Śyāmasundara: So then he tries to describe what is this mind. The mind is emergent. It can rearrange things and create new things, arrange new things.
Prabhupāda: Mind creates some idea and again rejects it. It creates another idea. That is mind's business. He is not satisfied by creating something as final. Mind is creative. He creates something and he thinks, "Oh, this is not..." Just like you were making some doll (door?). You don't like it. Again you break it. Then again do it nicely, "Oh, it is not right." Then again break it. That is mind's business.
Śyāmasundara: Accepts and rejects.
Prabhupāda: Reject.
Śyāmasundara: He says that the mind has two functions also, but he describes them slightly different. He says that first one is contemplation, that is perceiving the qualities of an object. And this is a, it's called a neurological activity. In other words, when the nerve endings in the body react with the qualities of an object. If an object is red, my nerve ending perceives that it is red. This is the object.
Prabhupāda: Just like if there is a tamarind, immediately there is saliva in my tongue.
Śyāmasundara: (laughs) This is what he calls contemplation.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: And then the second function of the mind is enjoyment, where there is a mental awareness of an inner, physiological activity as a result of the contemplation.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There are so many examples. Just like one man dreams some woman and there is nocturnal discharges. Mind creates like that and there is physical action actually. Mind creates a dream, a tiger, and there is physical action. He is crying loudly, "Here is a tiger. Here is a tiger." Actually, there is no tiger.
Śyāmasundara: His idea is that even these mental images in dreams are real, that they have an objective reality.
Prabhupāda: Yes. Objective reality. When I dream of a woman or a tiger, there is objective reality. In dream it may be. There may be no existence of woman or tiger, but there is real existence of tiger, my dreaming. The impression of a tiger in my mind, the impression of a woman in my mind is created as hallucination, and that reacts on my physical life.
Śyāmasundara: He says that even these mental objects have a real existence in my consciousness. As long as I'm thinking there's a tiger about to pounce on me...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: ...there is a tiger. There is a real object in my consciousness.
Prabhupāda: And because it is real object, it is reacting on my physical life.