Knowing OneSelf
Contributed By - Sundaranand Mahadevan
Foreword: The writer had to invest substantial amount of time to listen to a few lectures and assimilate them before he could put down his ideas in black and white. This article, "Knowing OneSelf" , is a simplified summary of a Vedantic Text, a dialogue between Adi Shankara and a 5-year-old kid called "HastaMalaka". The kid is a protege, Adi Shankara writes commentary for his student's work. Have you ever seen a teacher writing commentary for a student's work? Such is the greatness of this scripture. his work directly addresses "I", nothing about "God" and "Universe". Both God and Universe put us into an argument mode, but exploring "I", there can be no assumptions or arguments. It directly points to the truth, just like a fruit on the palm of one's own hand.
I was listening to a scriptural text called “Hastamalakiyam” taught by my dear teacher Swami Guruparananda and I am sharing a few insightful quotes on “I, the Consciousness”. When we look at the sun or the moon, a pot, one’s own reflection in the mirror, the sky or the sea, etc., we can bring to awareness the teachings of this beautiful scripture and abide in the All-Pervading “I”.
The goal of this article is to enable all of us to appreciate the highest truth. While the role of an individual is required for the proper functioning of the society, the concept of society, nation, family, etc. and all other forms of divisions/categorizations are man-made and fall under the domain of relative truth. They are useful to a certain degree but have no intrinsic value. All these divisions have to be discarded and resolved mentally for us to enter the Kingdom of God.
The Ultimate Truth is to know “Who Am I”, we can poetically call this undertaking “Entering the Kingdom of God”. Listed below are a few insights that will aid in removing confusions centered on “I”, the Subject, the Consciousness.
“I” is a pure witness, neither an actor nor an enjoyer, not even an instigator. In the presence of the sunlight alone, all actions are performed. The light is not responsible for the action, in its presence all actions happen. “I” is just a witness and therefore is not subject to reward or punishment.
“I” is the substratum that lends existence to the body, mind, intellect. When a pot of water is heated, water borrows the heat energy from the fire and becomes hot. When the pot of water is off the fire, water loses its heat. But where did fire get its heat? Heat is the intrinsic nature of fire. In the same way, the body, mind, and intellect borrow Existence from “I”, the Consciousness. “I” is independent and stands alone, without the need for any support, just like the fire is not dependent on another entity for heat.
The Individual “I” (Jiva) is made up of three entities, described by the following equation:
Jiva = Aham (I, the Consciousness) + Mind + Reflected Consciousness
I am not the Reflected Consciousness, Reflected Consciousness is “Mithya” (that which is dependent on another entity). When you look into a mirror, you see a reflection. The actual face is mapped to “Aham”, the mirror to “Mind” and the image in the mirror, the “Reflected Consciousness”. The image in the mirror is not real, it is just a reflection. What about the mirror? Is it real or unreal?
I am not the mind, the mind is also Mithya. For example, the sea is blue in color because it reflects the color of the sky. Is the color of the sky really blue? Both the mind and the reflected consciousness are mere appearances, the substratum being “I”, the light of Awareness.
I am All-Pervading, not compartmentalized. When I keep ten pots of water directly under the sun, I can see the reflection of the sun in each pot. I cannot assume that there are ten suns. There is only one sun that reflects in the ten pots. In the same way “I” is All-Pervading, reflecting in each body/mind/intellect.
I, the Consciousness activates all beings and things simultaneously. When a group of people see a statue under the sun, they all see the statue simultaneously, all of them at the same time. The sun does not activate the eyes, sequentially, one person at a time. In the same way, the All-Pervading I activates all Body/Mind/Intellect simultaneously.
I do not come and go, the body/mind comes and goes. The electricity passes through all types of equipment in the house - the lights, fans, kitchen appliances etc. If a light bulb is fused, it cannot manifest electricity as light. In the same way, the All-Pervading I activates all beings and things. When the individual object fails to manifest Consciousness, one cannot assume that Consciousness is gone. Consciousness does not come and go. Objects in the world gain or lose their ability to reflect the All-Pervading Consciousness. I presume myself born and gone, because I unconsciously conclude that the changing attributes of body/mind as “I”.
I, the Consciousness is called “The Light of all Lights”. The sun lights up the world, who lights up the sun? The sun itself is lighted (known) by the awareness of “I”. That is why Jesus in Salt & Light declares “You are the Light of the World”.
I am never tainted, ever-pure. When I see the reflection of the sun (or the full moon) in the water and when the water is disturbed, the ripples give me an experience as though the sun is also moving. With respect to the moving water, the reflected sun is moving, but the Original sun is not. In the same way, when I conclude the body/mind as “I am”, I superimpose the attributes of the body/mind to Consciousness and whatever happens to body/mind, I assume it is happening to Me (the Consciousness).
“I” is never in bondage. Not only “I”, the Consciousness is ever free, never bound, the body/mind/intellect is also not subject to bondage. The matter adjuncts are inert in nature, how can they ever claim to be in bondage? However, we are able to experience sorrow, even though we are unable to tag it to a specific entity. That is why we call sorrow “Mithya” - it appears but does not exist.
If neither “I”, the Consciousness, nor the body/mind has bondage, what is the need for the Moksha Shastra, the scripture that guarantees liberation?
Mind can never know “I”: The role of the mind is to not affirmatively understand the truth, but to see the false as false, with the aid of scripture.
We have experienced a small cloud covering the sun. How can a small cloud cover the huge sun? The cloud is covering our eye vision and it looks as though the cloud is covering the sun. In fact, only because of the sunlight, one can even see the cloud.
In the same way, our psychological conditioning covers our vision and the scripture’s role and our Guru’s role is to destroy the conditioning. When a mild breeze moves the cloud, the sun is revealed automatically without any effort. In the same way, the teachings of our Guru (in alignment with the scripture) will remove the cloud of ignorance covering our intellect and the true “I” is revealed without much effort. So, the mind does not know the Truth, the mind is intelligently used to resolve the dust of its own ignorance, so the Truth reveals ItSelf to ItSelf.
Conclusion: Identifying oneself as rich or poor, man or woman, black or white, higher or lower caste, believer or non-believer, saint or a sinner, intelligent or dull, etc., is only a product of our own imagination and ignorance. We have to raise above these divisions and abide in “I”, the Consciousness, to step into the Kingdom of God.