[Advaita-l] The 'Light of Consciousness'.

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

Jayakumar - PraNAms

 

Here is how I describe the problem to address the issue you have raised.

 

When I am sitting in a dark room, if you ask me if there is a chair in the room, I say, I do not know, since I cannot see it. The chair may be there or may not be there. The probability for the existence or its non-existence is 50 percent since there are only two choices. The problem is actually indeterminate or remains in the probabilistic realm – we can call it as anirvachaneeyam. For me to see whether there is a chair is or is not, first I need to see it, and second, I need a light to illumine its presence since the chair is not self-effulgent. In addition, my senses supported by my mind has to be there. When the light is turned and when I can see, then it becomes a deterministic problem – since I say definitely the chair is or chair is not. 

In essence, the existence of any inert entity depends on the knowledge of its existence; otherwise, it is indeterminate. 

Now if you ask me why I cannot see the chair, I have to say that it is dark here. If you further ask, how you know that it is dark there? I have to say that I can see it is dark here. How am I able to see that it is dark here without a light? The answer is ‘ I can see that I cannot see’. In what light I can see the darkness? Of course, in the light of consciousness which is not opposed to the darkness and therefore can illumine the darkness for me to see. In fact, as you mentioned the light of consciousness has to illumine the light also for me to see that the room is lighted, assuming that the mind and senses are working. Every thought that rises in mind has to be illumined by the light consciousness that I am for me to see the thought or to know the thought as discussed in the Vedanta Paribhasha. 

 

Now let us go back to the chair. When I say I see the chair, I am not really seeing the chair but only the light that is falling on the chair, that gets reflected by the chair and that reflected light falls on my retina which is transmitted by the optical nerves system to electrical charges (neurons) then? Then somehow the electrical input is converted to ‘thought’ in the mind. That ‘somehow’ involves some program code installed in every mind by Iswara that converts the charge input into software called ‘thought’. The problem when I say there is a chair there, I am not really seeing the chair but only the reflected light from the chair. However, I say I am seeing the chair since my attention is not on the reflected light but on the reflecting medium. Without the chair present, I cannot get that reflected light. Extending this further, without some object present to reflect it, I cannot see the presence of the light. I need light to see the object and I need the object to recognize the presence of light. Otherwise, I cannot recognize the presence of the light without a reflecting medium. At the same time, I have to shift my attention from the chair to the light that is getting reflected by the chair, while still looking at the chair. That is meditation. It is like looking at the bright moon in the night and recognize the sunlight using the moonlight without paying attention to the moon. That requires a very subtle meditative mind – that is what viveka means. 

Same way every thought, nay even the mind is known only when the light of consciousness gets reflected by the mind or the thought. I need the mind or the thought for me to recognize the reflected consciousness and yet I have to shift my attention from the reflecting medium to the reflected consciousness. The problem becomes even more subtle since I have to use the mind for that. In essence, I have to use the mind to see that which make me see the mind or which makes me see every thought that arises in the mind. Hence Kenopanishad says – pratibodha viditam matam – it is revealed in the knowledge of every thought that arises in the mind without paying attention to the contents of the thoughts but only to the light of consciousness that is getting reflected. If there are no thoughts (nir vikalpam) then mind itself becomes an object for me to see that light of conscious that illumines the ‘thoughtless mind’. Without any object, present pure all-pervading consciousness cannot be recognized since there is no object to reflect it. To recognize that reflected consciousness also I need the mind – this makes it difficult – particularly when the mind is busy paying its attention to the reflecting media than the reflected light of consciousness. The only prepared mind can shift its attention to that which illumines even the mind. 

Going back to the darkroom case, if you ask me, ‘are you there?’, I have to say, yes. In essence, I can see myself without the light too. Vedanta calls this as I am aprameyam – not an object for a pramaana. However, here also I know I am there but again identify my presence with BMI or body, mind, and intellect which are only objects and not subject I. Yet I need them forsee myself too via of course the reflecting process discussed above. 

 

Hope it addresses the issue you have raised. 

Hari Om!

Sadananda

---------------------------
 

   On Sunday, December 23, 2018, 11:45:23 AM GMT+5:30, jayakumar via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote: 
 
 Namaste to all.

The following could be a point to discuss among our learned members "

 

What is the source of the quite obvious 'Dream-Light'?

 

Why can't we own-up    That light of Consciousness , , which is the same
'Light' that 'illuminates' everything when we are awake and the  calmness
of  deep sleep too. Then, let 'us' live in the 'Ishwara srushti' or put the
costume of our 'Name &  Form' and 'Function' in the cosmic drama and get
entertained?

 

Even if the dream-light  is due to 'chitabhasa' or the waker's mind present
in 'chitabhasa', the very source of light cannot be both of these and that
too  in the absence of the lights of Sun, Moon, Stars, Fire or the
artificial / electrical lights or due to infra-red rays as it happens in
CCTV cameras.  The whole dream-world and the dream-activities appear in the
eyes closed condition and that too only during sleep.  .  

 

Any non-agreement may please be communicated thru  phone or email for
obvious reasons.

 

Further, though we  totally accept our scriptural teaching that  it  is the
'atma jyothi' which is ['swayam jyothi' , is there any scientific /
neurological  or logical explanation for the 'dream-light'? This is for
academic interest and to explain my yoga students the limitation of modern
science in analysing profound truth.  

 

 

Regards,

S K Jayakumar (visually challenged member of the group)

Mobile : 9916494729,

LL : 080 40905873

Email : saipadukajk at gmail.com

 

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