Exploring the Finer Things

 We see a man take up a huge weight, we see his muscles swell, and all over his body we see signs of exertion, and we think the muscles are powerful things. But it is the thin thread-like things the nerves, which bring power to the muscles; the moment one of these threads is cut off from reaching the muscles, they are not able to work at all. These tiny nerves bring the power from something still finer, and that again in its turn brings it from something finer still-thought, and so on. So, it is the fine that is really the seat of power. 

Vivekananda

What the heck are you talking about, crazy lady? 

I am referring to Vivekananda's take on the Koshas.  We do not tend to see where the power really exists when we focus on the "gross matter" , exterior, on movement, action, and the body.  We do not..cannot see that the power controlling all things is at the deepest and "finest" level.

What we cannot see.

There are laws, very fine, which are behind the physical laws as we know. That is to say,  there are no such realities as a physical world, a mental world, a spiritual world. Whatever is, is one. Let us say, it is a sort of tapering existence; the thickest part is here, it tapers and becomes finer and finer. The finest is what we call spirit, the grossest the body.

Here, he is speaking of the Koshas , right? The physical kosha is the grossest (most obvious to see) ...then as we taper down...to the Subtle body, the Mental body, the Jnana body it gets less and less gross...less material and form like...and therefore it gets harder to see what goes on at these levels. All power takes place in the finest and most inner layer...the Ananda body or what we refer to as the "spiritual" level. 

Of course, we can see the movement in the gross; but when fine movements take place, we cannot see them. When a gross thing moves, we catch it, and thus we, naturally identify movement with things which are gross. But all the power is really in the fine. We do not see any movement in the fine, perhaps, because the movement is so intense that we can not perceive it.

But if by any science, any investigation, we are helped to get hold of these finer forces which are the cause of expression the expression itself will be under control.

Vivekananda could not have predicted what they would discover at Cern 100 yeaars after his death, could he?  They discovered this fine material as the source of all power...wavelets that cannot be detected with the human eye creating all subatomic matter which in turn creates all matter. It was affectionaletly named the "God Particle" for a reason. 

Relating to everyday Life

We constantly complain that we have no control over our actions, over our thoughts but how can we have it? If we can get control over the fine movements, if we can get hold of thoughts at the root, before it has become thought, before it has become action, then it would be possible for us to control the whole. 

If we can control that which powers a thought or action we can control everything that happens mentally and physically in our lives and in this world. 

Now if there is a method by which we can analyse, investigate, understand and finally grapple with those finer powers, the finer causes, then alone is it possible to have control over ourselves, and the man who has control over his own mind assuredly will have control over every mind. ...And all minds are the same, different parts of One Mind...

Of course, he is not suggesting we all need this mile long equipment in our back yard...we simply need to start exploring our own minds and that which exists beyond the mind. This is yoga. We can create a better world. 

Now, a good deal of our physical evil we can get rid of, if we have control over the fine parts; a good many worries we can throw off, if we have control over the fine movements; a good many failures can be averted, if we have control over these fine powers...

We simply need to go deeper, depend less on what we can pick up with our five senses and explore what exists beyond that...the One mind shared by all. 

All is well.

Vivekananda (n.d.) Complete Works-2.2 The Powers of the Mind.  Kindle Edition,