Esoterics of Vedantha - a Mystery Teaching

(By Sudhakar V Reddy)

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Self is the Reality which shines fully, without misery and without a body-mind, not only when the world is known but also when the world is not known.  Vedantha is a means for gaining Self-Knowledge (also known as self-inquiry), the key to permanent freedom.  Since everyone values freedom, it pays to understand how self-inquiry works!  Vedantha is the science of the Self, science of the Absolute Truth!

- How can we know Self by knowing our own self?

This can be explained in three ways, through the three aspects of Reality: Sath, Chith and Ananda.

1. One way to explain this truth is from the Hermetic Principle of Correspondence (Sath or Being): "As above, so below; as below, so above."  Yajurveda reveals, "Yatha pinde, tatha brahmande; yatha brahmande, tatha pinde," which means "As microcosm, so macrocosm; as macrocosm, so microcosm."  Man is made in the image and likeness of Reality.  Study man deeply and know Reality.

This principle embodies the truth that there is always a correspondence between the laws and phenomena of various planes of being and life.  Grasping of this Principle of Correspondence gives one of the means of solving many a dark paradox and hidden secrets of nature.  This principle is of universal application and manifestation on the various planes - planes of physical, mental and spiritual universes - it is an universal law.

Just as the knowledge of the principles of geometry enables man to measure distant suns and their movements, while seated in his observatory, so a knowledge of the Principle of Correspondence enables man to reason intelligently from the Known to the Unknown.  Studying the monad, we can understand the archangel.  Reality is Non-dual, so there is only one "thing" going on!

This truth is a truth because all that is included in the universe emanates from the same source, and the same laws, principles, and characteristics apply to each unit, or combination of units, of activity, as each manifests its own phenomena upon its own plane.  Hologram is the nature's way of storing information.  There is already evidence that our brains store information in a holographic form.  This kind of storage device is the most compact known in nature.

An example of this is the genetic code carried in our chromosomes.  Each cell in our body carries all the information required to make an additional copy of our body.  Your body grows from one cell at conception to about thirty seven trillion cells at peak with the same DNA copying over from cell to cell.  Thus, the knowledge of a body cell leads you to the knowledge of a person and knowing yourself (microcosm) enables you to know Reality (macrocosm)!

Socrates: "Knowing thyself is the beginning of wisdom!"

2. A second way of explanation is through Awareness (Chith or Knowing).  Reality is the Only One.  Reality can only be known by Itself, and in order to know Its own existence Reality must be self-aware.  Only Awareness can know Awareness (bringing another Awareness that knows this Awareness will end in infinite regress).  Awareness knows everything and also knows Itself (It is self-revealing like a lamp).  It is the nature of Awareness to know.  By being Itself, It knows Itself.

Therefore Reality's knowledge of Itself must be Awareness's knowledge of Itself.  Awareness's knowledge of Itself also shines in each of our minds as the knowledge 'I AM', the feeling of being or the simple experience of being aware.

'I AM' is the portal through which Reality manifests Itself as the universe.  This is also the portal through which mind can trace itself back to Reality.   Third eye center is the place where 'I AM' or Consciousness or soul operates in the waking state.  Therefore, withdraw your outgoing attention to the third eye center by de-focusing or relaxing. Then ask yourself some questions to grab the knowledge that you are that 'I.'  This is one way to know your self.

'I AM' is the essence in you!  However, Reality gave away the secret of Its own nature to Moses: "I AM That I AM."   Therefore, 'I AM' in you (=self-awareness) is the 'I AM' of Reality!

Buddha: "To conquer oneself is a greater victory than to conquer thousands in a battle!"

3. A third way to explain this truth is through Love (Ananda or Loving). To be truly loved means to give our whole self to the object of our love at all times.  Since Consciousness is the only thing that is present at all times, only Consciousness is able to impart this love to Itself.  This is self love!  Permanent happiness/love can never be in an object.  When you love an object, the object is outside and the love is inside you.  They can never meet, as they are.  The contact is established inside, where the gross object is represented by its subtle form or thought.  So the real contact is only between your own thought and your own feeling.  Hence it comes to mean that you love only yourself, always.

Reality surely loves Itself as Love for self is the highest form of Love.  Since Reality is perfect, Reality's Love for you must be perfect.  Reality's Freedom for you must be perfect.  So if Reality is other than yourself then Its Love for you is imperfect, because It is loving you as someone other than Itself.  It can, then, only give you a little bit of Its Love.

If Reality is your own self, that Reality will love you as your own self.  It would love you better than yourself because you love yourself as the ego and Reality would love you as you really are.

Therefore, your self is Reality's Self!  The world known through Love is Reality; Reality known without Love is the world!

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: "Aham Brahma ’smi!"  Buddha: "Peace comes from within.  Do not seek it without!"

These three points lead us to the conclusion: Know yourself! 

One who cannot realize Reality within himself can never realize It in all.  The soul/self means that which is nearest to you; then anyone who is at a little distance from you will have to be considered as being farther away.  And if you cannot see Reality in yourself, which is nearest you, you cannot possibly see It in those far from you.  First you will have to know Reality in yourself; first the knower will have to know the divine -- that is the nearest door.  But the individual who enters his self suddenly finds the entrance to all.  The door to one's self is the door to all!

Each sense organ perceives only itself in its own medium.  Knowledge knows only knowledge.  And love loves only love.  In short, the instrument utilized is itself perceived by the instrument.  So also, you see only yourself in others.  Know yourself as Love, you will then see Love everywhere and in everything!

The Vedanthic approach is strictly individual and never social or communal.  By visualizing the Ultimate Truth (the Self) through Vedantha, the individual realizes his own perfection and automatically transcends society and the world.  Vedanthin finds the world (as matter/mind) a mere illusion.  But he allows the illusory world to continue to exist, merely as a matter of concession.  He can undo it by withdrawing his own consciousness from it any moment.

