[Advaita-l] Something to ponder over

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

PraNAms
 
Most of the life forms are conscious of their environment or at least programed to do so for survival.
 
Only in the higher life forms there is a development of self-consious and is developed maximum in the human. Becuase of self-consciousness, man commits errors about himself. 
 
Yes existence of any inert is established by the knowledge its existence while existence of consciousness is self-proven in all life forms since they need to be conscious of their environment for their survival. Being conscious of x is different from being self-conscious or conscious of oneself. In vishishtadvaita they differentiate these two as one is dharma bhuuta jnaanam and the other as dharmi jnaanam. 
 
Hari Om!
Sadananda

> The greatest mystery of existence is existence itself. There is the
> existence of the universe and there is the existence of the awareness of
> existence of the universe. Were it not for this awareness, even if the
> universe existed as an external reality, we would not be aware of its
> existence, so it would for all practical purpose not exist.