Contemplation of brahman follows a specific method, which is : First we need to contemplate upon "what am I?". The journey should commence from where we are. The journey does not start from where we need to reach. The key to contemplation of nature of brahman is contemplation of the nature of the self. On one hand, the discrimination of "I" and body-body dweller is expected, and on the other, discrimination of the cause of body, the five elements and Prakriti elements is expected. In other words, discrimination of the self from the cause-effect-oriented body and Prakriti alone is the discrimination of "what am I". "I" is the Purusha and the body is created from Prakriti. Their discrimination alone is the discrimination of the Prakriti and Purusha.
In the Gita, Bhagavaan Shrikrishna has called this Prakriti-created body the "field" and the Purusha "knower" (Gita 13.1). The knowledge of the field and the knower alone is the real knowledge, this is his conclusion (Gita 13.2). Now, we shall begin the method of contemplation of the field and the knower following the method of the Gita.
No matter what the object is, effect or cause, accurate or delusory, all are the realm of "this". The "this" is the place of illumination (prakaasha sthaana) of the object. Whatever is possessed by the "this"-ness, all that is the field. "This is a book, this is a man, this is an animal, this is a body, these are the senses" etc., whatever is the object of the this-thought-flow, that is all within the field. The object of eyes or other senses, visions of the mind and intellect or imagined objects, as well as altered known objects of the scripturally impressioned intellect, all are the object of the this-thought flow alone. Therefore their knowledge happens through the thought-flow of "this is so-and-so", that is why they are all within the field. The field is also called the "seen" (drishya).
He who knows the field is the knower of the field. If the field is the seen, then the knower is the seer. Seer, knower, witness - all refer to the same entity. The entity is the self, it is entity in the realm of "I". Our own self (aapaa) is the knower, seer, witness.
The body is the seen, it is in the realm of "this", that is why it is the field. The nature of the body is to decay, to change. It is born, it is in the present, it increases, it decreases, transforms and in the end, is destroyed. Day and night it produces sweat, excreta, urine, phlegm, hair, nails which also decay. This is the field of the seeds of action (karma beeja). It is born due to ancient impressions of actions (karma sanskaaras) and, having created the seeds in the form of impressions of actions, it gets destroyed. The body is a disconnected seen and inert, temporary, illumined by another, illusory, many-formed (aneka roopa). Due to the disconnectedness of the body alone the non-disconnected self appears as disconnected.
Is this very body my true nature? Will I experience myself in the form of the object of the this-thought-flow - "I am this"? "This" is the seen and "I" and the witness of the "this". Then I cannot be in the realm of "this". The knower of the presence or absence of "this" is the me, the "I" alone. Therefore I cannot be the "this". I-I-I, that which is the subject of this thought-flow, that is me alone.
The body is a seen, it is inert. It neither knows itself, nor anything else. But I am the witness, I am sentient. I know myself and others as well. Therefore I am not the body. The body is prone to transformation, I am not. If I too become prone to transformation, then who will be the witness of past and future transformations? The body is temporary, ever changing but "I" am permanent and anvil-like (non-changing). The body is illusory - it appears as one thing in the waking state, and another thing in the dream state, and does not appear at all in the deep sleep state. It is also reliant upon space, time, matter and witness for its appearance. But "I" am the truth - waking, dream and sleep, samaadhi, I am the witness of all states, also, it is not reliant on space, time, matter or any other witness. In other words, I am self-illumined. The body is the visible illusory entity, I am the visible reality.
The truth is that this "visibility" (bhaana) is knowledge (jnyaana) and in it alone do the visible seer "I" and the visible seen "this" appear. The difference between the seen and seer is an appearance that is visible-only and illusory. But to experience this truth, it is necessary to separate the seer from the seen, because due to ignorance the real seer has mated with the illusory seen and "I am this" or "this is mine", such a superimposition has happened. Also, all that has been done, heard and experienced to date has only strengthened this superimposition and hardened it like a diamond. We have become one with the body, senses, mind, intellect and their respective qualities. That is why we accept our birth and death, consider ourselves to be the doer, enjoyer, knower. We identify with one inner organ (antaha karana), and subsequently, accept ourselves as the disconnected dependent worldy individual soul and consider ourselves different than others.
Question : There are many bodies. The doer-enjoyer-knower individual souls also appear as many in those bodies. Everyone accepts these as the "I" and deal with the world differently. There is only one awareness in all bodies and it is the sole "I", how then can we know this to be possible?
Answer : The doer-enjoyer is not called the witness or the knower of the field. The individual soul alone is the doer-enjoyer. It appears different in each body. This individual soul is the adjuncted (aupaadhika) form of the knower of the field, the pure self. For example, you are the one being in your body. But when you identify solely with one sense organ or one part of the body, you have knowledge of that sense organ or body part alone. In the same way, there is only one knower of the field in all fields. But when it identifies with the internal organ, then it experiences the characteristics of that internal organ alone. Upon identifying with the internal organ alone does the knower of the field become known as the individual soul, and this is how there are differences in one individual soul and another.