Therefore, so far as the Vedanthin is concerned, the question of improving the
world does not arise.  He regards the world as himself!

- Valid knowledge ('pramaana'): Knowledge is valid when it is true to what is, it cannot later be negated ('pramaanam'='prama'+'karanam'=knowledge+instrument=instrument of knowledge).  Knowledge is of two kinds: Direct, immediate knowledge ('aparoksha gnyaana') and direct or indirect mediate knowledge ('paroksha gnyaana').  Direct immediate (non-mediate) knowledge is looking at Awareness as Awareness.  Direct immediate knowledge cannot be forgotten because the object of knowledge is always present.  It is not a memory.  Indirect knowledge is looking at Awareness from the subtle body.  Indirect knowledge is knowledge of objects, which are not always present and therefore can be forgotten.  For the most part, the knowledge one gathers is not completely valid but is a 'working knowledge' of the world.  This is a relatively valid knowledge (mediate knowledge) useful for practical purposes.  Mediate knowledge is obtained by any of the following six methods: 1. Sense perception (senses, 'prathyaksha'; 'prathi'=in front of, 'aksha'=eyes/senses, direct but mediate), 2. Perception-based inference (intellectual, logical, reasoning, 'anumaana'; there is smoke, so there must be a fire; anu-maana=in accordance with previously established data=in accordance with 'prathyaksha', indirect), 3.  Presumption (the road is wet, it must have rained, 'arthapatthi', indirect), 4. Comparison (a pear is like an apple but a bit oblong, 'upamaana', indirect), 5. Non-Cognition (watch is not on the table, so you come to know it is not there; you are seeing a non-watch, 'anupalabhdhi', indirect), and 6. Words/Testimony (you are 'that', 'shabhdha').  But these first five are valid means of knowledge for all the things we can objectify.  They do not reveal the subject or the Self.  And also these five mediate means are defective as the senses are extremely limited, not always true.  The sixth one ('shaasthra pamaana'; experience of sages in word format) is more trustworthy as it helps reveal the hidden truth (it could be direct and immediate knowledge because the Self is always present everywhere).

Eyes can see objects, objects can never see the eyes; mind can see the eyes, eyes can never see the mind; Self can see the mind, mind can never see the Self!  Mind is a thought and is limited whereas the Self is unlimited.  No action can produce limitlessness; therefore, there is only one way out - not the one of action, but the one of knowing.  Knowing is immediate; does not require any medium of knowledge such as senses, or intellect.  In Vedantha it is called 'darshan', seeing without mind.  This is direct immediate knowledge.  To gain the limitlessness we seek, we must already be that fully adequate being whose adequacy is hidden by ignorance.  We need a means to shed that (illusion of) ignorance so darshan can happen on its own.

It is important to mention the usage of certain key words here: "consciousness" and "knowledge" are used in duality; "awareness" and "knowing" are used in non-duality.  In consciousness there is always someone who is conscious, conscious of something.  Awareness is consciousness without thinking, being alert with no thought.  Awareness is the consciousness of all that is happening or Pure Consciousness.  Secondly, knowledge is always of the past while knowing is always in the present with no subject-object relationship.  Knowledge makes you learned, but knowing makes you innocent.  Knowledge is ego fulfilling, but knowing kills ego.

- The means to gain the knowledge of oneself: To know the uncreated limitlessness which cannot be produced, which can only be known, but not by such indirect means as perception, inference, etc. one has to go to a teacher, a guru.  A guru is one who dispels darkness.  He throws light on something that is already there for you to see it.  Self cannot be taught directly since it is behind or beyond the mind.  But a guru can create a situation where you can "be" your Self.  This is the basic means of knowledge to know yourself; "shabdha" or the "words" of a guru.  The teaching is a body of wisdom in the form of words and sentences - known as Vedantha - which throws light upon oneself.  Vedantha is not a religion.  Any philosophy/system can be classified into four thoughts: asthi, naasthi, asthi-naasthi and naasthi-naasthi.  But Vedantha does not take any position.  It is only a technique that helps us abide in our own true nature!

Vedantha is called 'shabdha pramana', a verbal means of knowing.  Through words, it is a direct means of knowledge of oneself.  It is experiential.  Sound/'Shabdha' always refers to its meaning, like AUM referring to its meaning or source.  Vedantha means the culmination of knowledge or that comes at the end of Vedas which are Upanishads.  Vedantha also means the knowledge that ends one's search for knowledge.  Vedantha is really the end to the means of knowledge!  ((The word Upanishad means the “destruction (shad) of ignorance or dependence” by revealing what “sits nearest” or "near by" (upa-ni, 'ni' means near, 'upa' means sitting by or close by) to you.  What sits nearest to you is the Self; so Self-Knowledge destroys ignorance.))  Why is Vedantha the only means of Self knowledge or the absolute knowledge?  Because Vedas and Upanishads are called Sruthis.  They are heard by seers internally in their hearts.  They are not written by anyone.  No one claims the authorship of these scriptures.

The knowledge of the Self was only dis-covered by these seers in the highest states of consciousness.  They are revelations.  The proof of this means of wisdom is in having faith in the teaching, following it, and seeing the truth for yourself.  All of your questions will be dissolved in that realization.  Self is the closest thing to you.

You cannot know the world if you do not know yourself first, because the world is farther than your Self.  Like science is valid in the objective field or material field, Vedantha is valid in the transcendental field or spiritual field which has been time tested and verified by thousands of people.  The words of Vedantha are the instrument for knowing oneself, just as the eye is the instrument for seeing.  The words/ideas of Vedantha are not meant to be believed in, they are to be understood, because belief is ignorance.  Vedantha, a means of knowledge that works, will never be modified because it already performs its function perfectly.

Vedantha is a deep and relentless inquiry into the Ultimate Truth.  The inquiry is made with the aid of pure discrimination and reason alone.  The reason employed for the purpose is tri-basic reason, which is applicable to all the three states.  But the reason employed in science, yoga, arts, philosophy etc. is only mono-basic reason – applicable only in the waking state.

Self-inquiry, Vedantha, has three stages.  The first is called shravana, listening.  Listening from a competent teacher.  This is done only with the help of a teacher.  Second stage of inquiry is called manana, reflection.  Remember, examine, and contemplate the views you have learned.  It is consolidating and converting knowledge into conviction.  This is done independently and with the help of a teacher.

Finally get your thinking in line with who you really are.  This stage is called nidhidhyaasana, assimilation of the understanding in your own experience ('nidhi'=wealth of knowledge, 'dhyaasa'=focusing of).  This is done independently alone.  It is a deconditioning and re-orienting process to feel the love that gets rid of any remaining traces of duality.  It is total transformation.  Being (Self or Sath) equals Knowing (Chith) plus Loving (Ananda)!

Discrimination between the Self and the not-Self is the first step in understanding Vedantha.  Knowing ourselves is the absence of not knowing ourselves as something!

- The not-Self (Jada):  Because reality is non-dual, there is no actual not-self.  But despite this fact, we seem to experience a not-self.  So to simply deny our experience because it isn’t actually real is completely unproductive.  Instead, the seeming not-self needs to be properly understood, along with its ‘relationship’ to the Self.  For this reason Vedantha introduces the concepts of the three bodies, five sheaths, and three states.  The intention is not to prove their actual existence.

Instead, they are presented in order to give you several different ways to objectify your everyday experience, and by doing so, understand how you are neither involved in it nor affected by it.  By negating every facet of your experience as being unreal—not-Self—it is possible through implication to understand yourself, the Self.  A positive knowledge of the Self is impossible.  Therefore, the path of negation is adopted.

Negation of the objective world also gives you a disinterested and tranquil stand from which to start the inquiry.  Otherwise, there is the danger of the mind coming in uncalled for, in some form or other, to pollute the inquiry.

Your position after negation of body, senses and mind is ‘being it’, though it is generally called ‘knowing it’.  There, ‘to know’ is ‘to be!'  First you have to negate, first you have to discover what you are not.  Until you have known what you are not, you will not be able to know what you are.  What you are is covered up by what you are not, so first you have to come face to face with what you are not, and then you will see what you are.  Here is an established criteria for discrimination:

1. All forms of experience, both mental and physical, are objects known to you, the Self.  But the objects don’t know you because they aren’t conscious.  You, the Self, are conscious, so you can’t be the unconscious objects.
2. You, the Self, are eternal, ever-present, and unchanging—you are real.  All objects known to you are temporary, constantly coming, going, and changing—they are unreal.  You, the Self, are real, so you can’t be the not-real objects.
3. You, the Self, exist independently.  That you are existent and conscious is self-evident, requiring no external means to be known.  But objects depend on you, the Self, for their existence because nothing can be shown without consciousness.  Therefore, you, the independently existent Self, can’t be the dependently existent objects.

In summary, you are conscious, real and independently existent.  So you can’t be the unconscious, not-real objects that depend upon you for their seeming existence.

You can apply this discrimination to each part of the not-Self, starting with the three bodies and the five sheaths.

- The Three Bodies: We are three part beings consisting of body, mind and the soul.  In other words: gross body, subtle body and causal body.  We experience this daily through the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep.  The soul conceives, the mind creates, the body experiences.

The gross body is nothing but a combination of the five elements, space (ether), air (gaseous state), fire (plasma state), water (liquid state), and earth (solid state).  This is matter and matter is not conscious.  Yet you, the Self, are conscious.  The body is continuously subject to change but the Self is unchanging.  The Self is ever-present but the body isn’t because it disappears in dream and deep sleep.

Furthermore, if the body were ever-present, then your baby-body, childhood-body, or even your body from last week would still be here, but they aren’t.  They’ve all disappeared but you, the Self, remain.  Also, while the body previously did not exist, and will not exist in the future, the Self always has and always will exist.  This existence is independent, unlike the body.  The body depends on matter for its seeming existence, and matter depends upon awareness for its existence.  For all of these reasons you, the Self, cannot be the gross body.

Owing to previous actions, you have a human subtle body.  This is only relevant to self-inquiry insofar as discrimination requires the capabilities of a human reason.  A dog, for instance, can’t do self-inquiry because it lacks the ability to self-reflect.  So what is the subtle body made of?  The subtle body is composed of the five organs of perception, the five organs of action and the five physiological functions.  In addition, it contains the inner instrument made up of mind, buddhi, ego and memory.  

The subtle body is the instrument of perception. The points on the physical body where sense perception seems to occur are not the actual sense organs.  Perception is only possible when the mind is behind the sense organs.  It is thus composed of energy, matter in its non-physical form.  Energy is not conscious and you, the Self, is conscious.  On this basis alone you can negate the possibility of yourself being the subtle body.

Why don’t you know that you are the Self?  Because of self-ignorance.  Where does this ignorance come from?  The causal body, which is also the cause of the subtle body and the gross body.  Now, the existence of the gross and subtle body is obvious because you experience them.  But how do you know there is a causal body?  Through inference.  For instance, it’s clear that you aren’t the creator of your physical body.  And your mind—which is nothing but a string of thoughts, feelings, emotions and memories—appears to you unbidden and unexpectedly, the proof being that you never know what you are going to think next.  So you can be certain you aren’t the creator of the mind either.

