TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0091 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

|| 2.01 | DISSERTATION ON EXPERIENCE | CONT ||

The world is made up of forms .

The forms of things disclose their unreal nature when subjected to a careful examination of their composition and working .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0092 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

A thing is a member of the society of diverse phenomenal centres appearing to divide against itself a basic Noumenon .

A thing is an object of thought , an internal form , and an external form is known through thought itself , which is consciousness objectified .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0093 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

A form is differentiated from existence as a whole by a particular mode characterising it .

It cannot be said that a thing is defined by a mode or that it has a definite form unless it becomes an object of thought .

Thought itself is conditioned by forms , and it is thought , again , that knows external forms and determines their nature .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0094 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The laws governing the modes of thinking shall have sway over its objects also , for the rules that regulate the process of knowledge and restrict its operations determine all the contents thereof , which , therefore , cannot be known independent of and free from the conditions to which the knowing process is subject .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0095 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

All forms of objective knowledge are , thus , deceptive and give to the knower nothing of reality .

The truth of the object of thought can be known only when it is freed from the modes of thought , and the truth of thought itself can be known only when it is not conditioned by the forms which it takes .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0096 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Neither the mind nor its object , taken independently , can be said to truly exist .

That the mind exists cannot be proved unless there is a modification of the modal consciousness , which is called a psychosis or a mental transformation , which , again , is not possible without the mind’s taking the form of an object or an objective condition .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0097 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

That objects exist also cannot be proved unless there are minds to cognise and know them .

Each is explained only by the other and not by itself .

Nothing in this world , neither the subject nor the object , is independent and self-existent .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0098 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The test of reality is non-dependence , completeness and imperishability .

When things are judged from this standard of truth , the phenomenal subjectivity and objectivity in them are found to break down and reveal their ultimate unreality .

The appearance of the subject-object-distinction has to be finally attributed to the creative activity of consciousness itself , though the relation of consciousness and change in the form of any activity is beyond understanding and explanation .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0099 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

As the idea of causality itself is an effect of the want of real knowledge , a question as to the cause of this want has no meaning .

But the affirmation of consciousness has to objectify itself in the form in which it is desired to manifest itself , as all forms are contents of consciousness .

Whatever an individual affirms must ultimately happen or be materialised into effect , because each centre of consciousness has infinity at its background .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0100 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Misery or suffering and pleasure or happiness are experiences relative to the understanding of the individual , and are of such a character and degree as is the condition of the individual consciousness in relation to the Absolute Being .

There is really one experience which is absolute , and it can be styled neither a misery nor a pleasure .

That One Experience is diversely felt as variety , and is fictitiously termed as either this or that , and of this nature or of that .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0101 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The form of the world is found to be a magical appearance when subjected to the test of severe discrimination .

The world and the Atman or Brahman neither exclude nor include each other , but are non-related , for relation is possible only between two demarcated objects , and the possibility of duality or any relation is annulled in the being that is " one alone without a second " .

Pure Experience is attributeless , and all " existence " is " experience " .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0102 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Ethical virtues and immoral vices are the effects of the different mental modes reacting variegatedly to the one changeless consciousness in different ways , leading respectively to the experience of Unity-consciousness and diversity-delusion .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0103 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

All our experiences are relative , and neither the relative experiencer nor the experienced can stand the test of reality .

They present an appearance , though the reality in them transcends them and exists as an indivisible unity .

This one Reality appears as the knower as well as the known .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0104 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

It is one and the same thing that appears as the earth to certain states of consciousness , as heaven to some , as hell to certain other , as humans and creatures to still some other , and as Eternal Consciousness to another that is integrated .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0105 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The Substance is One and it is felt by different modes of mentation in their own fashion , as good , bad , sweet , bitter , beautiful , ugly and the like .

The Substance by itself does not change ; only the mode of perception changes .

The truth therefore remains that Eternal Existence is without any evolution or involution within itself .

From this it follows that the world of space and time is an appearance , a shadow of Reality .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0106 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Even immortality and death are relative to the individual .

In order to have the Experience of Reality we have to discard the forms as mere appearances .