The Search for Reality
Divine Life
Society Publication: The Search for
Reality by Swami Krishnananda
What is Reality? Reality is
that which never changes, which is absolute, unlimited, and is never
contradicted by any other thing or experience. How is it known that Reality is
changeless? Well, then, let us take for granted that Reality is changing. Now,
what is change? Change is a modification of something from one condition to
another condition. All actions presuppose an actionless being. How does one
know that there is change in anything? The consciousness of change means the
consciousness of the death of one condition of a thing and of the birth of its
other condition. That means, the knower of change exists even when one
condition of that changeful thing ceases to be, and it exists also when another
of its conditions rises or is given birth to. The knower of change does not
change. If the knower of change changes, there can be no such thing as
knowledge or awareness of change. The changeless consciousness, which is the
unaffected and undivided witness of all change, is the Reality. Thus it is
proved that Reality is changeless.
Now, can Reality be known? If
it is known, what is its nature? If one particle is different from another
particle, what is that which exists between two particles. If there is no
distinction among the particles, there can be no particles or protons and
electrons, but there can only be a huge mass of energy which is
indistinguishable. Is it conscious or inert? If the whole universe is but this
one energy, the scientist who is the knower of this energy cannot be excluded
from it or be outside it. If this energy is inert in its nature, the knower of
this energy, also, should be inert, for the knower is a part of Reality, which
is this energy, according to the scientist. The final conclusion therefore is
that if knowledge exists in the knower, this energy must be knowledge in its
nature, so that the ultimate Reality becomes not an inert mass of energy but
indivisible consciousness.
What is the basis for
consciousness? If consciousness is to proceed from matter or energy, the
essential nature of this matter or energy should be consciousness or
intelligence. Illumination, understanding, constitutes the essential nature of
consciousness. If the very existence of
consciousness is denied, matter becomes a myth when it is bereft of relation to
consciousness. Consciousness is the fundamental being.
Now, does the scientist admit
the existence of an ultimate Reality? How does he know that Reality exists? He
knows this through observation and experiment. His experience consists of the
knowledge of Reality, which he derives as a result of observation through the
senses. If Reality can be known through the senses, the senses should be
changeless, even as Reality is. But, are the senses changeless? Definitely not.
The senses are instruments of knowledge, and if the instruments which are used
in observation are defective, the knowledge which is received through them
cannot be perfect. The senses have a particular constitution, they have a
particular make-up, and if this constitution or make-up is changed, the knowledge
which is received through them also will change. The senses are changing, and
therefore Reality which is changeless cannot be known through the senses. Even
the changeless, when it is seen through the changing, will appear as changing,
for the object of knowledge always partakes of the qualities of the means of
knowledge. The senses cannot give us Reality. As the man of physical science
has the senses as his sole means of knowledge, he cannot know Reality with his
knowledge.
Then, what is Reality, and how
can one know Reality? The only means of knowledge which remains to be
considered, other than the senses, is the mind. Can the philosopher know
Reality with the help of his rationalistic mind? For this, the mind itself has
to be examined. The mind changes from one person to another person, and from
one condition to another condition even in the same person. The stronghold of
the mind is reason, logic and argumentation. But the mind works within the
realm limited by its own constitution built up by the hypothetical notions of
space, time and causation (quantity, quality, relation and modality). These
categories which constitute the nature and the workings of the mind limit its
operations, and thus it cannot have a changeless knowledge of Reality as such,
independent of its modes. Therefore, the philosopher who is totally dependent
upon the workings of the schematizing mind, too, cannot know Reality. The mind
is an individualistic principle, and so it is changeful. The mind works in the
waking and the dreaming states. The Reality cannot be known in these two states
– the waking and the dreaming states, because here the mind is functioning with
its categories, and as long as this mind is the means of knowing Reality, one
cannot have perfect knowledge of Reality as such.
Perhaps, there is a
possibility of knowing Reality as such in the state of deep sleep. In deep
sleep there is no action of the mind and the senses. Therefore the individual
in the state of deep sleep is not obstructed by the categories of the mind and
the limitations of the senses. But, unfortunately, one does not have experience
of consciousness in the deep sleep state. Hence, in this deep sleep state also,
Reality cannot be known, for, when there is no conscious experience at all,
there can be no knowledge of Reality. And all people have the experiences only
of these three states, and nothing else. Hence no man on earth, who is limited
to these three states, can know Reality as such.
Memory is the effect of
impressions left of a past immediate experience. There is a common
consciousness which is the link connecting the three states of waking, dreaming
and sleeping. But for this one consciousness there would be no continuity or
survival of personality. Therefore there should have been the consciousness of
existence in deep sleep, even if it appeared to be covered by ignorance. As
everything – ignorance, change, objectness and every phenomenon – is known to a
conscious subject, and nothing prior or antecedent to knowledge or consciousness
is ever possible, the essential existence of the knower should be pure
consciousness or knowledge itself.
All objects in this universe
are limited by space and time. Is consciousness also limited in this way? In
order to have a consciousness of something outside consciousness, consciousness
should exceed and extend beyond its limitation. That is, consciousness should
be unlimited.
In conclusion, the essential
existence of the knower, therefore, is unlimited knowledge – absolute
consciousness. Only this can be the Reality. Here, the object and the subject
coalesce and become one existence. The knower and the known are one. The
universe is not objective, not a phenomenon outside. Consciousness is not
inert, not divided, not a mass of particles called atoms, protons and
electrons, not waves of probability, not an indistinguishable, indeterminable,
dark mass of energy, but pure consciousness – indivisible, infinite, immortal,
eternal, absolute. This is the only Reality, and it is identical with pure
experience as one with itself, not to be known by any other – known as itself
by itself, as existence, consciousness and bliss in one, independent of body,
senses, the vital energies, mind, intellect, ignorance, cause, effect, and all
relative phenomena. Consciousness as such is Reality. It is realized through
deep meditation, in direct experience.
Excerpts from:
The Search for
Reality by Swami Krishnananda
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