Since you aren’t the creator of your gross and subtle bodies, you have to infer that the body and mind have an unseen cause.  But just in case you think the Self is the cause, Vedantha introduces the causal body instead.  Self is infinite and can never become finite.  Self can only act or appear like it is finite through maya or ignorance or forgetting.

Like a seed containing the unmanifest potential of a tree, the causal body contains the unmanifest potential for the gross and subtle body.  But unlike a seed, the causal body is formless and can’t be experienced directly.  Only its effects—the mind and body—can be experienced.

First, ignorance is synonymous with the causal body and the causal body is the cause of the subtle body and the physical body.  Since the causal body is the cause of everything, it itself doesn’t have a cause.  So in that regard it is beginningless, or more precisely, causeless.  Second, to say that ignorance has a beginning means it had a prior non-existence.  How can something that doesn’t exist—like the son of a woman who cannot have children—ever come into existence?  It isn’t possible, so ignorance must have always existed.  Besides, if ignorance had a prior non-existence, what would have to be there in its place?  Knowing.  And if knowing was already present, ignorance couldn’t come to be.  So for all of these reasons, ignorance has to be beginningless.

In truth, it’s not important whether ignorance has a beginning or not.  You do not need to know where it comes from.  You only need to know what it is so you can get rid of it.  Ignorance is also indefinable.  In this context, the word “indefinable” is synonymous with the word “mithya.”  Mithya is indefinable because it is neither truly real nor truly unreal, neither truly existent nor truly non-existent.  It defies categorization.  You can’t say ignorance is truly real or existent, Sathya, because it depends on awareness, the Self, to exist.  Appearance without any origination is mithya.

You can’t be ignorant if you aren’t aware.  But you can’t say ignorance is truly unreal or non-existent either because it can be experienced.  Therefore ignorance is mithya.  And this is good news because anything that is mithya is impermanent.  So even though ignorance has no beginning, it can definitely have an end.

- The Five Sheaths: The non-apprehension of the self as oneself gives rise to five misconceptions about its nature.  These misconceptions are called sheaths because they apparently hide the self and need to be removed if the self is to be apprehended as it is.  The five sheaths (layers of ignorance) are the food sheath (annamaya kosha), the vital air sheath (pranamaya kosha), the mind sheath (manomaya kosha), the buddhi sheath (vignyanamaya kosha), and the bliss sheath (anandamaya kosha).  Five Sheaths are another way of viewing the three bodies.  It is meant to point out the universal errors in self understanding that occur at each of the five levels of experience.  The non-apprehension of the self as oneself gives rise to five misconceptions about its nature.  These misconceptions are called sheaths because they apparently hide the self and need to be removed if the self is to be known as it is.

The most obvious self misunderstanding is "I am the body."  The notions that "I am mortal," "I am fat" and "I am male/female" indicate an association of the self with the matter.  Association of the I with the physiological systems causes one to say, "I am hungry," "I am thirsty," when in fact the I, awareness, does not experience these sensations.  The universal statements, "I am happy" and "I am sad" show that the I has been confused with the mind, the emotional body.  When a person says "I did this" it means the self has been confused with the ego.  It is untrue because the self is non-dual and can’t act.  If someone says "I know this" it means that he or she that has confused the self is confused with the intellect.  When you say "I feel good" you have confused the self with the causal body, the bliss sheath.

The application of this teaching follows a certain type of logic.  First the self is introduced as the gross body, a common belief.  Then it is shown that there is another subtler body, the feelings and emotions, which also are thought to be the self.  When one’s feelings are hurt one will instinctively say, “I was hurt by what she said.”  This ‘self’ negates the previous self because for a self to be a self it cannot be two, modern theories of multiple personalities notwithstanding.  The word ‘self’ means essence, that which is not made up of parts.  Once the belief in oneself as the physical body is dropped and one accepts oneself as the emotional body, the teaching brings in the intellect ‘self’ which shows up in experience as the concept "I am the doer" or "I am the knower" which is meant to remove the notion that one is only the feelings and emotions.

When one can see that he or she thinks of his or herself as a doer or a thinker and understands the limitation inherent in that concept, the idea of the bliss body is introduced.  The ‘bliss body’ is responsible for pleasure and its companion concept "I am an enjoyer."  The doer and the thinker will give way to the enjoyer in every case because doing and thinking are for the sake of enjoying but enjoying is not for the sake of doing and thinking.  Finally, the self is introduced as the source of bliss/peace.  I cannot enjoy anything unless I am there prior to the onset of the enjoyment.  Thus by tracing the ‘I’ concept from the gross to the subtle one is led to the self, the fundamental I.  The realization of the whole and complete I negates all the lesser selves, meaning one lets go of them and embraces the unlimited identity.

Gross body is made up of food sheath and the vital air sheath.  Subtle body is made up of vital air sheath, mind sheath and the buddhi sheath.  Causal body consists of the bliss sheath.  Although you refer to your possessions as ‘mine’ in statements such as, “My clothes, my house, my family etc.,” they are different from yourself.  Similarly, although you refer to the three bodies or the five sheaths as ‘mine,’ in such statements as, “My body, my physiological functions, my mind, my buddhi, and my ignorance,” they are different from yourself.  They are not-Self.  You are the Self, ever untouched or unaffected by the three bodies and five sheaths, just as a seer is untouched by what is seen or just as a sword is unaffected by its scabbard.

All the three bodies in the form of the five sheaths are contained in the feeling "I am this body."  If that (the feeling "I am this body") alone is removed, all (the three bodies) will be removed automatically.  Since all the other bodies (the subtle and causal bodies) subsist only by clinging to this (the feeling "I am this gross body"), it is not necessary to remove each (of the three bodies) individually.

Vedantha now looks at the three states of experience as part of the not-Self.

