The Realisation of the Absolute :4- 2- 8.

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 2

2. Brahmam as Consciousness or Intelligence 8.

The Self is Pure Consciousness, as it is presupposed by all modes of consciousness, which function in the form of consciousness of external conditions or objects.

Human consciousness is characterised by objectiveness.

It is more a cognition or a perception than simple unadulterated consciousness.

The cognitions and perceptions are the processes of knowing through the mind and the senses.

In the waking state of ordinary consciousness, the different senses receive different forms of knowledge, and the function and the knowledge of one sense is quite different from and unconnected with that of another.

For instance, the eye alone can perceive forms and the ear alone can hear sounds.

Knowledges differ with regard to the different senses.


But, even if these sense-knowledges are entirely cut off from one another, the person experiencing these sense-knowledges is one and the same.

The person is the synthesiser of sense-perceptions which by themselves, do not have relations among themselves.

The same person experiences forms, sounds, touches, tastes, smells, etc., and feels: “I am the seer, the hearer,” etc., but does not feel that the seer is different from the hearer.

The ultimate knower must, therefore, be an absolutely indivisible whole of consciousness.

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued  ...