Tag Archives: Consciousness

Not An Object

Subject is the seer/knower, object is the scenery. I am the subject who witnesses the object and its properties. Anything that can be objectified cannot be me.

Eyes see computer screen, eyes are subject and the screen is the object. Screen may have many properties like brightness, colour, size, resolution etc. Intellect knows about eyes, here eyes are object and intellect is the subject. Eyes may have many properties like colour, size, eyesight etc. Intellect knows about various emotions. Here, intellect is the subject and mind is the object. However, intellect is not present in deep sleep but I am always present. I am the knower of the absence and of the presence of the intellect. So, I am the subject and intellect is the object. Intellect has the properties of reading the signals sent by various senses, reading various emotions etc. Since, intellect has been objectified it is not me. The only thing that can never be objectified is Impersonal Awareness. That is me, so are you.

“Heart” in Ramana Maharshi’s Who Am I

The word heart has come quite a few times in Ramana Maharshi’s, “Who Am I?” as mentioned in the quotes below:

“If one inquires as to where in the body the thought ‘I’ rises first, one would discover that it rises in the heart.”

“When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain and the senseorgans, the gross names and forms appear; when it stays in the heart, the names and forms disappear. Not letting the mind go out, but retaining it in the Heart is what is called “inwardness” (antarmukha). Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as “externalisation” (bahir-mukha). Thus, when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine.”

Heart here does not mean the physical heart – a body organ. Heart here means centre, the source i.e. the field of consciousness/awareness or Self. When you say I, try to notice its source. It originates from pure consciousness. This is the basic idea behind the importance of I thought emphasised by Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj. When you take breath and notice its origin, you tend to reach the very same source, i.e. pure consciousness which is like a field.

Is Creation Real?

There are two kinds of things present in the universe i) sentient ii) insentient. A piece of rock being insentient, does not know that it exists. It does not know about the creation. So, for insentient things, there is no creation.

When you look at a flower, the light from the flower reaches your eyes where it is converted to electric signal. This electric signal is read by the brain. Finally, it is the mind that perceives the flower. It appears that the flower is in front of you, but actually flower is inside your mind when you are looking at it. So, perception takes place in mind only. Your world exists because of your perception. In deep sleep, there is no perception and there is no world. The similar mechanism of perception applies for any other sentient being. So, if the creation is in mind, we cannot conclude that it is independent of consciousness. Had everything been unconscious in this universe, there would have been nobody to even ask about the existence of anything. Nobody would have known about the creation then and the word creation would have lost its meaning.

Who Am I?

Q (Kumar) : Who am I really?

A : The one who is the knower of this reading without any false identification is the real you – awareness. This whole act is taking place in the dream of awareness where awareness itself is playing various roles, one of them being that of Kumar. So, Kumar is in the dream of awareness. The universe/multiverse in which Kumar is present is the dream of awareness. In this dream, consciousness, which is one in reality, identifies with many roles one of which is that of Kumar. In the dream, Kumar’s eyes are looking at the alphabets and his mind is decoding the information from the language and is projecting the decoded information on the screen of consciousness. This is how it is consciousness that is reading this. All these things are taking place in the dream of awareness but since awareness itself is present in the dream, it is making sense out of it.

PS: Consciousness and awareness words are used as synonyms.

Mind is due to Brain Problem

Mind does not appear to exist during deep sleep, in coma, in certain brain deceases*/injuries, under general anesthesia etc. So, one can say that if brain does not work (or works partially), mind does not exist (or does not behave normally) and hence mind is entirely due to brain. However, if we assume that entire mind is due to brain it is not possible to explain a) near-death experiences that some people have b) out of body experiences that some people have and c) research findings on reincarnation by Dr. Ian Stevenson. These experiences/findings point towards the phenomenon of mind (or faculty of mind – whatever you like to call it like soul etc.) getting detached from the body.

If we assume for a moment that the mind is separate from the body let us see how we can explain why mind does not appear to exist during deep sleep, in coma, in certain brain diseases*/injuries, under general anesthesia etc. Mind interprets information sent by the brain. If brain is inactive/damaged/dead, this information is not sent properly (or not sent at all) to the mind for processing which makes it look as if mind is not working properly or is not functioning at all. For analogy sake consider a TV (mind) connected to a cable (brain/body) and to a power supply. If there is no signal sent by the cable, the TV does not work. This does not mean that the TV is not in working condition. This explains how the dependence of mind on brain is possible even if mind does not exist due to brain.

Spiritually speaking, consciousness is big container in which there is mind inside of which there is body and brain is part of the body. Mind is the interface between the consciousness and the body. Mind receives lot of information from the body/brain and tunes in to specific information and projects it on the screen of consciousness.

*In certain brain diseases the person does not behave normally and one says that mind is not normal.