There are two entities - the knower of the ignorance of deep sleep, and the enjoyer of the happiness of deep sleep. Are these two experienced by individual souls individually? No, because there, there is absence of the adjunct of the inner organ. The mutual differences of individual souls are expressed only in waking and dream states because the inner organ remains there. The knower of the field is the same in waking, dream and deep sleep. But, due to ignorance, by ascribing the differences of the waking and dream state adjuncts upon the knower of the field, we ascribe differences in the knower of the field also.
Anyone's intellect is never fully free from desires (vaasanaas), and cannot ever be fully free, because at the core of its creation lie ignorance, desire and action. Therefore let this intellect wake and sleep. You are the witness of the presence and absence of the intellect. You stay awake in your true nature.
There can be no difference in knowledge because all differences are illumined by knowledge. That is why the "I" is the undifferentiated knowledge-nature. Think about this:
a) By differences in objects, knowledge does not get divided. For example, I can see a plate here and a clock there with the same eyes. The same knowledge exists in the seer and the eyes, yet the objects are different.
b) By differences in sense organs, knowledge does not get divided. The rose is one, but every sense organ reports one aspect of it which is different than another. The seer, smeller, taster and hearer of the rose also is the one "I". Therefore, the object of knowledge is the one rose, and the refuge of knowledge is also the one "I", yet the sense organs are many.
c) By differences in time, knowledge does not get divided. For example I was looking at the clock when it was seven, and I am now looking at the clock when it is eight. The time has changed but the seer is one, knowledge is one. The one who is imagining the time at the beginning of creation and the time at its dissolution is one alone. The one imagining the birth and death of the body is one alone.
d) By differences in directions, knowledge does not get divided. Because when I know the east direction, I also know the west, north, south, above and below directions as well.
e) By differences in shape, knowledge does not get divided. I saw the Tulsi seed, I saw it sprout, I saw it grow, I saw it bear buds. The shape of the plant changed, but I did not. (One should think about the human body in the same way.)
f) Waking, dreaming, deep sleep, by differences in states, knowledge does not get divided. I was the one awake, the same one who saw a dream and the same one who fell asleep.
g) By differences in action, knowledge does not get divided. I once did an unjust action, and became the sinner. I once did a good deed, and gained merit. But the one who knows the sinner and the merit gainer is the same you.
h) By differences in attraction-aversion, knowledge does not get divided. If you are friendly or inimical towards someone, the inner organ is like a mirror. Whatever colour is placed in front of it, that is what it shows, red as red and green as green. Similarly, whenever a friend or foe comes toward us, attraction or aversion is illumined in the internal organ.
The knowledge of happiness comes to you, so does knowledge of sorrow. Happiness and sorrow - this is not knowledge, this is only an emotion, it is arrogation. There comes peace in the internal organ, there comes agitation. But the knowledge of peace and agitation comes to you alone. The difference between peace and agitation does not divide knowledge. Samaadhi happens in time and breaks. When time cannot affect a difference in knowledge, then what can samaadhi or agitation do?
i) Remembering and forgetting do not destroy knowledge. Now there is no memory of the pot. Then has the pot been destroyed, or has your knowledge of the pot been destroyed? Both did not happen. Knowledge is such a reality that is not destroyed or corrupted by object, senses, state, place, time, action, joy-sorrow, agitation-samaadhi, remembering-forgetting.
Even though there are different internal organs in different bodies, there is no difference in the knowledge in them. That knowledge alone is the self. The respective "I" in every internal organ - "I saw this, I got this, I lost this, knew this", even that differentiation of the ego (ahankaara) does not happen in the knowledge-self. This is because "I"-"I" is happening in everyone. Even this fact is known through knowledge.
This means that knowledge is different than the micro-macro (vyshasti samashti) as well as from everone's ego or I-sense (ahankaara). Earth, water, fire, air and space - these five great elements, ego, mahat-tattva and Prakriti - all these come under the field alone. Therefore, they do not have what it takes to create divisions in knowledge. Such non-worldly knowledge neither goes to heaven, nor falls to hell. It is never liberated since it is not bound to begin with. Knowledge is ever free.
Such knowledge is our true nature. It is in this knowledge alone that billions of universes, along with their creation, maintenance and dissolution, are flashing in. Infinite spaces, times, organisms from Brahma to a moth, are flashing in this knowledge. Billions of fields as well as billions of apparent knowers of field, which are illumined by that undivided, non-dual knowledge, that knowledge is the absolute knowledge alone. This is the divine element and such an understanding is its realization.
The description of division (bheda) in the scripture is an affirmation of the ignorant person's vision, whereas the description of non-division is an affirmation of the wise person's vision. It is clear that the scripture is meant for the ignorant, and bringing the wise person's vision to the ignorant person is its goal. Even in the field, only the shapes appear as different, the content of the shapes are the core five great elements, which are the same. Therefore, even if the field displays variety, it is only an appearance of variety. And when it is said that there is one knower of for each field, even that also is an affirmation of appearance alone.
