The expression ‘original consciousness’ is used by some
neo-Vedanta teachers, who ask their students to negate what is ‘not original’
to arrive at the ‘original consciousness’. The expression ‘original
consciousness’ used in this form is misleading – because Consciousness is
unchanging – Consciousness never adds anything to itself to lose its original
nature – it is not like milk becoming curd and we have to make it milk again.
The purpose of self inquiry is to arrive at the nature of ‘I’
which is invariable in every experience. The time-tested simple method give in
the methodology of revealing truth in traditional Vedanta is the method of discriminating
between the perceiver and the perceived, or the subject and the object. I is
ever the subject, the perceiver, the witness with reference to what is
perceived, never the perceived. Consciousness that shines as ‘I’ is never an
object of any means of knowledge. Consciousness-I is unique in this respect.
So in the understanding of ‘I’ or me – negate whatever is
objectified or objectifiable. Then what is revealed is what shines as ‘I’ which is self-revealing,
self-existing, basic, non-negatable, consciousness that is ever-present, changeless
and limitless – unfettered by whatever is objectified or objectifiable in its
presence - cit svarupoham. When it is our own
confirmed and ascertained recognition we can call it as assimilated knowledge.
Now we can ask is this consciousness that I am, affected or
divided or displaced by any status as an experiencer or the experienced object?
For example a sound is heard. That means the hearer of the sound is perceived,
as well as the sound is perceived. Is the hearer or the sound heard outside
consciousness-I? No. Consciousness is the presence that illuminates, accommodates
unconditionally, gives life to and sustains the hearer and the heard sound.
Both have no separation from Consciousness-I.
The thinker of thought and the thought
The hearer of sound and the sound
The seer of form/colour and the form/colour
The doer of action, the action and the object of action
All of these are illumined, revealed, perceived and gain
being in the limitless, ever-present, unchanging Consciousness that is the
truth of experiencer-I, the experience and the experienced object. Akhanda cit savarupoham.
In every experience there are two orders of realities
at play and they are to be understood and recognized as such, otherwise there is
no understanding of Advaita. Confirming for oneself that what shines as ‘I’ is
consciousness that is separate from the personality and everything else is not advaita
– it is still dvaita or duality because one may imagine that the personality is
another thing, as is the rest of the universe. Then where is Advaita?
The two orders of reality have to be understood. One is an
independent reality and the other is dependent. For example wave is a dependent
reality – it depends on its cause water. Water the cause of wave is the
independent reality because water can exist without being a wave, whereas wave
cannot exist without water, because wave is nothing but water. The independent
reality has the technical name of satyam
and the dependent reality has the technical name mithya.
Taking the example of a sound is heard.
Sound is
Hearing of sound is
The hearer of sound is
Consciousness-I, the unchanging truth of the hearer, in
whose ever-presence, the hearer, hearing and the heard comes to light – is. I am = Consciousness Is =
Existence-Consciousness
It is this Existence-Consciousness which appears in
multifarious forms of different experiences without undergoing any change.
Here the hearer of sound (a facet of the personality), the
hearing itself and the sound are dependent on Consciousness-I, the unchanging
independent reality. The hearer is mithya,
the hearing is mithya, the sound
is mithya - in other words the empirical world consisting
of the ever changing factors such as experiencer, the experience, the
experienced object is mithya. You the
ever-present changeless witness-consciousness, in whose presence the empirical
world of experience comes into being, is satyam.
These two orders of
reality satyam and mithya are the basis of Advaita. Satyam is the changeless, absolute
reality that is limitless consciousness. It is the very content of the
changing, dependent empirical reality, without whom, the empirical reality consisting
of the three-fold factors of experience, experience and experienced has no
being.
We cannot say it is intellectual and dismiss it. The oneness
of water and wave lies in understanding wave to be non-seperate from water,
dependent on water its source, wheras water, the source is independent.
The systematic study of the tradition of teaching of Vedanta
gives us knowledge that confers moksha or liberation. This knowledge may be
assimilated knowledge – which is our own confirmed, ascertained knowledge that
I am immediate, direct, self-revealing, self-existing, ever-present, unchanging,
limitless consciousness, in whose presence the whole universe apparently comes
into being, is sustained and resolves. This knowledge can also be fraught with
obstacles, in which case it is unassimilated knowledge. Some teachers refer to
unassimilated knowledge, when they negate intellectual knowledge. Further they
condemn the systematic study of Vedanta viewing it as incapable of giving ‘direct,
intuitive’ knowledge. This view is wrong and should not be promoted. What they
mean by intuitive knowledge is well-ascertained and confirmed for oneself as
one’s reality. This is the same as the assimilated knowledge that Vedanta
reveals.
It is true that unassimilated knowledge cannot confer moksha and so efforts must be
made to remove the obstacles whatever they are.
Have ascertained that the invariable nature of I is
unchanging limitless consciousness, one’s understanding is incomplete, until
one recognizes that the empirical reality that one transacts with on a daily
basis, consisting of experiencer and
experience, is dependent on and non-seperate from its source, the absolute,
unchanging Consciousness, which is indeed the truth of the confused and
ignorant experiencer.
Om Tat Sat