Over the millennia and around the world , great saints, sages prophets have purportedly appeared on earth to establish extraordinary and universal philosophies that have made an impact upon the human psyche and upon life in general. According to the stories, these distinguished spiritualists have sprung up seemingly from the earth itself, or from the cosmos, with apparently original ideas that inspire thousands and cause these outstanding thinkers to be placed upon pedestals and worshiped as gods.
The idea of god propagated by religion is based on the ego. The ego is reality within the false reality. Inquiry, analysis and reasoning on the true base reveals the fact that the whole waking/experience which contains man, ego and the world is mere mirage on the standpoint of the soul, which is the true self. Thus, ego is part of the mirage.
If one is atheistically prone and do not enjoy discussions of self-knowledge is not fit for pursuit of truth. People are interested in only reading, listening and disusing the colorful mythological stories consider them a tool to reach god, because to imagine it is easy, and verifying the fact is difficult task.
Most people enjoy the mystical subjects. The notion of God will not disappear from the human psyche very easily without verifying the validity of their own existence.
The ego is the false identity with in the false experience. Until one becomes aware of the fact, that the ‘I’ is not the self but ‘I’ is the whole experience of the Waking/dream. The physical body, ego and the world are within the waking and dream. The physical body ego and the world cease to exist without the waking/dream. The ego dominates in the waking/dream. Therefore, until the seeker of truth understands this fact, he cannot drop the ego. Therefore, it is very much necessary to realize the fact that the ‘I’ is not the self but ‘I’ is whole experience of Waking/dream.
Another aid, which is derived from Yoga practice, is that it temporarily suppresses ego. Such suppression helps very little to arrive at Truth. What the Yogi does not understand is that while he talks of experiencing bliss in trance, he reveals the presence of an ego who is the experiencer. To transcend bliss and to transcend trance, one must have gone into, through and out of Yoga.
Seeker of truth is obliged to think because he wants to get rid of ignorance. The root of all ignorance is not ego but the whole experience of duality. All the egocentric paths and practices are on not of any use in pursuit of truth. Only F.S helps the destruction of ignorance. Causality is only a fib.
Unless seeker gives is egocentric accumulated knowledge and with great humility accepts the F.S guidance, he is sure to succeed in acquiring non dual wisdom. He has to know that the physical body, ego and the world are in his mind like everything else and not vice versa, he cannot understand the non dual truth. Thus, there is need for perfect understanding what is what.
If one is ‘egocentric’ then he is unfit for the pursuit of truth. One has to be receptive not judgmental with egocentric accumulated knowledge. When there is egocentric knowledge, then there is no non dual Wisdom. Seeker has to mentally rectify his seeking base, from ‘I’ [form] base to ‘I’-less [formless] base in order to understand and assimilate the self-knowledge.
It is impossible to get rid of the ego alone without properly understanding what ego is. The ego appears within the waking/dream. Thus, the waking/dream contains the physical body, ego, and the world. Thus, it is erroneous to seek truth on the base of ego, which is the false entity within the false experience. Thus there is a need to know the fact that the mind/’I’ is not limited to the physical body but mind/’I’ is the whole experience of waking/dream. Mind/’I’ appears and disappears as waking/dream. Therefore, there is a need to analyze the three states in order to trace the formless knower of the three states, which is the soul. The soul is the true self.
The higher truth will not reveal unless the base of seeking is rectified from base of ego to the base of the soul. This has to be dome mentally by deeper thinking, inquiring, analyzing and reasoning. Without rectifying, the seeking base seeker will not be able to separate the truth from the untruth mentally. The ego keep one in the grip of duality thus he will not be able to think of the beyond without understanding what the mind is and what the substance of the mind is.
When one cannot see the unreality of the ego, and that ego is part of the part of the mirage, which appears and disappears as waking/dream [‘I’] he is unripe to grasp the non dual truth. Egocentricity is the common psychological state of human nature whereas selfishness is the common ethical state of human nature. The two should not be confused.
People suffer from the syndrome known as "identification", here identifying itself with the ego or physical body to such an extent that no reasoning can dislodge it. Even the genius and lunatic suffer from this identification syndrome.
A Gnani is neither religionists nor an atheist. He does not say there is no God. He says the ultimate truth is God. He means the Formless Witness, or the soul or true self is the ultimate truth. The self/soul, which knows the negation of all the three states, is itself not negated.
Most people believe that following some doctrine, dogma or egotistical self-appointed "agent of God" makes them religious, when in fact following anything blindly without verifying the validity of their inherited belief leads to believe their inherited hallucination as reality.
Not being able to think to verify the validity of their belief is not a mark of great religious piety, but a sign of being cut off from knowing the reality of their true existence. No person blindly following the religious/yogic oriented life prescribed by a religious doctrine is close to the non-dual truth.
In fact, not knowing true self represents ignorance. Human experience and the world exist only in ignorance. Thus religious experiences which are based on ignorance have no value in the realm of non-dual truth.
Until the wisdom dawns one is caught up in the cycle of birth, life and death. Until soul becomes "self” the spiritual state of union with soul, one is still an ignorant, not a complete Gnani.
The whole point of Non-dual wisdom is to create enlightened, awakened, a Gnani who take responsibility for themselves and do not pass it off on any savoir, messiah or god men.
