An object is known by the mind with the assistance of Chidabhasa-chaitanya (consciousness reflected through the intellect, or the psyche)...
Just as matter cannot know matter, the intellect cannot know an object. What is known is material and what knows is Consciousness...
It is not the General Consciousness of Brahman but the reflected consciousness, Chidabhasa, that particularises knowledge...
It is the Chidabhasa that rises and falls, but Brahma-Chaitanya is always there, and has no beginning or end...
In luminosity the Chidabhasa resembles the Atman, and it is for this reason that the Jivas mistake themselves for reality and mistake the objects of the world also for similar realities...
The Jiva, thus has a twofold nature, that which limits, namely, the Antahkarana, and that which shines, namely, the Atman...
If we define Jiva as a limited individual with a reflected consciousness, etc., then naturally, in that state, it cannot be identified with Brahman, and to effect identification there should be the abandoning of its limiting characters...
If it is regarded as Consciousness in its innermost being, then there is this direct identity of substratum...
Kutastha and Brahman mean one and the same thing. That is called Kutastha which is Consciousness acting as the substratum of the appearance of the Jiva with the appendages as body, mind, senses etc. Brahman is the same Consciousness existing as the substratum of the whole cosmos...
We make a distinction between Isvara (God) and Jiva (individual) by introducing a difference between the whole and the part, namely, the universe and the body...
The one Brahman in relation to the universe is called Isvara, and it alone in relation to the body is called Jiva. The substance is one, Consciousness is one, appearances are two...
What is this intellect and what is this Jiva? What is the Self, and what is the world? The inability to arrive at a clear definition regarding this issue, and the consequent activity to which one is driven, is called Samsara (worldly entanglement). He who knows the answer to these questions is a knower of Truth; he is the liberated one...
(Krisnananda's excerpted commentary on Pancadasi 8)
No comments:
Post a Comment