Revealing Characteristics of Consciousness Itself

The following article first appeared in the 2006 Raas Purnima issue of Sri Sanai and is part of the 'Revealing Characteristics of Consciousness Itself' series of articles that were published in Sri Sanai (Saccidananda Society, Kolkata's quarterly spiritual magazine). 

 

Reality of duality, which is manifested eternal part of the reality of non-duality, is the source of universal creation of world appearance of diversified name and forms.  All kinds of duality, plurality and relativity have made the entire creation enriched, enjoyable to the individual lives of all categories from the gross to the subtlemost.   Reality of duality extends from the grossmost creation to the subtlemost one.  That is to say, all the visible forms of all kinds with their innumerable varieties have specific characteristics of their own.  Such characterisitics have their charming qualities like truth, reality, beauty, goodness, attraction which have their origin in the reality of non-duality.   Origin of everything always remains obscured in the background.   Hence characteristics of manifseting varieties of consciousness of both aspects, the reality of duality and non-duality, are not always intelligible and accessible, though those are however experienced in the inner nature and subtler in the central nature.  Each form has a name of its own by which it is used.   Name is sound/prana which originates in vak (speech).  Bhava (idea) of all kinds is subtler which originates in consciousness.   Form pertains to outer nature, name to inner nature and idea to central nature.  Everything of the outer nature is sensual, of the inner nature is mental and of the central nature is intellectual.  The threefold nature of life - outer, unner and central - is the object of experience pertaining to reality and duality.

Further clarification of the subject is needed.  Hence it is stated that the threefold nature of life is verily threefold aspect, of which the first two that is the outer and inner ones are both universal and individual; while the third one, the central one, is always universal. Individual is always material and the universal is always spiritual and divine. Therefore form, name and idea—the first three aspects—from a different viewpoint are prakriti, swabhava and Swabodha respectively. Of the three aspects the first two are both universal and individual and the third one is always universal.

The individual is inseparable part of the universal one. Individual owes all its beings and becomings to the universal one. Differently expressed, the universal one willingly manifests into the individual life in order to transform the individual one to universal one in and through the integral process of evolution. Both the individual nature and universal nature have one and the same origin—with the reality of non-duality. The only difference that appears in their nature is quantitative and not qualitative. That means the power and knowledge of the individual are finite, conditioned and limited; while those of the universal are infinite by nature i.e., unlimited and immeasurable. Individual life has its power and knowledge greatly attached to the gross nature of life with the thought and idea of objective pursuits and their enjoyment as well. It cannot think of anything else apart from the same. Its all aims and purposes of life are worldly prosperity and sensual enjoyment which are entirely materialistic. Its spiritual approach cannot easily develop until and unless it’s matter-fed worldly life or material life gets bored and digustful. Then and then only it aspires to get rid of that and intensely needs help from others of right experience. The more it feels for that, the more it grows dispassionate and indifferent to the worldly ways of life which is the characteristic of power-nature of life called avidya maya.

To rise above the material concept of life and be well established in the spiritual divine ways of life it gets the right help with spiritual light from spiritually experienced guide or master. He unfolds the spiritual science, vidya, to the aspirant seeker according to his/her intensity of urge.  The individual seeker thereby gets devoted to the teachings of the master and cultivates the spiritual science, vidya, as is instructed or inculcated by the master.

The characteristics of avidya are always diversified and contradictory to one another which verily are experienced to be the reality of duality. Nature of reality of duality is always experienced by the individual owing to the constitutional nature of avidya. Avidya-nature of the individual seeker (life) gets thoroughly transformed into vidya-nature in and through the process of evolution of the integral nature of the individual. All kinds of approach of the individual nature towards the individual one get successful and fulfilled not by avidya but by the evolutionary process of vidya-nature. The characteristics of vidya-nature are totally opposite to those of avidya-nature. For example—differences, inequality, diversity, plurality, duality etc. pertain to avidya; while non-difference, equality, evenness, unity, non-duality, identity etc. pertain to vidya.  As the avidya nature causes the life of the individual to be more objective, materialistic and sensualist; so the vidya nature causes the life of the individual to be more subjective, spiritual, discriminative and renunciative.

Vidya-nature makes life spiritually divine. It constitutes the upper nature of swabhava with the traits of predominating sattva wherein rajas and tamas of lower nature remain subordinate or subservient.  Rajas and tamas are predominant in avidya-nature. That is why self-generated lower nature is avidya and self-generated upper nature is vidya.  As the lower nature avidya is the cause of bondage and sufferings of life, so the upper nature vidya is conducive to liberation and balance of life. Vidya par-excellence is Paravidya which is the predominating nature of central aspect of life. The central aspect is the abode of Kutastha Chaitanya, immutable or permanent Consciousness called Self-Divine, Ishvara, Atman. It is also called Swabodhatma of shuddha sattva (pure sattva) i.e., homogeneous by nature.  Divine Self is always homogeneous by nature. That is why the traits of rajas and tamas of trigunaprakriti or lower nature have nothing to do in the shuddha sattvic (ever pure) homogeneous nature of Swabodhatma called Paka Ami. This Swabodhatma is ever non-dual Reality permanently unified and identified with the transcendental nature which is beyond all gunas and bhavas i.e., pairs of opposites, sense of differences of duality.  Hence it is beyond the sense of in and out, subject-object, creator-creation, this or that and not this and not that etc.  Thus it is said that it is the eternally non-dual One without a second, ever ‘at-one-ment’—‘All Divine for All Time, as It Is’, symptomatizing as Paka Ami—I-Absolute.

Life has got two parts. One is attributeful and the other one is attributeless.  The former is spiritual and the latter is supremely divine and beyond. The spiritual one is the combined form of subject and object and the divine one is super–subject and beyond i.e., ever-Witness of the former subjective and the objective ones. Life consists of fourfold nature i.e., outer, inner, central and transcendental.  Outer nature constitutes the physical body with material elements pertaining to outer prakriti which characterizes avidya itself, inner nature constitutes the spiritual body with the light of cidabhas pertaining to inner prakriti which characterizes vidya itself and the central nature constitutes the spiritual divine body with the light of Pure Knowledge/Consciousness pertaining to central prakriti which characterizes Paravidya itself. Transcendental nature is the eternal background of all of them which is Self-Divine, ever-Witness of all the rest.  This is Paka Ami, the I-Absolute.  

Sri Sri Babathakur

to be continued...................