Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma
In the knowledge process there
are three ingredients involved: Pramatr, Pramana and Prameya, – the knower, the
process of knowing, and the object of knowledge. The knower, or the Pramatr,
comes in contact with the Prameya, or the known object, through the medium
called Pramana, or the knowing process. What does one mean by these three
items, – the knower, the knowing process, and the known object? The knowing
process is the illuminating link connecting the knower with the object that is
known. It has to be an illuminating or illumined process, because knowledge is
always illumination. It is a light which is of a peculiar nature, not like
others as the sunlight. It is a movement of self consciousness.
With difficulty can one
explain what consciousness is. Everyone is aware that oneself is, and one need
not ask for an explanation of what that phenomenon is. This clarity of one's
awareness that one exists is an illustration of what consciousness, or
awareness, is, or has to be. If anybody wants to know what consciousness is, he
has only to close his eyes for a few seconds, and feel how he knows that he is.
This intriguing experience of one's knowing that he is, is consciousness
operating. In this consciousness of one's being there is also the root of the
urge to know that other things are also there, apart from oneself.
Consciousness of the knower is
called Pramatr-Chaitanya. Chaitanya is consciousness; Pramatr is the knower.
The knowing consciousness of the knower as existing in himself, or itself, is
Pramatr-Chaitanya. It moves in some particular manner, or rather, it appears as
if it is moving. It is omnipresent and, so, to say that it moves would be an
inaccurate statement. Yet, it looks as if it is moving, for a reason which is
to account for the 'externality' of the world of objects.
There is a thing called mind
within man. The mind is charged with consciousness, as a copper wire may be
charged with electricity: The wire becomes live when it allows the movement of
electric energy through it. Likewise, the mind becomes live, and one says 'the
mind moves'. The wire is not electricity; even so, the mind is not
consciousness. Yet, when one touches the wire, one receives a shock, because
the force and the medium cannot be separated from each other. In the same way,
we may say, the mind is consciousness. It is not consciousness in one way, and
it is consciousness in another way. The process of the enlivening of the mind
by the presence of consciousness within is the incentive given to the knowing
process. It is as if life is induced into an inanimate object. The mind is an
urge within to move outwardly. It is not a thing or a substance. It is a
faculty which pushes everyone outside. The mind pushes itself beyond itself.
And, so, when consciousness operates through the mind, it looks as if the
consciousness is also drawn towards an external something. What moves actually
is the mind and not consciousness. This movement of the mind attended with
consciousness is called Pramana, or the knowing process.
The Vedanta psychology holds
that the mind assumes the shape of its object. This form which the mind assumes
is called a Vritti. A Vritti is a modification of the mind in terms of a
particular object. When a form is known, or an object is contacted, the mind is
supposed to envelop that object. This process of the enveloping of the object
by the mind is called Vritti-Vyapti. Vyapti is pervasion. The pervasion by the
mind of a particular location called the object is Vritti-Vyapti. However, it
is not enough if the mind assumes merely the shape or the form of the object.
One has to be aware that the object is there. This awareness that the object is
there is due to the presence of consciousness in this moving process called the
mind. The illumination of the presence of the form called the object is termed
Phala-Vyapti. So, a twofold activity takes place when an object is known, viz.,
the mind pervades the form and the consciousness illumines the form. The
knowledge of the object is actually the knowledge of a form. The form is made
available to perception by the activity of the mind, and the awareness of it
arises on account of the consciousness attending upon the mind.
The point is that the object
cannot be wholly material. If it is to be material, consciousness cannot
illumine it. Consciousness is qualitatively different from the object which is
material, supposing that it is material. The Vedanta psychology holds that the
object cannot be material because consciousness knows that the object is there,
and it comes in contact with the object. This is possible only if it has some
similarity with the object, which, again, makes one conclude that the principle
of consciousness is somehow inherent in the object, also. This is a gradual
deduction that is made from the premise that knowledge of the object is
possible. The conclusion, therefore, is that consciousness is potentially
inherent in the object. The Vedanta calls it Vishaya-Chaitanya
(object-consciousness), and not merely Vishaya (object). Here, Vishaya-Chaitanya
or object-consciousness does not mean consciousness 'of' the object, but object
which is itself a phase of consciousness.
Consciousness is indivisible,
and so it has to be infinite. It cannot be finite, for the very knowledge of
the finitude of consciousness would suggest the infinitude of it. It has to be
infinite, and, therefore, external to it none can be; no object can exist
outside consciousness.
Thus, what is called an object
turns out to be a phase of consciousness. It is a formation of consciousness
itself. The Self collides with the Self; the Atman comes in contact with the
Atman. This is the reason why we love the things of the world. This is the view
of Sage Yajnavalkya as propounded in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. There is so
much love for things because one is seeing one's own Self in things. The
attraction that one feels for the objects of the world is caused by the
presence of one's own universality hidden in the objects. Otherwise, nothing
can attract anyone. One would not even know of its existence, what to speak of
attraction.
The World Is a Flood of Consciousness
The knowledge process, which
is the blending of the Pramatr and the Prameya through the Pramana, illustrates
that the world is a veritable flood of consciousness. "Sarvam Khalvidam
Brahma," says the Upanishad; the whole universe is the Absolute appearing
as if it is external to itself. The objects of the world, the things that are
before everyone, are facets of consciousness. God Himself is in front of man,
as it were. The Purusha Sukta of the Veda tells us that all these things that
are seen are the limbs of the One Purusha, the All-Being. Every atom, every
ingredient, every location or point of objectivity is the head of the Cosmic
Being. God alone is. The Absolute is the only reality. This is the conclusion
that metaphysical idealism draws, which does not mean that external objects do
not exist. Only, the objects are not isolated material entities. Things are not
what they seem.
The outermost probe of science
has coincided with the innermost probe of the philosophers. The deepest self of
man is identical with the outermost reality that is the universe. The Atman is
Brahman. Thou art That; Tat Tvam Asi.
The process of knowledge has
led to a grand discovery that there is One Being in the universe and that God
alone exists.
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