TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0365 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

|| 4.02 | BRAHMAN AS CONSCIOUSNESS OR INTELLIGENCE | CONT ||

The Self is Pure Consciousness , as it is presupposed by all modes of consciousness , which function in the form of consciousness of external conditions or objects .

Human consciousness is characterized by objectiveness .

It is more a cognition or a perception than simple unadulterated consciousness .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0366 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The cognitions and perceptions are the processes of knowing through the mind and the senses .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0367 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

In the waking state of ordinary consciousness , the different senses receive different forms of knowledge , and the function and the knowledge of one sense is quite different from and unconnected with that of another .

For instance , the eye alone can perceive forms and the ear alone can hear sounds .

Knowledges differ with regard to the different senses .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0368 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Even if these sense-knowledges are entirely cut off from one another , the person experiencing these sense-knowledges is one and the same .

The person is the synthesizer of sense perceptions which by themselves , do not have relations among themselves .

The same person experiences forms , sounds , touches , tastes , smells , etc , and feels :

" I am the seer , the hearer " , etc , but does not feel that the seer is different from the hearer .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0369 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The ultimate Knower must , therefore , be an absolutely indivisible whole of Consciousness .

Even if there be the slightest distinction within the constitutive essence of the knower , ie , if the knower is made up of parts , complete synthesized knowledge would never have been possible .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0370 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

If there is a division within the knower , what is the relation between one part and another therein ?

If one part is different from the other , what is that which exists between one part and another ?

The question cannot be answered , as knowledge does not admit of space within itself , as knowledge is presupposed by the idea of space and the notion of time and causality .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0371 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

If the parts which are said to constitute the consciousness or the knower are not differentiated by anything other than the knower , then , the knower does not become a composite of parts , but exists as an undivided consciousness which is absolutely identical with itself .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0372 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The nature of the knower must be knowledge itself .

If not , what is the nature of the knower ?

The most fundamental experience is consciousness or awareness , pure and simple , free from the self-contradictory divisions and fluctuations of thought .

None can experience anything greater than or equal to consciousness as the ultimate basis of all experiences in life .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0373 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The knower of sense-perceptions cannot be the mind , too , though the mind is able to know without the help of the senses and is able to coordinate , arrange , and systematically synthesize sense-perceptions .

Thoughts differ in different places , times and conditions .

Hence , there must be some other synthesizing agent of even mental cognitions .

Otherwise a person cannot know that one is the same individual experiencing different kinds of thought .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0374 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Even memory would be impossible but for a non-relative consciousness transcending thoughts .

Mental cognitions and sensuous perceptions are heterogeneous in their nature .

Therefore the possibility and experience of a unified completeness of self-identical , absolutely immediate and direct consciousness shows that the true Self is Pure Consciousness in its essence , which is not affected by the revolting activities of the mind and the senses .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0375 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The essential nature of the Knower or the Self must be transcendental Consciousness , because , in the state of deep sleep it is seen that when the body , the vital currents , the senses , the mind , the intellect , the ego , the subconscious and everything that goes to make the individual get suspended and denied their validity as existence , the person still exists , as is testified by the following experience which , with great certainty , identifies the person who has woken up with the person who slept previously .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0376 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The existence of the essential person , the Self , in the condition of deep sleep , was one of awareness of nothing , an awareness together with nothingness , which means mere awareness , as nothingness has no value .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0377 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Further , the existence of the experience of the Self corroborated by the subsequent remembrance of the existence of oneself in deep sleep .

As remembrance is not possible without previous experience , and as experience is never possible without consciousness , we have to conclude that the Self does exist in deep sleep as mere Consciousness .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0378 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

This Consciousness exists in the waking state as the unchanging basis of the changing mind and the senses .

In the dreaming state it exists as the synthesizer of mental functions .

The objects in the waking and the dreaming states differ from one another , but the consciousness of objects is one and the same ; it does not differ in relation to objects .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0379 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The only difference between the waking and the dreaming states is that in the former experience is the effect of the function of the mind taking the help of the senses , while in the latter experience is the effect of the function of the mind alone .

But , nevertheless , the consciousness is the same , both in the waking and the dreaming states .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0380 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

As this Consciousness is proved to exist in the deep sleep state also , it is evident that this one Consciousness endures without even the least change in Itself in all states of experience , without a past or a future for its existence .

It does not differ from another consciousness , nor does it differ from Itself now and then , here and there , in this or that state , as objects and mental states do .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0381 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Consciousness is always one and is ever secondless .

We cannot conceive of two consciousnesses , though mental states may be two or more .

Consciousness is , therefore , eternal .

Metaphysically , anything that is eternal must be infinite , without restrictions .

Since limitation , too , is what is known by the Consciousness , Consciousness transcends limitation .

The Self is Absolute Consciousness , Brahman or the Bhuma
.

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0382 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The ignorance that is generally experienced in deep sleep cannot be a real existence , for , if it did really exist , it would be an eternal antagonist of consciousness , and consciousness would thereby be limited and become perishable .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0383 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The illogicality and the impossibility of the existence of ignorance cancels its value and establishes the existence of the Absolute as Consciousness alone , which is not a bare , featureless transparency , but comprehensive of the whole universe of objects .

Everyone experiences consciousness and not ignorance as one’s basic being or Self .

The Self is therefore different from ignorance in the sense that consciousness is not ignorance , but it does not mean that the Self is a witness of an objective ignorance , which , too , is existence .

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The Self neither dies , nor is born , nor has it any modification .

If it has these changes , they have to be experienced by some other consciousness , which argument would lead to an infinite regress .

The ultimate experiencing Consciousness is the Self .

This Absolute Self is self-luminosity , non-duality , independence , Consciousness , the sole Being .