machine. And a totally spiritual man will be well above the first three and he will be well moderate with or above the worldly pleasures.

Chinmaya points out that these four classes of 'men' within men are what go on to make an individualistic on-lay of a person. He brings these four groups under two main streams:i.e one group who thinks more with heart than head. The second group is one which thinks more with their head that the heart. At this point, my heart really jumped out of its seat! I had made the same conclusion in one of my earlier essays from my own deductions. I was trying to analyze the pattern of human thought and found myself that two main streams of human thought existed one group who used their mental faculty, heart (right brain) more than their head (left brain) and the other group who used their head more than their heart. And here, I was astonished to see the same kind of treatment regarding human thought by Chinmaya. He has in fact gone a little further by including two more classes of which I was not so aware of till then. i.e. a. those who use heart and head at equal proportion. b. those who use neither the head nor the heart strongly. I was impressed by his conclusion. He has drawn everything from its rudiments. It is happier to get confirmation from great thinkers for our own ideas. At least it points out the fact that we too are going along the same track. After all, we haven't entered the wrong track!