The Democracy.

What is Democracy?

The word Democracy has its origin in Dominance, Domination, Dominant, the Dominated and Demography.

Even more, we could trace out how the Sanskrit verb-root  दम दम्यते दमयति दमित  gives rise to this.

इन्द्रियों का दमन करना और मन का शमन किया जाना ही योग साधना के मुख्य दो सोपान हैं। मन वृत्ति है और इन्द्रियाँ विषय और विषयी के बीच का माध्यम। विषय बदलते रहते हैं जबकि विषयी स्थिर प्रतीत होता है। यह शायद विचित्र किन्तु सत्य भी है कि विषयी ही तादात्म्य के रूप में एक और अनेक की तरह भी देखा जा सकता है। विषयों से रहित चित्त ही स्वभाव है। 

In the physical body, five fundamental elements namely the earth, water, fire, air and ether dominate the body and in turn are also dominated by the body too. 

In this way there is interaction between the two which is pure democracy when there is no conflict nor any clash of the interests.

The relation between the senses and the physical body is again another level of the same democracy where neither the senses nor the physical body dominate upon one another. For example - when there is hunger and tiredness, whichever of the two is stronger, would dominate. If you are less tired and more hungry, would go for eating food. On the other hand, if you are more tired but not as much hungry, you may go to sleep first and then have food later on when, you have rested for a while and the hunger overtakes you. 

The democracy is again there at the level of body and mind when the body and the mind may have different, and even the  opposite needs at the same moment.

You need to go for work but the mind is not ready and there is clash between the two. Out of whatever compulsions there are, you have to decide and obey any one of the two.

In the case when the two are in natural democracy (say harmony), and neither dominates the other, there is peace and happiness. 

Again there is Thought / memory and the intellect (the faculty of decision-making). And the interaction between the two may cause clash of the dominance. Then this harmony is disturbed and so one comes across the conflict.

Still there is a deeper substratum or the simple spontaneous consciousness and one is just attentive enough, knows what is going on in the body, senses, and in the thoughts, feelings, how and what are the responses of memory to all this activity that is taking place at so many levels in the same moment.

One could however also have an idea of  "I" and "my/mine" associated with all this mental-physical activity and again one could be aware of the states of the mind whether it's waking, dreaming or just emptiness, silence only in this deep dreamless peaceful state.

It's the very state of the mind when the attention is focused upon any of these three states and there is also awareness of being (however without the sense of - I and / or me) which is called the "fourth state" or the turIya / तुरीयावस्था. 

Again, this state "turIya" is a "state" if and whenever there is the sense of I / me associated with it. 

This is (called ) the "identification" of the mind with the self.

Identity is ever so unchanging while the identification keeps constantly shifting from one to another object of perception. In every experience, arises a thought "I experience" and this is at once accepted as "I'm experiencing". Identification in this way is what though at one hand 'I', while in the next moment the same "I" appears to have assumed another form.

In the same way the "knower" may take the form of "knowledge" yet it's purely the "knowing" only. "knowing" us never the "identification".

With or without this identification, there may be a spontaneous democracy, where the body, mind and the spirit all happily rejoice in perfect bliss. This is the nature / Prakriti. 

The mind is manifest Prakriti, just as the body is the manifest mind. Likewise, the self / Self is the manifest mind, the mind is the un-manifest self / Self as well. 

At the outer level - in the society too we need this democracy at so many levels.

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