Imagination-Visualisation
Shabdagnananupati Vastushunyo Vikalpaha
Following Pramana and Viparyaya, Vikalpa is the third faculty of the mind. The mind is just like a toggle switch. Each time the same mind can function with one faculty or the other. When it sees something and grasps it, it becomes the understanding mind. At another time, the same mind can have a distorted vision, leading to misunderstanding.
Vikalpa is imagining something which is not, following sounds and words one is hearing or has heard before. The misunderstanding in the case of Viparyaya is a distorted vision. In the case of Vikalpa it is a doubt, uncertainty, indecision, hesitation, suspicion, contrivance, artfulness or a dilemma, caused by what one has heard. Many a time, our first impression of a person may get distorted if we have heard something unpalatable told about him/her by another. The opinion may change when we get to know the person more and find that what we heard was not true!
This can be seen most with children. If the child has heard a fake roaring sound of a lion, in a dark room, where it cannot see anything, it will hear the roar of a lion and cry, imagining a lion to be there.
Vikalpa is a function of the mind, negative when it gets anxious, imagining situations which are not and perceiving people different from what they actually are. A wife who is anxiously waiting for her husband to return home from office imagines some mishap if he is a little late, for instance.
The other end of Vikalpa is Sankalpa or creating a positive affirmation. This is a commonly practised self-improvement technique to create an image of a desired situation or goal and work for it to happen. A student who wants to become a doctor can create the image of becoming one in his or her mind and work to make that ideal a reality.
Great revolutions, movements, achievements in life are usually the result of a Sankalpa of an individual or a group of inspired people who work with a strong vision or a dream for the future. Vikalpa denotes the imaginative and creative faculty of the mind.
Photo: A night skyline view of the Chicago Tribune building. A building such as this is the result of the sankalpa of the architect who visualised it in his mind before even laying the foundation. - Swahilya Shambhavi.
12 comments:
nice post explained with clarity. from vikalpa we have to move to Nirvikalpa.
Welcome fruitu. There is no moving. Vikalpa is there and so is Nirvikalpa just as the stillness is there in the movement too. We can just know and be with it.
ok!!!
lovely reading this post...beautifully written!
Thank you flyingstars. You are welcome.
Swahilya,
Thanks for explaining how our mind works with this. How interesting and inspiring. This has led me to greater understanding.
I loved your reply on my blog so much that I posted it and added your link. :D
Hugs, JJ
Welcome JJ! Oh the loghouse hermitage! Well yes, that is Sankalpa in this case, a categorical wish!
Good morning, Swahilya! You are such a bright light. I see a golden haze when I visit this page. :D
Hugs, JJ
Welcome JJ! We all share the same light! I really welcome some sunshine in freezing Chicago!
too much of sankrit words makes it difficult for me to follow... but yet able to grasp the content.
Dear swahilya, my vocabulary will be greater, when I visit this place regularly.
You hooked my interest. If you ever feel like it, why not place a vocabulary post with links to the explaining posts.
Sankalpa = positive affirmation I like that :-))
Welcome Ray. I'll work on it sometime. For now I'll elaborate any non-English word within brackets and put it in label too.
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