As we continue with the intuitive stroll (from Part 1) into the dark chamber of human brain to understand “Who am I?”, I believe the exploration will manifest into Gurbani pathways that may facilitate transformative changes in thoughts and behaviours for some of us who are curious in this pursuit. The impetus for this exploratory quest has been the following Gurbani pankti and many others of this like that are in GGS:
While reflecting on this Gurbani Sabad, I wondered who this “caged bird” is and how does it come to exist in human body and govern all our thoughts, ideas, behaviours and our existence as human species. This “bird” is also described as a “Jeev” ਜੀਵ or “Jhira” ਜੀਅੜਾ in GGS. Gurbani also makes it abundantly clear that Gurmat is primarily directed at “Manh” ਮਨੁ which creates another conundrum: what is “Manh”?
Gurbani is not merely a subject for reading. We are repeatedly encouraged to engage with it through reflective inquiry (vichaar, bibak budh); however, Gurbani also presents faith (ਭਰੋਸਾ) as an essential partner to inquiry because our Gurus recognized limits of human intellect and directed people to accept some truths as ਭਰੋਸਾ beyond empirical verification. Our Gurus encouraged “Vichaar” where they knew their message is within the potential grasp of human intellect; and, where they thought that the message is beyond the purview of contemporary human intellect, they instructed us to accept the message as “true” or as “faith”.
The word “Manh” is etymologically cognate with the English word “mind”. It is through the “Internal Model” we seek insights into the structure and working of human mind. Experts in the field of Brian and Cognitive Sciences have done considerable research in the structure and working of the “Internal Model”. Neuroscience also informs us that there is an incessant “chatter” in brain in the form of electro-chemical activity along neural pathways. The ongoing electrochemical neural activity generates “primary thoughts,” in the form of neural pathways shaped by lifelong external stimuli; no matter how inaudible, incoherent or meaningless they may be. These “primary thoughts” are the “first order” inputs to the “Internal Model”; all our dreams, thoughts, ideas, intellectual and cognitive human faculties, conscious mind, unconscious mind, subconscious mind, consciousness etc. are manifestation of neural crosstalk based on these “primary thoughts”.
The “Internal Model” is an incomprehensibly complex network of over 33 trillion synoptic connections that give rise to billions of neural pathways each representing a “primary thought”. No scientist in world, as of today, has been able to provide the biological origin of an idea or thought; neither they could of a “primary thought”. Dr. Deepak Chopra has thrown an open challenge to the scientific community world-wide and has offered a $1.0 million award for the science to respond. So far there has been no takers.
Deepak Chopra $1,000,000 Challenge for a Scientific Explanation for the Biological Basis of an Idea
If science has not advanced enough to provide any scientific basis of a “primary thought”, the discussion relating to the structure of dreams, consciousness, unconscious mind, sub-conscious mind and conscious mind (that follows in next post) is not amenable to any scientific or experimental validation. Thus, this stroll remains an intuitive exploration rather than something currently testable through scientific experimentation.
