You are unlike everything else in this universe. How is that so? Everything else is an object of your knowledge. Sounds, touch, forms, tastes, smells, memories, thoughts, feelings, doubts, resolutions … all of these are objects of your knowledge. You are the one, in whose effortless presence, knowledge takes place.
To assimilate this fact … here is tiny meditation.
Sit quietly. Close your eyes and relax totally. As you relax, there is no will being used. You are relaxed and awake to the world around you, even though your eyes are closed. Without any deliberation, or effort you simply hear the sounds around you. The fact is 'hearing takes place'.
Why does it take place? Well, the ears can hear and there are sounds around-any sound, the mind is not else where, and so hearing takes place. The sounds are an external fact. Your mind is reporting them is also a fact. Yourself being there, without willing or wishing is also a fact. You have a capacity to will, is a fact. Now it is kept suspended, is also a fact. There is no judgement.
You, the simple conscious being, being present –effortlessly, hearing takes place.
The simple effortless conscious presence that you are, is not altered by the hearing.
Now open you eyes. You, the simple conscious being, being present – effortlessly, sight of different objects takes place. The forms are an external fact. Your eyes and mind are reporting them, is also a fact. Yourself, being there, without willing or wishing is also a fact.
You, the simple conscious being, being present – effortlessly, sight takes place.
The simple effortless conscious presence that you are is not altered by the seeing.
The basic truth about you, which is EVER-PRESENT, is simple conscious presence. A table also is present … yet the table is not conscious. Your presence is a conscious presence, to which we give the word CONSCIOUSNESS.
Basically you are simple consciousness in whose effortless presence, all knowledge takes place. Seeing form is a piece of knowledge. Hearing sound is a piece of knowledge. The sensation of touch is a piece of knowledge. The taste of a fruit is a piece of knowledge. The smell of a ripe mango is a piece of knowledge. The feeling of sadness, or love or happiness is also a piece of knowledge … that takes place in the consciousness that you are. All these become evident to you, the self-evident, self-revealing consciousness.
The objects of your knowledge don't reveal you. In you, the self-evident, self-revealing consciousness, all the objects of knowledge are revealed. They are all objects of the consciousness that you are.
Like in the light of the sun, all objects are impartially revealed, so too in the light of consciousness, all objects of knowledge are impartially revealed. Like the sun is never altered, by what it reveals, so too consciousness is never altered by anything revealed in its presence.
About the self-evident, self-revealing consciousness that you are, much is to be discovered, for which the words of Vedanta are a means of knowledge. The discovery of the TRUTH of the consciousness you are, frees you from all sorrow. Then you really live life in fullness – without fear, without projecting your fullness onto anything else.