The Nature of Perception
Divine Life
Society Publication: Chapter 8 Light on the Internal Self- The
Philosophy of the Panchadasi
The perception of an object is
due to the activity of the mind, or the intellect, in regard to it, together
with the Chidabhasa attending on it. It is these that become responsible for an
active perception of the object. It is not the General Consciousness of Brahman
but the reflected consciousness, Chidabhasa, that particularizes knowledge. As
Brahman is present always, it cannot be said that it is manifesting itself only
during the perception of an object. It is the Chidabhasa that rises and falls,
but Brahma-Chaitanya is always there, and has no beginning or end.
There is a verse quoted from
Suresvaracharya (a pupil of Sri Sankara) to the effect that Consciousness which
manifests itself as an illuminating factor in all external perceptions is
really the ultimate object to be known. Here, while Suresvara regards
Consciousness as the ultimate end of endeavor, what he means is that the
ultimate Consciousness, for all perception, being Brahman itself, it is the
Goal of all aspirations, but he does not mean that this Consciousness is the
Chidabhasa, because, the latter is absolutely dependent upon the Kutastha. This
has been mentioned also by Sankara in his Upadesasahasri.
When there is a manifestation
of the Chidabhasa there is external perception, but the Chidabhasa is itself
illumined by another Consciousness as even the absence of any particular object
is known by it. The mental modifications, the Chidabhasa and the object, all
these three, are simultaneously illumined by the General Consciousness, but the
Chidabhasa can illumine only the object. Thus, the distinction between the two
is clear.
In the perception of an
object, there is a twofold consciousness, one particular and another general.
Some schools of thought regard the General Consciousness as Knowledge of
knowledge or Knowledge of perception, calling it Anuvyavasaya. The knowledge,
“This is an object” is due to the activity of Chidabhasa, and the knowledge, “I
know the object” or “the object is known by me,” is due to the existence of
Brahman. This distinction between the particular and the General Consciousness
made, thus, in external perception, is also to be made in internal perceptions.
The Chidabhasa lights up the
modifications of the psychological instruments in the form of the ‘I’, as well
as its ramifications such as desire, anger, and so on, as fire can heat up an
iron ball. Just as a red hot iron ball can illumine itself, but does not illuminate
other objects, so do the psychoses within (Vrittis) illumine themselves, being
enlightened by the Chidabhasa, but do not directly illumine other objects.
These psychoses within come in a series as bits of a process, with intervals
between the different links of the process, and do not flow continuously. Also,
they get dissolved in sleep, swoon and Samadhi (Super-Consciousness).
The intervals between the
various processes of thought as well as the absence of thought itself are
illumined by an Unchangeable Consciousness, which is the Kutastha, as in the
perception of an external object; the object is known distinctly and the
General Consciousness is not so known. The psychoses as thoughts and feelings
etc. are known more clearly than the General Consciousness of the Kutastha
which is continuously present, whether thoughts come or go. In the case of the
psychoses of the Antahkarana (internal organ) there is no question of
known-ness and unknown-ness, because they are self-luminous and, hence, there is
no chance of their either knowing themselves as objects or not knowing
themselves at all. This happens also in the case of inert objects where
Consciousness is absolutely absent and in which case there cannot be any such
thing as known-ness. The subject does not become an object where either
Consciousness is totally absent or where there is self-luminosity.
In the two types of awareness mentioned, the
particular one which gets itself connected to objects has a beginning and an
end, and because of its changeful nature, it is different from the General
Consciousness behind it, which is immutable and is, therefore, called Kutastha.
There has to be posited a witness of the modifications of the mind; otherwise
they cannot be known even to exist, and as it is in the case of the reflection
of a face in a mirror, where the mirror is the medium and the face is the
original with its reflection, in the case of the Self, too, the Anthahkarana is
the medium, the reflection is the Chidabhasa, and the Atma, or Kutastha, is the
original.
It is not that the Atman by
its being at the back of even the process of transmigration undergoes any
change. The limitation referred to here as the Chidabhasa is not merely like
the limitation of the vast space by the walls of a jar for example, because the
Atman does not become a Jiva, or the individual, merely by an enclosure. We
cannot say that the Atman has become the Jiva, just because we have raised some
walls around with material substance. The difference is that in the case of the
Jiva, the Buddhi is transparent, but mere transparency is not the sole
conditioning factor, because there may not be any difference in certain cases
even when there is transparency such as in a glass measure, which, after all,
can contain only as much quantity of grain as wooden measure. What makes the
essential difference is not merely the limitation but the reduction of quality
by quantity by reflection, and it is here that we notice a difference between
the original and the reflection. We call that a reflection which appears to be
like original, but does not have really the characteristics of the original.
Excerpts from:
Chapter 8 The Nature of Perception- The
Philosophy of the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda
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