Waking is that which comprehends through understanding the other two states.  To shut out dream and sleep from inquiry is to prevent fullness of knowledge being got.  It is wakeful state alone which gives you knowledge of the other states.  It is impossible to arrive at truth when we reject so much data as sleep and dream, and confine ourselves to waking alone.

The data which is fractional cannot lead to anything but fractional truth.  Truth is one and indivisible.  Therefore, what appears as fractional truth is nothing short of untruth.  Science, yoga, philosophy, devotion, mysticism and such other paths, all take into consideration only the waking state experiences and so work upon fractional data.  Therefore their findings are not the truth.

No intelligent man can seriously consider a bare one third of one’s life’s experiences alone, ignoring the remaining two thirds!

- The Three States of Experience: The final way to objectify the not-self is to think of it as experience in general, which is divided into waking, dream, and deep sleep.  The discrimination between yourself and experience is, “I cannot be what I experience because experience itself is an ever-changing, unconscious object known to me.  Every experience requires consciousness so it depends on me, the Self, to exist.  I am the witness of the experience, not the experience itself.”

In the waking state, the external world is present.  Knowing and dynamic faculties are operating.  And while you would never mistake yourself to be certain parts of the external world like a tree, you do think you are the body.  But is there a real difference between the two?  Ask yourself: How are the body and the tree known?  The answer is that they’re both known by the sense organ of the eye.  You know a tree because the eye sees it and you know your body because the eye sees it.  It’s the same situation for the other sense organs too.  You feel the leaves of the tree with the same organ of skin (touch) that you feel the hair on your head.  So by looking at your experience in this way you can see that your body and a tree share the same level of existence.  They are both just thoughts, objects of perception.

And what knows the perceptions of the sense organs?  It has to be the mind because sensory perception is only possible when the mind is functioning.  If for some reason you don’t think you’re the body, you almost certainly think you are the mind.  But you have to ask yourself: How is the mind known?  The answer is that it’s known by you, the Self.  If the mind wasn’t something known to you, you wouldn’t be able to say that it was there.  This means that both the mind and its thoughts/perceptions are objects known to you and therefore can’t be you.  If you can follow the logic here, you can negate your identification with the entire waking state.  But there may still be a doubt.  You might wonder: What knows the Self?

The answer is that there is no knower of the Self because it is self-revealing.  It doesn’t require anything else to be known because it is self-evident pure consciousness, knowing-ness, awareness itself.  Look at your own experience.  Do you need anything to know that you are conscious other than the fact that you are conscious?  No.  So consciousness doesn’t need another consciousness to be conscious of itself.  Besides, if there were something that knew the Self, the Self would become an object known to it and cease being the conscious subject.

This isn’t possible because the Self doesn’t change.  Furthermore, there’s no way for something to have two contradictory natures.  In the same way that the sun can’t be both light and dark, hot and cold, the Self can’t be both subject and object, conscious and unconscious.  So it is always the conscious subject and never an unconscious object.  But getting back to our analysis of the waking state, if the fact that the waker and its experience is an inert, ever-changing object known to you doesn’t rid you of your identification with it, ask yourself: How can I be the waker if I disappear every time I go to sleep?

The waker doesn’t exist in the dream state because neither the body nor the perceptions of the external world are present.  In the dream state, only the subtle body (mind) and causal body are active.  Only the memory, one of the four faculties of the mind, is predominantly operating.  Buddhi or reasoning never operates in the dream state.  The causal body projects thoughts—based on previous experience in the waking state—into the mind, creating the dream.  Similar to the way you think the waking state is real when you are awake, you think the dream state is real when you are dreaming.  And in this case the “I”, the Self, is mistaken to be the dreamer.  Just like the waking state, no aspect of the dream state can be you because it is ever-changing and known to you.

But leaving that aside, consider this: If you were previously the waker, how could you now be the dreamer?  Has the one transformed into the other?  Even if this is the case, neither one can be you because you are the Self and the Self doesn’t change.  The proof is that you are aware of the coming and going of both the waker and the dreamer.  You have to be present before the waker shows up in order to say that it showed up.  And then you have to still be present to say that it disappears and that the dreamer appears.  If you actually were the waker, you would disappear when the dreamer showed up and you wouldn’t be able to say that the dreamer was there and vice versa.  So you are there before, during and after the waker and dreamer as the awareness that reveals them.

The discussion of deep sleep is tricky because almost everyone thinks that they are non-existent in deep sleep.  There is basically inertia operating in this state.  Before going into any fancy logical arguments that prove otherwise, ask yourself: Do I fear death?  The answer is probably yes.  Even if you don’t fear death, you definitely don’t welcome it.  The proof is that you are sitting here reading this commentary and not plotting your own demise.  Why do you fear death or hope that it stays away for as long as possible?  Because death is the non-existence of the body and mind—the person you think you are.

So if you truly don’t exist in sleep, then it’s essentially the same as death—they don’t call it the ‘cousin of death’ for nothing.  Since your non-existence is not desirable, as evidenced by your aversion to death, then why would you willingly seek sleep each and every night?  The answer is because you do exist in deep sleep.  If you didn’t, you couldn’t wake up feeling rested because a non-existent entity can’t be changed by a non-existent experience.  So not only do you exist in sleep, you also experience.  The main reason for people thinking they do not exist in sleep is the absence of the body, mind and world—objects.  You might say, “I don’t remember anything.  Since nothing was there, I wasn’t there.”  This line of reasoning is understandable but inherently flawed.

It implies that your existence depends on the presence of objects.  If this were true, it would apply equally to the waking state as well.  But does the presence of objects in the waking state make you exist?  Does your existence depend on you seeing a tree, tasting food, smelling a flower, hearing music, or feeling your own body?  Not at all.  You exist before, during and after the experience of the tree, food, flower etc.  This means the appearance of an object does not bring you into existence.  And its disappearance does not render you non-existent.

