The Nature of the True Religious Life - 2.3. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday, 24 Jul 2023. 05:30.

Chapter 2: The Religious Ideal of God-realisation - 2.3.

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The study of consciousness is the most difficult of studies because consciousness cannot become an object of study. Consciousness can never become a thing visible to the senses, or even cognisable by the mind, because of the fact that consciousness precedes the operation of the mind and the senses. It is the experiencer; therefore, it cannot be experienced as an external to its own self. Something cannot become both a subject and an object at the same time. Consciousness is always a subject, and it is the seer, the hearer, the toucher, the experiencer, and the knower of everything.

Consciousness, in which state we existed in the state of deep sleep, is not capable of limitation by anything that exists anywhere because—listen to me very carefully here—the very awareness of the presence of limitation would prove that awareness is beyond limitation. When we say there is a boundary and a limitation to a particular thing, we are aware, at the same time, that there is something beyond the boundary. The consciousness of limitation implies an awareness of that which is beyond the limit. Hence, even to imagine that consciousness can be limited, consciousness should be beyond limitation.

Also, we cannot imagine that consciousness can be divided into parts. It cannot be segmented or partitioned because to imagine that there can be parts in consciousness would be to imagine simultaneously that there could be a gap of space between one part and another part. But who is there to know there is a gap between one part and another part? Nobody can know it except consciousness itself. So consciousness should also be present midway between the two imagined parts, which means to say, parts are impossible in consciousness.

What follows from all these analyses? Consciousness is not capable of division. It is indivisible, it is impartite, and it is limitless. This is only an inference we can draw because we cannot actually see or experience it for an important reason, which will be the subject of our studies a little later.

This fact of our having somehow or other stumbled upon an indivisibility and an unlimitedness is the source of our joy in sleep. Why are we so happy when we go to sleep? Because, knowingly or unknowingly, we have been enthroned in the kingdom of the Absolute. But we are blindfolded. We have been lifted by some power and placed in the context of a limitless being, only we are prevented from being aware of this fact. Suppose somebody blindfolds us, covers our eyes tightly, does not allow us to see anything, and lifts us and places us on the throne of an emperor. We would not know that we are seated on the throne, though it is true that we are on it.

The Upanishads give another analogy. Going into the state of deep sleep is something like a person walking over a treasure every day, not knowing that he is walking over it. There is a treasure trove under the earth, and every day we are walking over it. What is the use of walking over it when we do not know that it is there—or being very wealthy, very rich, but not being aware that we are so?

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To be continued

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