Is thought the product of the brain or is the brain the product of thought? Perspectives differ as standpoints differ. Both are products of inexplicable ignorance (anirvachaniya Maya) of the reality of the Self (Atman/Brahman) and there is no way to rationalise one way or the other save to apprehend truth in essence through immediate experience (aparokshanubhuti). Arguments will lead nowhere beyond the gratification of the ego and the enforcement of one's rational position on the adversary in deliberation, for truth in its rarefied essence lies far above mundane debates, far beyond the reach of words and images. The apprehension of truth by the rational mind may at best be the shadowy perception of the image universe, that is, the second derivative of reality. If man is made in the image of God, so is God conceived as the image of the Absolute Reality which is beyond finite comprehension. For it is in and through the Absolute, so to say, that the universe is apprehended imperfectly and it is the Absolute that is eternally the witness of panoramic Maya. So, to know the Reality within phenomenal bounds is a contradiction in terms, for fractional knowledge can never know the whole, the apparatus failing as it falls short of the vanishing centre. Our seers, in advancing empirically initially, faced this dilemma and came to a grinding halt as they understood the impossibility of attainment of true knowledge using the mental apparatus which being a component of the very reality it was trying to unravel would contribute to its flawed understanding and, hence, a new method had to be worked out which would make it possible to transcend the mind and bring man face to face with Reality.
Thus began the method of yogic introspection. The mind was turned in to delve into the mind, to study it, analyse and bypass its layers to arrive at deeper levels.
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