The embedded video may be useful for the advanced spiritual seekers. It addresses 3 points:
Continue reading Enlightenment & Moksha (Freedom) – The Vedanta Way
Q: If I am Consciousness and bliss is the nature of consciousness, why don’t I always feel bliss?
A: Unfortunately, a rose itself cannot appreciate its beauty and fragrance. Yes, you are Consciousness and bliss is your inherent nature, but you as pure Consciousness feel nothing. But, you as person are sometimes happy, sometimes sad etc. Actually, it is your mind that becomes happy, sad etc. The reason why your mind does not always feel bliss is due to your conditioning, your latent tendencies, your hidden desires etc. together called causal body* acting as a veil. For analogy sake, think of the real you – Consciousness – as Sun. Then, sunlight is analogous to bliss. Think of your mind as the surface of the earth. Now imagine clouds between the Sun and earth. If clouds are clear, surface of the earth receives sunlight otherwise it does not. Likewise, whenever veil of causal body is removed your mind experiences bliss, otherwise it does not.
Q: It is I only who sees my dream, nobody else. But, everybody sees creation. If creation is also a dream why does everybody see it?
A: Actually, it is not just you who sees your dream world. Others also see your dream world but they do not call it dream world. For them it is real. Let us say that K is seeing a dream in which he (as K’) along with A, B and C are present. These 4 people (A, B, C, K’) who are fictitious are actually behaving in the dream as if they were seeing the dream world of K as real world. If A hits B in the dream world, B responds A in the dream world appropriately. Does this not mean that B is seeing and experiencing the same dream world? This means that everybody present in the dream is seeing & experiencing the dream world – not just K whose mind is projecting the dream. Creation is the dream world projected by the consciousness and we the actors present in the dream world would naturally see it. We as humans may appear very real with respect to our world (which is not dream world for us) but from the perspective of consciousness, we as humans are like actors in the dream movie.
Q: What is the purpose of life?
A: What if a bacteria asked this question? Probably, the answer saying, “You were the outcome of evolution and came to survive more hostile antibiotics” would be satisfactory. What if a mosquito asked this question? Probably, the answer saying, “You were the outcome of evolution and came to survive more hostile repellents and suck the blood cleverly without making much noise etc.” would be satisfactory. Since we humans consider ourselves special having far superior intellect & networking ability, many of us will not be satisfied with the answer that we are merely a product of evolution. We would ask how did evolution start followed by a series of whys leading to the direction of big bang. But if we consider a 6 foot tall man in comparison to the universe/multiverse then he may only be marginally better of than a mosquito in grand scheme of things.
On a more serious note, an individual in reality is consciousness which is U-kāra (formless/shapeless) about which the individual does not know and he/she continues to identify himself/herself with body-mind. The dream of consciousness is A-kāra (shape, i.e. the body). When it is realised that false identification was made and the real nature is revealed as consciousness, there is Ma-kāra (merging, wisdom). So, AUM sums it up. Besides playing life following the code of conduct of the dreamworld, your purpose can be to realise your true nature which is not the body-mind complex but is pure consciousness.
Q:Why there is creation?
A: Creation is the dream of consciousness in which consciousness itself is present in many forms. Here is an analogy to understand this:
Consciousness is (say) Vishnu, Vishnu sees a dream (say, Brahma) in which he himself is present in many forms. So, you the questioner is a dream object in Vishnu’s dream. When this dream is over one can say that Shiva has destroyed the world. Here Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva are used as symbols meant for explanation purpose. Vishnu symbolises pure consciousness, Brahma symbolises creation (i.e. consciousness in dream or under ignorance), Shiva symbolises destruction of dream/ignorance. One can use different symbols if one wants to.
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.
Question: If consciousness itself is present in every form and it is one, why does not one form know about what all forms perceive?
Answer-1: Imagine that you are the only passenger in a stationary train. You change compartments to view outside through different windows. You get to see different things. It is the same you having different views but you have only one view at a time. Likewise it is the same essence of one consciousness in every form, but the forms are different and one form does not know what other form perceives.
Answer-2: When you dream in which you are present yourself along with others, even though it is your mind that is creating the dream, the you present in dream does not know about what is going on in the minds of other dream-mates. Let us say that K is dreaming in which K himself as K’ along with A, B and C are present.
In the figure, though it is K’s mind that is projecting the dream, K who is himself present in the dream as K’ does not know what is going on in the minds of A, B and C. This is like one way traffic in the direction of arrows. For the K’ to know the mind of A the information would need to flow is opposite direction which does not happen.
PS: The figure above shows K outside the dream boundary. This is just for simplicity sake. Since K’s mind is projecting the dream, we can say that the K’s dream is within K’s mind and the following figure looks at it in this respect and can be considered as more accurate:
