CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness is the expression of Brahmam – Absolute Truth. Brahmam is beyond our concepts and when we start saying something about Brahmam it is brought down to the level of Consciousness. It is not my intention to declare that Consciousness is below Brahmam. We may put it this way “Consciousness at rest is Brahmam or Brahmam expressed is Consciousness. Why there is consciousness? Why there is prapancham as we perceive? The answer is that these are expression of Brahmam. In the Ocean-water analogy, waves in their collective form represent prapancham, ocean represents consciousness and water the real swaroopam , express as ocean and waves!

Consciousness is bodham in sanskrit. There are terms like jeeva bodham, atmabodam and Akanda botham..Man has to uplift himself from his narrow vision of jeeva bodham i.e. ego sense to Atma bodham i.e. the vision of Brahma chaitanyam in the individual and from there to Akanda bodham i.e., immersing in the Cosmic Consciousness. As already indicated, what is beyond consciousness is beyond our comprehension and cannot be expressed . According to adwaitha philosophy Prapancham as we perceive is only a deceptive appearance, a prathibhasam and the very expression as consciousness is termed as vivartham.They are bold enough to declare the Absolute Truth without any compromise. Brahmam is changeless and there is no question of its becoming transformed into prapancham. Prapancham has only that much reality as that of a mirage!

The source of consciousness is Awareness. Consciousness and Akanda bodham are synonyms and so too Awareness and Brahmam. The expression of consciousness is “I” in the first stage and the next is in the form of thought “Iam” which assumes a physical form and then comes the stage “Iam so & so; this is mine” i.e, “Iam” attached to name and form. These three stages are described as Beeja Jagrat, Jagrat and maha jagrat .Majority of us are bound within the third stage which we commonly term as ego. This ego sense has to be outlived which can be done through intellectual understanding i.e. vedanta vichara. We should constantly remember our position with reference to atma bodam (atma chaitanyam) and Akanda bodham (personified as Iswara) thereby we can uplift ourselves from the narrow vision of jeeva bodham and get out of restlessness. Man in his ego stage is always restless. He has aspiration to have peace – shantam. The irony is that his swaroopam is shantam only.and because of the enclosures of ego, likes and dislikes, he has forgotten this swaroopam . I have said above that through vedanta vichara one has to outlive the ego sense. Here the tranformation is with reference to bhava , i.e., from ahambhava to atmabhava and from atmabhava to akandabhava. Bhakthy movement which is very popular nowadays is welcome, so long as it helps to outlive the ego sense. Similarly mere intellectual grasping of vedanta cannot erase one’s ego. On the contrary intellectuals enteretain more ego than a simple bhaktha. The ultimate aim is to get out of ego whether it is through vedanta vichara or bhakthy, and immerse in Akandabodham.

All the actions we have been performing throughout the life are due to jeeva sankalpam which in turn is due to vasanas we have brought along with us as we have come into existence. During the course of our performing action we have been accumulating fresh vasanas due to our likes and dislikes and ego sense. Thus we are caught in a vicious circle. The way out is to develop a bhava whether it is through intellectual understanding or bhakthi by which we could constantly remember our atma swaroopam and immerse in Akandabodham.