Light of consciousness
The whole of the universe, the whole of our existence, is full of conscious cosmic energy. From energy alone can all manifestation come to being. Even to perceive oneself as oneself, consciousness is needed. Can there be any creation without energy?
THE WHOLE of the universe, the whole of our existence, is full of conscious cosmic energy. From energy and energy alone can all manifestation come to being. Can there be any creation without energy? And the wonder of all wonders is that the energy is conscious; it is alive, though we may not perceive it to be so. This is because, man, in general, is unconscious, is asleep. Even to perceive oneself as oneself, consciousness is needed.
When in deep sleep, I do not know myself. I do not know whether I am a man or a woman, whether I am rich or poor, whether I am happy or unhappy, whether I am a pauper or an emperor, whether I am a saint or a sinner.
One may argue, “How so?” We know everything when we are awake. A counter question may be asked then: Which state is real, the awake or the asleep state? You will answer, “Both because, I go in the night to one and come out in the morning in another.” This is the fluctuation we experience in real life, alternating from consciousness to unconsciousness and back to consciousness.
We are like the pendulum, never fixed at a place for a moment and are in a constant state of flux all our lives. It does not mean that we will not go to sleep. We will. We will do everything as we were doing until now but the quality will have changed; we will be doing everything in conscious awareness.
Sage Mahavira was once asked by someone, “Who, sir, is a not a muni, or is amuni?” Muni is one, who churns his mind, that is, meditates, and the prefix ‘a’ in any word meaning its opposite. Mahavira gave a one word reply “suptah amuni,” meaning that those, who are sleeping are amunis. The person asked, “And sir, then who are munis?”
Had Mahavira given a long-winded philosophical answer, to my way of thinking, he would not be a muni at all because philosophy is dry bones, no satiation comes from it. Just see how beautifully Mahavira gave a muni-like answer. He said, “Asuptah muni,” that is, one, who is not asleep, is a muni.
Note the shifting of a single letter ‘a’, in suptah amuni and asuptah muni and the whole gestalt changes. The test of a sage is that he doesn’t describe but conveys the essence in short pithy indications or hints; they are succinct aphorisms for a questioner to reflect and meditate upon to find the answer. Jesus said to his disciples, “Keep Awake! You do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows ….” Says the Bhagavad Gita, ch II v 69, “That, which is night to all creatures, the sage is awake and that when all creatures come to wakefulness, to the sage, he sees it as night.”
The allusion is here to consciousness; man thinks that he is fully awake but he does not know that he may be daydreaming or fantasising his unrealised hopes. He is not in the present moment, he is not aware, he is not awake. The real awakening of the consciousness finds its pinnacle in enlightenment. It is a journey from ego to ego-lessness. Perfect ego-lessness is enlightenment.
I will end this discussion by making you imagine that you are listening to a lilting music played on the flute and the audience is ecstatic. Now when the rendition is over there begins a squabble: The flute says, “I played the music.” The fingers that danced on the flute says, “Not you but I.” The wind that blew through the flute says, “Neither of you two but I,” and the musician, who played, says nothing but smiles in satisfaction. All the claimants are his parts. The parts can fight because each thinks it is the whole, the whole knows it is. This is the difference between thinking and knowing. Existence is silent, claiming nothing, because it is Whole.
One may argue, “How so?” We know everything when we are awake. A counter question may be asked then: Which state is real, the awake or the asleep state? You will answer, “Both because, I go in the night to one and come out in the morning in another.” This is the fluctuation we experience in real life, alternating from consciousness to unconsciousness and back to consciousness.
We are like the pendulum, never fixed at a place for a moment and are in a constant state of flux all our lives. It does not mean that we will not go to sleep. We will. We will do everything as we were doing until now but the quality will have changed; we will be doing everything in conscious awareness.
Sage Mahavira was once asked by someone, “Who, sir, is a not a muni, or is amuni?” Muni is one, who churns his mind, that is, meditates, and the prefix ‘a’ in any word meaning its opposite. Mahavira gave a one word reply “suptah amuni,” meaning that those, who are sleeping are amunis. The person asked, “And sir, then who are munis?”
Had Mahavira given a long-winded philosophical answer, to my way of thinking, he would not be a muni at all because philosophy is dry bones, no satiation comes from it. Just see how beautifully Mahavira gave a muni-like answer. He said, “Asuptah muni,” that is, one, who is not asleep, is a muni.
Note the shifting of a single letter ‘a’, in suptah amuni and asuptah muni and the whole gestalt changes. The test of a sage is that he doesn’t describe but conveys the essence in short pithy indications or hints; they are succinct aphorisms for a questioner to reflect and meditate upon to find the answer. Jesus said to his disciples, “Keep Awake! You do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows ….” Says the Bhagavad Gita, ch II v 69, “That, which is night to all creatures, the sage is awake and that when all creatures come to wakefulness, to the sage, he sees it as night.”
The allusion is here to consciousness; man thinks that he is fully awake but he does not know that he may be daydreaming or fantasising his unrealised hopes. He is not in the present moment, he is not aware, he is not awake. The real awakening of the consciousness finds its pinnacle in enlightenment. It is a journey from ego to ego-lessness. Perfect ego-lessness is enlightenment.
I will end this discussion by making you imagine that you are listening to a lilting music played on the flute and the audience is ecstatic. Now when the rendition is over there begins a squabble: The flute says, “I played the music.” The fingers that danced on the flute says, “Not you but I.” The wind that blew through the flute says, “Neither of you two but I,” and the musician, who played, says nothing but smiles in satisfaction. All the claimants are his parts. The parts can fight because each thinks it is the whole, the whole knows it is. This is the difference between thinking and knowing. Existence is silent, claiming nothing, because it is Whole.
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