For instance, you saw a crowd of one thousand people in a dream. All of them, theiir shapes, creed, qualities, nature, all of these looked different. In all these fields, even their respective knowers of field looked different. But fundamentally, in the animals, birds, moths, gods and humans in the dream, the self is one alone. There was no elemental vision in the dream. Also, it was even accepted that all individual souls were trapped in the cycle of birth and death since time immemorial, that they would like, dislike, become happy or sad, and without any idea as to when tey would achieve liberation! Some people would even be seen as great souls, seekers and sinners in the dream. But that was you alone!
This world appears as a dream in the fourth quarter of knowledge, like the time we know a dream to be a dream. At that time, a firm conviction comes that our body and other bodies are neither doers nor enjoyers.
Due to the ignorance of the self, the body and the world appear as real. The light of illumination (bhaana) is non-different from the self. Accepting the knower to be ignorant, this is the most opposite notion. We are of the nature of knowledge, yet we consider ourselves ignorance, this is ignorance alone.
He who is ignorant cannot be a knower, and he who is a knower cannot be ignorant. What are you? If you think you are ignorant then ignorance is your object. Then how can you be ignorant?
In reality, you are the knowledge-nature knower, self-illumined brahman. You are not ignorant. Then where is ignorance? Ignorance has no refuge nor any object. Neither is there ignorance in you, and nor are you ignorant of anybody, it is you, only you alone! This alone is called breaking of the knot (granti bheda), that there is was no ignorance, is no ignorance or will be no ignorance. You are the knowledge-nature brahman.
The knower of the field is separate from the field, but both are non-different from the brahman-self. Our self is in all, all is in our self. Like the warp and woof of thread in a cloth, the self and world have the same nature.
This means that knowledge is different than the micro-macro (vyshasti samashti) as well as from everone's ego or I-sense (ahankaara). Earth, water, fire, air and space - these five great elements, ego, mahat-tattva and Prakriti - all these come under the field alone. Therefore, they do not have what it takes to create divisions in knowledge. Such non-worldly knowledge neither goes to heaven, nor falls to hell. It is never liberated since it is not bound to begin with. Knowledge is ever free.
Such knowledge is our true nature. It is in this knowledge alone that billions of universes, along with their creation, maintenance and dissolution, are flashing in. Infinite spaces, times, organisms from Brahma to a moth, are flashing in this knowledge. Billions of fields as well as billions of apparent knowers of field, which are illumined by that undivided, non-dual knowledge, that knowledge is the absolute knowledge alone. This is the divine element and such an understanding is its realization.
The description of division (bheda) in the scripture is an affirmation of the ignorant person's vision, whereas the description of non-division is an affirmation of the wise person's vision. It is clear that the scripture is meant for the ignorant, and bringing the wise person's vision to the ignorant person is its goal. Even in the field, only the shapes appear as different, the content of the shapes are the core five great elements, which are the same. Therefore, even if the field displays variety, it is only an appearance of variety. And when it is said that there is one knower of for each field, even that also is an affirmation of appearance alone.
For instance, you saw a crowd of one thousand people in a dream. All of them, theiir shapes, creed, qualities, nature, all of these looked different. In all these fields, even their respective knowers of field looked different. But fundamentally, in the animals, birds, moths, gods and humans in the dream, the self is one alone. There was no elemental vision in the dream. Also, it was even accepted that all individual souls were trapped in the cycle of birth and death since time immemorial, that they would like, dislike, become happy or sad, and without any idea as to when tey would achieve liberation! Some people would even be seen as great souls, seekers and sinners in the dream. But that was you alone!
This world appears as a dream in the fourth quarter of knowledge, like the time we know a dream to be a dream. At that time, a firm conviction comes that our body and other bodies are neither doers nor enjoyers.
Due to the ignorance of the self, the body and the world appear as real. The light of illumination (bhaana) is non-different from the self. Accepting the knower to be ignorant, this is the most opposite notion. We are of the nature of knowledge, yet we consider ourselves ignorance, this is ignorance alone.
He who is ignorant cannot be a knower, and he who is a knower cannot be ignorant. What are you? If you think you are ignorant then ignorance is your object. Then how can you be ignorant?
In reality, you are the knowledge-nature knower, self-illumined brahman. You are not ignorant. Then where is ignorance? Ignorance has no refuge nor any object. Neither is there ignorance in you, and nor are you ignorant of anybody, it is you, only you alone! This alone is called breaking of the knot (granti bheda), that there is was no ignorance, is no ignorance or will be no ignorance. You are the knowledge-nature brahman.
The knower of the field is separate from the field, but both are non-different from the brahman-self. Our self is in all, all is in our self. Like the warp and woof of thread in a cloth, the self and world have the same nature.
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