Commentary on the Panchadasi

by Swami Krishnananda

Witness consciousness is the nature of the Self. It is the consciousness that is behind all kinds of perceptions, memories, feelings, etc. When all feelings, all apprehensions, all volitions cease, that survives. That persists. Even an imagination to the extent of the cessation of the whole of creation will be witnessed by a consciousness which is equally large.

The world is vast; creation is vast enough. To conceive such a vastness as space and time, there must be a consciousness which cannot be less vast than space and time. A little finite spark of consciousness cannot apprehend the vastness of space and time. We can imagine even infinitude. How could we, with a little mind working inside our skull, imagine what is endlessness unless there is a potentiality of endlessness in our own self? Our mind is basically endless because it is a medium through which endless consciousness reflects itself.

Apanīteṣu mūrteṣu hyamūrtaṁ śiṣyate viyat, śakyeṣu bādhite-ṣvante śiṣyate yattadeva tat (30). When we eliminate earth, water, fire, air, etc., we will find only empty space remains. We can stretch our imagination and feel the earth has gone, water has gone, fire has gone, air has gone. We will find space remains. We cannot feel that space also does not exist, because all thought is conditioned by space and time.

In the same way as there is a residuum of space consciousness when all the other elements are eliminated by the rejection process, we will find that there is something remaining cosmically operative when all perceptible objects, including the five elements, are done away with. When the whole cosmos is not there in front of us, there will be a consciousness that knows the absence of cosmos. That consciousness is cosmic consciousness, which is the nature of the Self.

Sarva bādhe na kiṅcic-ceḍ-yanna kiṅcit-taḍeva tat, bhāṣā evātra bhidyante nirbādhaṁ tāva-dasti hi (31). When everything goes, the objector will again say that there does not appear to be anything remaining at all; nothing remains. But as we already mentioned, it appears that consciousness of nothing is itself consciousness, so do not bring in that point again and again.

Ata eva śrutirbādhyaṁ bādhitvā śeṣaya-tyadaḥ, sa eṣa neti netyeātmeti-atad-vyāvṛtti rūpataḥ (32). The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says neti-neti. Brahman cannot be known by any positive definition. We cannot say, “It is like this,” because it is not like anything that we have seen in the world. Then how can we define it? By eliminating everything that is possible of conception – ‘not this’: It is not that which can be seen with the eyes; it is not that which can be heard with the ears; it is not that which can be tasted with the tongue; it is not that which can be sensed in any manner whatsoever. It is not that which we think in our mind; it is not that which our intellect is arguing about. Thus we eliminate all the possible objectivity and conceptualisation. Let something remain after eliminating all thought, all feeling, all volition, and all objects. Something will remain. Concentrate on that residual basic Being.

Idaṁ-rūpaṁ tu yadyāvat-tat-tyaktuṁ śakyate’khilam, aśakyo hyanidaṁ-rūpaḥ sa ātmā bādha-varjitaḥ (33). We can eliminate all things that we can see with our eyes. “I don’t want this, I don’t want that. I shall leave this, and I shall go elsewhere. I shall have that thing.” We can go on eliminating, relatively speaking, things in this world, and move to some other thing. But here is a kind of elimination that is expected of us, which is elimination of all things. It is not moving from one place to another place. It is not rejecting something and acquiring something else. It is an elimination of all possible conceptualisation and objectification, including this body-consciousness.

Objectification does not mean only the consciousness of that which is far away. Even this body is an object because we can see it. We can sense it; we can feel it; we can touch it. Inasmuch as sensation is the means of knowing the existence of this body, the body also should be considered as an object. So when the elimination process of objectivity is carried on, it does not mean that we ignore the world and cling to our body. When the world goes, our body also has to go with the world, because the body is constituted of the same five elements as the world. When the world has gone, this body also has gone with it.

What remains is pure awareness of the fact of everything having gone away. The consciousness of ‘everything having gone’ remains. We will not be non-existent. We will be aware that something is there, but not this body. We have already studied in the earlier chapters that we are wrongly imagining that we are this physical sheath and other sheaths by a confusion of characters. It is only in the state of deep sleep that we are having some inkling as to the fact that there is a chance of our existing independent of the sheaths. Minus all the sheath-consciousness, we are existing in the state of deep sleep. It is only there that we are able to have some idea as to what we are really; but in all other states we are confused with identity of the physical sheaths and other sheaths.

Siddhaṁ brahmaṇi satyatvaṁ jñānatvaṁ tu pureritam, svayam-evā-nubhū-titvā-dityādi-vacanaiḥ sphuṭam (34). What do we conclude now? The establishment of the existence of Brahman is certain. We have attained the certainty and an incontrovertible truth of there being such a thing called non-relative Being. While everything is relative, there is something non-relative in order to be aware that things are relative. We say the whole world is relative. But that thing which knows the relativity of things itself is not relative. Change does not know itself. The knowledge of change arises on account of there being something which does not change.