Since this is the case, how does the disappearance of all objects in sleep prove that you are non-existent?  If this doesn’t remove your doubt, remember that the word “existence”, Sathya, is synonymous with consciousness and consciousness exists independently of objects.  This is self-evident, but all you have to do is look at your experience for confirmation.  Objects come, go and change but consciousness is always there.  And instead of consciousness depending on objects to exist, objects depend on consciousness to exist because you can’t have an object without consciousness.  However, in a state like deep sleep, you can have consciousness without objects.

Now, you might say, “Wait a minute, I don’t see how I am conscious in deep sleep.”  If you exist in deep sleep—which you do—then you are conscious because they are the very same thing.  But it may not seem like it because you are not conscious of anything.  Even though we’ve already seen that consciousness does not depend on the perception of objects, let’s analyze the situation a little further.  Earlier it was mentioned that sleep is an experience.  But what kind of experience?

Deep sleep is the experience of the absence of objects.  Because how can you say there are no objects in deep sleep if you aren’t there to experience their absence?  For instance, say someone asks you, “Was the President of the United States at your house yesterday?”  If you definitively say, “No,” how is that possible?  Because you were there.  If you weren’t home you couldn’t say you experienced the absence of the President.  It’s the same with deep sleep.  For you to say there were no objects present, you had to be present to know there was an experience of their absence.  And since there is an experience in deep sleep, there is consciousness, because you can’t have experience without consciousness.  Without the presence of any limiting objects, deep sleep is the experience of limitless.

It’s true that the normal instrument of experience, the body and mind—the person you think you are—is not there in deep sleep.  But there is a very subtle thought present, called the nidra vritti or avidya vritti, that registers the experience.  And since a thought is unconscious, this means the conscious Self, the real you, has to be there making the experience possible.  So, what is the difference between deep sleep and the Self?  The unconsciousness of the presence of desires is the condition of deep sleep.  The consciousness of the absence of desires is the condition of the Self.

The Self is referred to as the waker, dreamer, or sleeper depending on which state of experience is appearing in it.  But this is a mistake because the Self is present and unchanged as the states of experience come, go and change.  To say that the states change is only possible because of the presence of the unchanging Self.  The only way you can report the presence or absence of a particular state of experience is because you—consciousness—are there prior to, during, and after the presence of each state of experience.  If you went away when the waking state went away, you wouldn’t be there to say that the dream or deep sleep state had arrived and vice versa.

After thoroughly describing what you aren’t, Vedantha gives a description of what you are!

- The Self (Sath-Chith-Ananda): While it’s true that limitless consciousness can’t ultimately be described or contained by limited, unconscious words, they are all we have to work with because the Self isn’t an object of thought or perception.  But thankfully, the proper use of words can remove erroneous notions about the Self and show that you are it.  That’s all that’s needed because the Self doesn’t have to be demonstrated as an object.  Self is self-evident because your existence and consciousness of the existence are obvious.  But since what the Self is not and what it means to be the Self isn’t entirely clear, a teaching in the form of words is necessary.

Vedantha defines Self as Sath-Chith-Ananda.  This is the most exclusive, the most economical, and the most precise definition of Self!  Sath, Chith, and Ananda aren’t three different functions or qualities that belong to the Self.  They are literally what the Self is, it’s very nature.  Sath is that which is beginningless, endless, unchanging and independently existent.  Chith means awareness.  Not to be redundant but the Self—Awareness—is aware.  It’s not what the Self does, it’s what Self is.  And because this Awareness is Sath, it’s not a part, product, property or function of the body or mind or a combination of both.

Some say the brain is the source of consciousness but does that makes sense?  Brain tissue and electrical current—which are both just matter—are unconscious.  If they have no consciousness to give, then putting them together can’t create consciousness.  The brain, like a computer, does perform certain functions but also like a computer, it is unconscious.  So similar to the way a conscious person observes the unconscious functions of a computer, the conscious Self witnesses the unconscious functions of the brain.

Besides, brain function is described in two ways: as electrical activity—which is unconscious—and the flow of thoughts.  Are thoughts conscious?  No, because they are revealed by consciousness.  So consciousness can’t be the flow of thoughts because it is independent of the flow of thoughts or even its absence, like in deep sleep.  If you exist in deep sleep then you are aware, because Existence (Sath) and Awareness (Chith) are the same thing.

So what about Ananda?  Ananda means peace but peace doesn’t apply to the Self in a literal sense.  Why?  Because peace is experiential, and as you have seen, experience is the not-Self.  But Ananda is used here because analyzing the experience of peace, which is familiar to everyone, is useful for describing the nature of the Self through implication.  How so?  When you are peaceful, there is no separation between you and what you want.  You are one with no subject - object relationship.  Consciousness is aware of Itself.  You are happy because you are temporarily free from the constraints of limitation.

So the implied meaning of Peace (Ananda) is limitlessness (Anantha) and the word “limitless” applies to the Self because it is unaffected by time, space and all other objects that appear in it.  It is also limitless because it is non-dual and all-pervasive; there is nowhere it isn’t and there is nothing that it lacks.  We may also take the meaning of Ananda as peace, happiness, contentment, fullness or love, etc.  In relation to body, it is pleasure; in relation to mind, it is happiness; in relation to soul it is peace/joy; and in relation to the world, it is beauty.

Existence-awareness-limitlessness is a precise definition of the Self because it’s unambiguous and it only applies to the Self.  For example, what object of your experience is Sath?  There are none to be found because all objects are time-bound, coming into being, staying a while and then disappearing.  They are also not Sath because they depend on consciousness to exist.  What in your experience is Chith?  Nothing, because all objects are known to you and therefore unconscious.  And what in your experience is Anantha?  Again, there is nothing because all objects are bound by time and space.

