Creation and Criticism

What are psychic pabula? The word “psychic” means mental and “pabula” implies “mental objects” or “mental foods”. Communism and capitalism are essentially materialist philosophies. Both encourage a psychology of material attachment, which in turn encourages the pursuit of money, name, fame, etc. People living under either of these two systems develop the psychic pabula which run after crude physicalities. All these objective tendencies are the inevitable outcome of the continuous extroversial movement of psychic urges, insatiably driving themselves from one object to another. While running after such material attachments, the mind constantly creates objects in its objective chambers or citta bhumi. All these mental objects are mental food, and they are called psychic pabula.

Similarly, while engaged in physical or psycho-physical interactions, mind thrives on these pabula. When it changes its outlook and goal, its objects or pabula also change. So the human mind is continuously dragged in thousands of directions, creating innumerable objects within itself. These objects are nothing but psychic pabula (“pabula” are plural), always alluring and always detracting the mind. All these pabula grow out of psychic urges, psycho-physical demands, the reactive momenta of the mind and objectified environmental conditions.

A mind, driven by many psychic pabula is the prisoner of innumerable predicaments. In such a condition the human mind becomes extroversial, multi-directional, weak and static. It is propelled by the principle of selfish pleasure, which leads it down the path of counter-evolution. It always adopts an analytical approach to life, never a synthetic one. As people have to satisfy their unrestrained psychic pabula with limited objects of wealth, they often create interpersonal and inter-group conflicts. The collective psychology arising from many objectified human minds gives rise to social inequality, economic exploitation, political repression, religious bigotry, cultural perversion and the all-round degradation of the individual and society. Crude psychic pabula cause the degeneration of individual and collective mind, and thus bring about the downfall of the society.

So psychic urges must not be objectified nor should they be suppressed; rather they must be channelized towards the Supreme Desideratum through the proper psycho-spiritual approach. The Supreme Entity is always one – there is no room for duality in infinity. In the psycho-spiritual approach the goal of psychic urges is always singular. With constant spiritual practice, the mind, with its thousand propensities, becomes one-pointed and is goaded towards the Supreme Singular Entity. At this stage of advanced psycho-spiritual attainment, all the psychic urges with the many psychic pabula are channelled and converted into one psycho-spiritual pabulum – Cosmic Consciousness.

This inner channelisation and one-pointed conversion into psycho-spiritual pabulum brings about radical changes in individual and collective life. The psycho-spiritual approach makes a person deeply introversial, one-directional, strong and dynamic. It is inspired by the principle of social equality, leading it along the path of spiritual attainment. He or she always adopts a synthetic approach to life, never an analytical one. Such a magnanimous and devotional mind rises above petty quarrels and interpersonal and inter-group conflicts. Those imbibed with spiritual idealism are dedicated to the all-round elevation of humanity, free from the slavery of capitalism and the repression of communism, and established in the glory of Neohumanism.

With the smooth, natural and progressive channelisation of the psychic urges of the individual and collective mind towards the Supreme Entity, psychic pabula will be converted into psychospiritual pabulum. Then each person will be a Sadvipra, and the whole society will be a Sadvipra Samáj – an Ánanda Parivára. So the transformation of psychic pabula into psycho-spiritual pabulum is the only panacea.

(Extracted from the discourse of Shrii Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar given on October 1986 in Calcutta)

About the Author:

Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (21 May 1921 – 21 October 1990), Shri Shri Ánandamúrti, ‘Bliss Embodiment’, and known as Bábá (‘Father’) to his disciples, was a Spiritual Guru, Indian philosopher, yogi, author, poet, composer, linguist and scientist. Sarkar was the founder of Ananda Marga (the Path of Bliss) in 1955, a spiritual and social organization that offers instruction in meditation and yoga. Gyani Zail Singh, seventh President of India, has said about Sarkar: "Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar was one of the greatest modern philosophers of India."