We cannot know motion unless we ourselves are not in a state of motion. If everything was moving and everything was relative, there would be no one to know that something is moving and something is relative. The consciousness of the transitoriness of things and the relativity of objects itself cannot be relative. Else, there would be no one to say that things are relative or something is transient. Such a certainty has been established.

Siddhaṁ brahmaṇi satyatvaṁ jñānatvaṁ tu pureritam. We have already concluded that our nature is Pure Consciousness.  Svayam-evā-nubhū-titvā-dityādi-vacanaiḥ sphuṭam. In earlier sections we have repeated the same truth that the Self is Consciousness. This has been the subject of study right from the first chapter. Self Consciousness means the Self being Consciousness itself in its essence. It does not shine due to some other factor being associated with it. It is not like a bulb shining. A bulb does not shine; it shines because of some other thing moving through it. But the Self does not require any other externalised association, for it is that flame which requires no oil or wick. Eternity is the radiance of the Self.

Na vyāpitvāt dyeśato’nto nityatvān-nāpi kālataḥ, na vastuto’pi sārvātmyād-ānantyaṁ brahmaṅi tridhā (35). It is not limited either by space, time, or object. There are things in the world which can be found in one place, but they cannot be found in other places. Such things which can be seen in one place only and not in all places are said to be limited by space. There are certain things which can be found in certain conditions – in some season, for instance. We cannot see them always; this is the limitation by time. And certain things are totally different from certain other things; that is limitation by objectivity. Things are limited in three ways: by space, time, and object. That we are in one place and not in another place is limitation by space. That we are at some time but not always is limitation by time. That we are somebody and not somebody else is limitation by personality, individuality, objectivity.

These limitations do not obtain in Brahman. Brahman is all-pervading; therefore, it is not limited by space. It is there endlessly, timelessly; therefore, it is not limited by time. It is pervading all things; therefore, it is not limited by any object. Neither space, time, nor objectivity can limit Brahman. Always it is unlimited, in every way.

So the infinity of Brahman is of three kinds – spacelessness is one kind of infinity, timelessness is another kind of infinity, and objectlessness is the third kind of infinity – whereas we are limited in all the three ways. We human beings, individuals, are the direct contradiction of this Ultimate Reality because we are bound by space, time, individuality, and the body.

Deśa-kālāyna-vastūnāṁ kalpita-tvācca māyayā, na deśādi-kṛto’ntosti brahmā nantyaṁ sphuṭaṁ tataḥ (36). “Endless is Brahman,” is what we have said because the problem has arisen on account of there being something called space outside; and as we know, time goes together with space. When we think of space, time also comes there – as it happens in dream, for instance.

How did space arise in dream? Where was the time factor in dream? How did things appear to be outside us in dream? There was no space, actually speaking. The distance that we see between ourselves and an object outside in dream is a false imagination of the mind. One can feel, in dream, that one is caught in a forest and a tiger is pursuing; and the person in dream runs and climbs a tree. The tiger is a modification of the mind of the dreamer. The fright also is a modification of the mind of the dreamer. The tree also is manufactured by the very same mind. The tree is different from the tiger and one’s own self, and that difference also is created by the same mind. The action of climbing the tree also is a mental activity. This is an illustration to show how things are in this physical world also, though it is an empirical reality, in contradistinction with the dream reality.

Even as the individual mind has wrongly projected a space in dream and imagines a tree or a tiger, an elephant or a mountain, and gets caught in the false joys and sorrows of the dream life, so the scriptures say the Cosmic Mind is dreaming, as it were, this whole world. And you and I are the dream objects of this Cosmic Mind. We have friends and enemies even in dream. We see many people, big societies in dream. Do we not see people in dream? All those persons, all the things, all the objects that we see in dream are manufactured by our dreaming consciousness. The externality, the totality, the integrality, the reality – all these things in dream are actually the big drama that is played by the waking consciousness. When we wake up, all these things get merged into the waking mind, and we do not see any one of them in the waking state.

So is the principle of Self-realisation. This Cosmic Mind dreams, as it were, this vast world of difference – of space, time and objects, including our own selves. When the consciousness of objectivity is withdrawn, the individual minds merge into the Cosmic Mind, and that is the real waking from this dream of the world. There we will find no world at all. All this great wonder, this dramatic performance of this earthly life will vanish into thin air, just as all the problems of the dream world vanished in a second when we woke up into waking consciousness. So too, the entire earth-consciousness will vanish when our individual mind merges into the Cosmic Mind, which is called ‘the real waking’.

Satyaṁ jñānam-anantaṁ yad-brahma tad-vastu tasya tat, īśvaratvaṁ ca jīvatvam-upādhi-dvaya-kalpitam (37). We shall take up this subject tomorrow.