You can start to see how Vedantha’s proper usage of words is a valid means to know the Self.  The words themselves aren’t the Self but by contemplating their implied meanings, the nature of the Self is made clear.  How?  At first, the definition Sath-Chith-Anantha negates the possibility of the Self being any kind of object.  Since it’s not an object, it has to be Chith, Awareness, the knower of objects.  And because it’s the knower of objects, it isn’t affected by them.  So the Self is known to be Anantha, limitless.

Through these words, it becomes clear what you are not: an object, the experiencing entity (ego) or any form of experience.  And by thinking about the implied meaning of these words it becomes clear what you are: the limitless Awareness by which all objects are known.  When you come to this conclusion it’s not as if you become the Self.  You just understand what the Self is and how you already are the Self.  It’s only a matter of knowing (understanding) not becoming (action).  And this is why words work.

Words can yield wisdom but actions can’t because action and ignorance aren’t opposed to one another.  A person under the influence of self-ignorance can perform all kinds of action to get, change or get rid of objects.  But since the Self is not an object, he can’t get it through an action.  He can only ‘get’ the Self through the knowing that he already ‘has’ the Self because he is the Self.

- How can there be a creation--a not-Self--if the Self is non-dual, unchanging and actionless?.......... 

In actuality nothing can be either created or destroyed.  That is the law of conservation of energy.  Then if at all we use the word creation, it only refers to manifestation of something which was potentially un-manifestly existent.  Nothing in the creation is non-existent.  Vedantha explains that it is owing to maya, an illusory power that depends on the Self for its apparent existence.  Maya makes the impossible possible: it makes the non-dual Self seem like it’s a multitude of different objects.  Maya depends on the Self, which is Sathya (or real), for its apparent existence.

This means that maya, along with its effects, is mithya (apparently real).  Even though Sathya and mithya seem like a duality they aren’t because there can’t be a real duality between the Self and something that doesn’t actually exist.  But since the appearance of duality can’t simply be dismissed, the relationship between Sathya and mithya needs to be explained: while mithya (maya) is always Sathya (the Self), Sathya is never mithya.  What is called mithya is only the Self appearing as, but never actually becoming, mithya.  It’s like the example of a gold ornament.  While the name “ornament” and the form it refers to are always gold, the gold is never the name and form.

The gold doesn’t become a substance called ornament because the ornament is only an appearance with no actual existence.  And before, during and after the appearance of the ornament, the gold remains the same.

Objects are transient and ever-changing; they aren’t real.  And since objects aren’t self-revealing—meaning independently existent—they have to depend on something else for their apparent existence, like the name and form “gold ornament” depends on gold.  The only other factor besides objects is awareness, so what appears to be objects must really be awareness.  Let’s examine an object such as a chair to see how this is true.  The logic of this example can be applied not only to physical objects but subtle objects such as thoughts as well because both are matter.

So what are you referring to when you say there is a chair?  If look closely, you see there is no chair, only wood.  Is wood a reality?  No, wood is only atoms.  Are atoms a reality?  No, because they are made of protons, neutrons and electrons, which in turn are made of quarks and various other subatomic particles that periodically appear out of and disappear into, space.  So at the end of the chair investigation, all that is found is space.  But is space a reality?  If it were, it would exist independently.  But it doesn’t because space can only be said to exist in the presence of consciousness.

Since space isn’t aware, it’s not logical to conclude that awareness comes from space.  So space comes from awareness and ultimately is nothing but awareness.  In this way all objects, mithya, resolve into awareness, Sathya, the Self.  The experience of mithya is just an appearance that is actually the Self.  It’s similar to thinking you are experiencing a wave where there is only water, a ring where there is only gold, or a shirt where there is only cotton.

- What is the process of manifestation?.........

The causal body is the unmanifest potential for the individual mind and body.  But it is only part of the total causal body, maya, the unmanifest potential of all bodies, all minds and the entire creation.  So, awareness and maya always existed before manifestation and will exist after the manifestation (or after pralaya).  Both are beginning-less.  In this regard maya is the creator and it is composed of the three gunas (qualities or factors) required to create: sathva (knowledge, sentiency), rajas (power, dynamism) and thamas (substance, inertia).

Think of what is needed to build a house. First you have to have the knowledge to draw a blueprint and skill in construction.  This is sathva.  But knowledge and skill aren’t any good if you don’t have the power or energy to implement the construction itself.  This is rajas.  But knowledge of how to do the job and the power to do it isn’t of any use if there aren’t any materials to build with.  This is thamas.  Initially, these three gunas are in their subtle forms, which could be thought of as energy or matter in its non-physical form.  From the subtle elements, the subtle bodies are formed.  Then, when the subtle elements divide and recombine they become the gross elements—physical matter—from which the body and the cosmos are formed.

In truth, there isn’t a distinction between the matter that makes up your body and mind and the matter that comprises the world.  From the point of view of matter, the creation and the individual are one and the same; they are essentially non-different and this fact resolves the one into the other.  Now, since matter is inert and unconscious, it doesn’t make sense that it arranged itself into a creation.  Thus, the existence of a conscious, intelligent creator is inferred.  So right after determining the oneness of the creation and the individual, you arrive at another duality: the creator and the creation.  To reconcile the two, the Vedantha explains the nature of the creator, Eeshwara or Personal God, and the creation/individual, the Jeeva.

