In Savitri we have a phrase “sense-formed ear”, suggesting that the organs of cognition are the products of the senses, that the faculties develop or give rise to the necessary instruments; first comes the sense and then the organ. It is not the ear that hears, but it is the sense of hearing, behind it the mind or manas, that hears which is then understood in mental terms; it is that sense which creates the ear, the organ for hearing. The ear is only a receiving, a mechanical instrument, with a diaphragm or a vibrating disc, which on impingement of pressure waves causes the appearance of nervous signals; it is an end product of the sense of hearing. First the Spirit brooded over the Purusha and, thus brooded, the ears broke forth and from the ears Hearing, and from Hearing the regions were born. When the mental being arrived, the quarters or the regions became Hearing and entered into the ears. This is how the Aitereya Upanishad explains the process of formation of the instruments of knowledge, the physical organ or instrument coming into existence as a result of the faculty of the manifesting spirit.

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