The Nature and Location of Consciousness
Divine Life
Society Publication: The Nature and
Location of Consciousness by Swami Krishnananda
What is consciousness? Where
is it situated? What is its origin? How is it related to us? And what is its
final importance?
Where is your consciousness?
“It is inside me; it cannot be anywhere else.” When we say it is inside, what
do we actually mean? Water is inside a bucket; fruits are inside a basket; we
are all inside a room. Do we mean that consciousness is inside us in this
sense? Then it would mean that consciousness is not the body, because we say it
is inside the body. Or, are you prepared to say that it is the body itself? If
you say that perhaps consciousness is not inside in the sense explained, that
it is inseparable from the body, then inseparableness also involves a kind of
relation.
When you think, you will agree
that it is consciousness that is responsible for thinking. Who is thinking? Is
it your body that is thinking, or is there something else that you think is
thinking? What do you mean by “I am speaking”? Who are you?
There is a certain unavoidable
relationship between body and consciousness, because the body, also, is
conscious. Consciousness is perhaps an emanation from the bodily individuality,
as fire emanates from a matchstick. This is the reason why no one can feel that
oneself is a consciousness; there is always an insistent feeling that one is a
body only. There is an intense fondness for the body. It is taken care of as
identical with one's own self: It is me, and I cannot be different from what I
appear to be.
If it is true that
consciousness, for the purpose of our present argument, is accepted to be
inside the body only, whatever be its relation to the body, then it cannot be
outside the body. If the consciousness is only inside the body, there would be
no means of knowing that there are things outside the body.
How do we know that there is
an object outside us? Often, it is said that the objects, as they really are,
are never known by us. The objects are known by us only as they appear to our
mind or consciousness. This is to say that we have a descriptive knowledge of
the behavior of objects, but we do not come directly in contact with the
objects as they are in themselves.
The true nature of the object
is supposed to be constituted of what are known as primary qualities. If only
the secondary qualities are available for cognition to the sense organs, how do
we know that things exist at all, except in the sense of a reaction produced by
them in a representative manner, not as a direct contact with the object? There
is no means, of really coming in contact with the essence of an object.
Only if an object is
designated by a particular description called name, we can know what that
object is. This is one point. The second point is, apart from the name or the
verbal description of an object that is necessary in order that we may locate
the object, there is also, in our mind, an idea of what the object is. We have
an idea that a tree is tall. In a similar manner, we have a particular idea of
every other thing in the world.
There is an object called a
hard stone or granite. We take for granted that this granite is exactly as it
appears to the sense organs. But, by investigation we can know that this hard,
impenetrable object called granite is constituted of little particles. These particles
can be divided further into more and more minute components until they become
indistinguishable from the basic components of all things in the world. This
essence, being the basic reality of the so-called varieties of things, makes us
conclude that there is a unity at the back of the apprehended duality and
multiplicity of objects.
The Samkhya calls this
fundamental material essence of the objects as Prakriti. Then, who becomes
conscious that there is a Prakriti?
The consciousness that
apprehends this universal material essence is called Purusha, which should not
be identified with man or a human essence. It is a metaphysical definition
given to the consciousness which is supposed to know that there is a
universally distributed material essence. Consciousness cannot be identified
with matter because there is a total dissimilarity between consciousness and
matter. Matter does not know itself. Consciousness knows itself. This is the
distinction between objectivity and pure subjectivity. Purusha is infinite,
all-pervading, and the Prakriti that is known by it also is all-pervading.
Samkhya philosophy explains that
consciousness does not really come in contact with this material object,
because they are dissimilar in nature. What happens is that the consciousness
reflects within itself the presence of this ubiquitous material substance, as a
crystal which is pure in itself, and has no color by itself, can reflect the color
of an object such as a rose flower brought near it, and because of the
proximity of this colored object, the whole crystal may also look red.
In this manner, the Samkhya
explains that consciousness – wrongly, we must say – begins to associate itself
with the objects in the world and the basic Prakriti, and creates a wondrous
universal situation. That objectified consciousness, which has arisen on
account of this reflection of the ubiquitous material substance on the
all-pervading consciousness, is the ultimate metaphysical reality of the
Samkhya, called Cosmic Being, which knows Itself as all-pervading.
The omnipresent Being should
know that it is omnipresent; otherwise, it would be just Being-as-such. This is
a particular descent from the original stage of pure omnipresence or omniscience,
wherein there is a universal self-consciousness of the fact of being
omnipresent. “I am” is the feeling of this omnipresent Being. It is not the “I”
of myself or yourself. It is a universal omnipotence and omnipresence asserting
Itself, “I am”. God cannot be described by any other way than “He is”; and God
can regard Himself as “I am”. There is no other possible definition available
to this great “I”, which includes every other conceivable little dot of “I's”,
like ourselves.
The self-consciousness
attributed to this otherwise all-pervading omnipresence suddenly manifests
itself in a threefold form. That threefold form is known in Vedantic language
as the objective reality called adhibhuta, the
subjective reality called adhyatma, and the
divine superintending connection between the subjective side and the objective
side known as adhidaiva. The world appears to be
external to the knowing consciousness, and the knowing consciousness places
itself as a subjective knower of this world that is outside, and this
connection between the subjective knower and the objective world cannot be
established unless there is a link between the subjective side and the
objective side.
This is the reason why you
cannot know what is happening between you and the object when perception takes
place. Some invisible operation which is consciousness by itself seems to be
operating, because the link between the knowing subject and the object cannot
but be conscious.
Excerpts from:
The Nature and
Location of Consciousness by Swami Krishnananda
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