- Eeshwara, the Creator: Although maya contains all of the knowledge and power needed to create, that knowledge and power is useless without awareness.  This is why it is said that the Creator, Eeshwara, is maya associated with the Self.  So the non-dual actionless Self can’t create without maya and maya can’t create without the conscious Self.  Most of the time, maya and Eeshwara are used synonymously.  But sometimes Eeshwara is referred to as the self in association with sathva alone, the idea being that Eeshwara is the total knowledge and skill required to create and rajas and thamas are two powers it wields, similar to the way an artist wields his abilities.  And like an artist is non-separate from, but unaffected by his abilities, Eeshwara is non-separate from, but unaffected by rajas and thamas.

Why make this distinction?  Because rajas projects and thamas conceals.  They are responsible for self-ignorance and all its effects.  And since self-ignorance holds sway over jeevas and not Eeshwara, this distinction needs to be made to show that Eeshwara is neither self-ignorant nor responsible for the negative behavior that stems from self-ignorance.  But this is a technical issue.  In general, Eeshwara can be thought of as the intelligence that creates and sustains the creation as well as the creation itself.  A common example is a spider because a spider is both the intelligence that creates its web as well as the substance of the web itself.

However, unlike the spider that can detach itself from its web, Eeshwara is never separate from its creation because it is the creation.  So an even broader way to think of Eeshwara is as the external and internal world that you find yourself in.  In this way, Eeshwara is just whatever you are experiencing at any given time, as well as the creator and sustainer of that experience.  And because this Eeshwara is maya, it is mithya.

- Jeeva, the Individual: Essentially, the jeeva is a conscious embodied being.  But since the body and mind are unconscious matter, how can this be?  It’s because the subtle body can ‘reflect’ awareness from the Self, similar to the way the moon—which has no light of its own—reflects the light of the sun.  The reflection of awareness makes it possible for the ego, an unconscious thought of individuality and ownership, to claim the body and mind as itself, creating the (consciousness of an) apparent individual.  The reflection of the Self—the ego, the mind and body—the jeeva—are mithya.

A limiting adjunct (upadhi) is something that superimposes its attributes onto the Self which has no attributes.  A good illustration is water in a green glass, water being the Self and the glass being the limiting adjunct.  When the water is associated with the glass, it takes on the appearance of being green and cylindrical when it’s actually formless and colorless.  In the same way, when the Self is associated with the limiting adjuncts of maya and ignorance it appears to be Eeshwara and jeeva respectively, even though it is really formless awareness.

Now, in the example of the water and the glass, the water and the glass are separate objects that exist independently of each other.  But this doesn’t apply in the case of Eeshwara, jeeva and the Self.  Both Eeshwara and jeeva are mithya, which is non-separate from and dependent on Sathya, the Self.  And since Eeshwara and jeeva are mithya, their ‘association’ with the Self is also mithya.  There is no actual association, only the appearance of one.

Suffering persists until the non-difference of jeeva and Eeshwara is comprehended, or in other words, until the truth of non-duality is clear.  Understanding what the Self is, and why the individual, creator, and creation are also you—but you are free of them—is freedom.  But how can this be done?  The concluding argument is now given.

- Conclusion: The conclusion is simple: both the jeeva (individual) and Eeshwara (Creator)—or ignorance and maya—are mithya, which isn’t real.  And there can’t be a real difference between two not-real objects.  Another way to look at it is this: If both jeeva and Eeshwara are mithya, and mithya depends on the Self to apparently exist, mithya can only be Sathya, the Self, similar to the way a gold ornament can only be gold.  As a single gold ornament and the totality of all gold ornaments are completely non-different as gold, jeeva and Eeshwara are completely non-different as the Self.

Since you are the Self, the jeeva and Eeshwara are you.  But just as gold is always unaffected by and free from the gold ornaments it appears to be, you are always unaffected by and free from the jeeva and Eeshwara that you appear to be.  They are mithya and can only ever be you, but you can never be them because you are Sathya: non-dual, independently existent, unchanging, eternal, limitless awareness.  When you recognize that you are not this body, mind, and buddhi, but awareness that cannot have any limitations, then all the above concepts also topple down along with your notion of separateness from the rest of the universe.

It is like pot space thinking that it is only a space limited by the pot and that the outside space is different and then imagining that there is a super-pot that created the whole universal space different from the tiny pot space that you are.  But when the pot space recognizes that I am "The Space" and that space is single and not plural i.e. space in the pot is the same as the space everywhere—then the concept of super-pot also goes away.  When this knowing is clear and doubt-free, it is moksha or liberation!

Self-knowledge (knowing or wisdom) is a permanent solution, available in this very life, to the problem of suffering.  By showing you that you are free of the body, mind and all of its experiences, you are freed from all of the problems of the body and mind, such as change, suffering and death.  By saying that self-knowledge is immediate, Vedantha is pointing out that it doesn’t depend on perception or thought.  In other words, you don’t have to see, taste, touch, smell, hear or think about the Self to know that it exists and that you are it.

The nature of the Self is awareness and awareness is self-evident, not requiring any external media to be known.  If self-knowledge did depend on perception, thought or even the maintenance of a particular action, it would be temporary, and thus not freedom.

However, self-knowledge or liberation is not an end point.  It is a beginning with no end.  Feeling of oneness with everyone and everything is realized with the disappearance of the ego/personal doership.

This understanding will provide a new basis from which to think, feel, perceive, relate and act in life and will lead to an endless process.

- Sudhakar V Reddy



For Further Reading:

Esoterics of GOD-The Reality!  And How to Realize IT?
https://sudhakarvreddy.blogspot.com/2018/04/esoterics-of-god.html

Esoterics of Death and Life After Death!
https://sudhakarvreddy.blogspot.com/2017/12/esoterics-of-death-and-life-after-death.html

Esoterics of the Seven Bodies of Man!
https://sudhakarvreddy.blogspot.com/2013/09/esoterics-of-seven-bodies-mysteries-of_2.html