The traditional vedantic/yogic view of the mind gives an answer - vasanas. The urge comes from an inner vasana, a hidden desire in the most interior crevices of the mind. For the rationally minded, one can postulate that a vasana is a small sub-network of neurons of the brain that fires in sync and causes a particular body/brain reaction such as flipping the TV on and sinking into the welcoming arms of a nicely cushioned sofa. If we ask why we have the vasanas, pat comes the answer: from satisfying past urges, i.e., actions. So which came first? The urge or the action?
Because an urge is towards some action, whether physical or mental, another allied question logically arises: Why do we respond to urges the way we do and not otherwise? Because we react to urges in a particular way and no other, it is logical to posit a physical/mental reward (punishment) that gets reinforced when the urge is satisfied (or not), so as to reinforce the neuronal sub-network. If this the case, if the urge is something which is unhealthy - say junk food - why do we allow the urge to etch its "groove" on the brain? For instance, when we eat something that results in food poisoning, there is often violent purging from the body, a vital survival mechanism of the body to eliminate toxins. When the body/brain can recognize a poison that can be fatal in the short term, why doesn't it recognize things which are pathogenic in the long term such as gorging on food more than what is healthy over many years of life only to be abruptly woken up by a heart-attack. Clearly, there must be something that fools the brain into thinking that something is okay right now, even though it's potentially fatal in the long run.
In sum, there are two questions, perhaps not independent, that beg answers:
- Which came first - the urge or the action?
- Why do we respond to urges the way we do?
Thus when one is pretty much bored, the brain in order to use its "idle cycles" orders the memory to throw up something that can enliven the proceedings by producing biochemical reactions that make the physical body feel good. Voila! Thus rises an urge! A sliver of memory comes to life. Out pops the idea that eating a jamun will make your body happy! No longer a child, we gorge upon jamuns even if we are not really hungry and appreciative of its rich taste, under the illusion that our memory serves, of the taste we encountered maybe eons ago. In other words, the brain has substituted the current taste or lack thereof with the jamun's taste in its memory store. For a second taste, third taste of jamun to form further memories, the biochemical reactions have to be stronger - this phenomenon lies at the root of many a drug and other addiction.
Thus a random event randomly becomes etched into the brain. A pattern arises out of the randomness. So in some sense all karma is random, but gives rise to patterns. If we agree to this premise, this also supplies an interesting solution to the what the author calls the initial value problem of the theory of karma. In other words, if one's current life is due to karma from the past life. So what about the actions in the past life. It should logically be because of the life prior. In which case, this leads to an infinite regression, leading to the question : What was the karma one brings to one's first life as a human being? The typical vedantic response in many ways is that one cannot understand this mystery. An equally good alternate explanation seems to be that the initial karma is random, which seems to be the starting point of vasanas also. This also squares with the ajaata vada of advaitha vedanta that there is no karma!
To conclude, an urge is an ossification of a random event into a pattern, seeded by randomness and nurtured by repeated action. And, we act the way we do in response to an urge because that action is also inseparable from the urge. In other words, both come to life together and can go only together.
So how cometh the urge to give up urges?
The author shall wait for an urge to answer that!
2 comments:
Nothing happens randomly.The karmas too are not generated randomly.The human birth is very rare and it is acquired for a special purpose. That is to get freed from the bondage, that is samsara. So the first urge man had was to attain liberation that is technically called moksha. All his actions/karmas he performed were towards that end. First man had the urge to liberate himself and acted accordingly. May be at the transactional level he had to do many actions which left deeper imprints (vasanas) that led to further actions. This urge for eternal bliss reflected in many ordinary enjoyments like gulabjamun eating. So the origin for all the urges is our urge for putting an end to the birth and death cycle. This is the natural trait of the whole mankind. This is how I feel.
I agree with your idea that the main instinctive urge of man is to end the birth and death cycle. However, it is still not clear why man has to feel separation in the first place. Essentially, the question is this: If karma is a doctrine of cause and effect, temporally ordered, what is the initial state of the theory of karma? In advaitic terms, what is the source of the moola avidya and what is its nature ?
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