Religion causes one to become crippled, self-mortifying and self-deprecating is not a religion but a social system of controlling the masses through psychological deformation and retardation
One can think only within the waking experience. Therefore, even if one stop thinking he still remains man without the thoughts. The thoughts will not form without form, feeling perception and mental formation and Ataman. If one of these things are not thee there no thoughts. The thoughts will not stop until one becomes aware of the fact that, the self is formless. It is impossible to get rid of the form without understanding what is mind and what is substance of the mind.
Ataman/self when known becomes an object. Ataman when realized, then it becomes Ataman. This is the distinction between knowing and realizing.
v Where does the mind go?
It has merges back as Ataman.
There is only one mind. Physical body, ego and world are mere mirage on the standpoint of soul /self or universal mind. This explains how personal separateness is an illusion. Those who believe they will really die cannot understand the fundamental distinction between Formless Witness and three stats. If they did, they would know they could not die.
The soul/ self pervades all the three states, as its formless substance and witness. Thus it is impossible for the witness Self to become a physical self alone. The soul/self is immortal not the physical body and the world, because the body and the world are part of the mirage. The formless substance and witness of the three states is immortal . The waking experience which contains man and the world is as unreal as the dream.
No one can ever see the formless witness of the three states changing. The seen[three states] is ever changing, but not the Formless Witness. Birth, death, knower are idea characteristic of the Seen[Waking/dream] only. Where is the proof that the knower is subject to them? Should the pseudo-proof exist then the Formless Witness becomes only an object of thought, and is thus no more the formless witness. It never sees the birth or death of the knower. Senility and death it perceive only where there is an object. The Atman ’s senility or death is never seen. Thus Ataman is immortal.
The second point to be learnt in Formless Witness and Three states Analysis is one becomes aware of the fact that ego is not the self. Therefore ego is physical self within the waking/dream. Waking/dream is mere mirage. Therefore it is erroneous to view and judge and conclude the truth on the base of the ego, which is not the true self . ego is part of the mirage, seeker of truth has no interest in the fate of the mirage.
If one has to understand Ataman , he must first understand Mind. Religionists mistake mind as being separate from Atman. This is only true in preliminary of inquiry. In pursuit of truth one knows and begin with only two things--mind and substance of the mind. When he reaches the stage of unity of things, then the substance of the mind[Ataman] becomes the Self.
Religionists distinction between mind and matter is incorrect. Gnani further goes and says mind itself is matter, and matter/mind is an object to the self. and he separates the knower or the seer from mind[three states] which is object. Formless Witness and three states are ultimately Atman, because they are one in essence.
One has never seen the birth of the Formless Witness, [ Atman] as it sees the birth of the three states, so it is not possible to say that it is mortal, it is birth less and deathless. There is no such thing as knowing the knower.
That knowledge implies two factors, and the knower not being something to be seen, can never be known as such. When one speaks of relation, he deals only with the known Waking/dream. When the known goes, one says that because he actually see the known going; but he can never see the knower go. He can only say, "he do not know" about it.
One cannot speak of the known without the knower. However, when the known has vanished, there is nothing to be said about the knower. The act of conceiving in thought demands two factors. One cannot conceive the Formless Witness, the seer or knower, because nothing can be said about it, without making it an object. It cannot be pulled down to the level of the seen/known.
The duality between the Formless Witness and Three states is not the same as the duality of two things in the objective world , for here both are known and seen, whereas there one is known; the Formless Witness remaining unknown and one cannot make any statement about it. It is incomprehensible."
If Formless Witness disappears, as does, the three states then it must posit another seer to replace it; but in fact, no one has ever seen its disappearance. Thus, it is erroneous to use the word Formless Witness without the three states. It has no meaning apart from it.
Self is not a thing unknown to any one at any time. Seeker has to think . As soon as a he becomes aware of himself and the world he is in waking experience. Where was he and his world when he was in dream or in deep sleep. When he was not present in the dream, then what is that witnessed the dream without his physical body and what is it that knows that he slept well, therefore , there must be a knower there before in order to know the experiences within the three states.
The Formless Witness exists before the waking appears; otherwise, neither knowledge nor sensation could happen. the Formless Witness is always there. Even if one say it can be reached only at the end of a long path, it is impossible for it to be ever absent even while he say this. The knower alone makes it possible for it to know anything at all.
Gnani says: “Though, thus quite self-evident, easily known, quite near, forming the self, Ataman appears, to the unenlightened mind as unknown, very remote, as though he were a separate thing. Those who do not look at the formless witness, and perceive it is the only thing that neither comes nor goes, are deluded, and turn outward towards objective world which comes and goes. So long as the mind only runs from one object to another, from one idea to another within the waking , which is impermanent and unreal, they ignore the Ataman and are ignorant. there is no patience for them to think about the formless Witness. They are immersed in the worldly life believing it as reality.
Soul when it is immersed in illusion[waking/dream] is called mind! When it ceases to be immersed illusion that is sinks back to its formless non dual true nature it is then Ataman. Ataman can be called as the formless essence, the substance or material of the three states. Ataman is also called as the true Self, and the Seer, knower, formless witness, formless experiencer.
The formless substance itself is the Formless Witness: it can never be seen. The form and name has nothing to do with Ataman because everything is created out of one substance. Since one is habituated to view and judge and bifurcate on the base of name and form , without being aware of the fact that every form and name bifurcates Ataman which is the whole.
As a person one knows nothing of Ataman directly. Only when he starts verifying the fact about his own existence, he becomes aware of the fact that ,all the three states, which comes and goes; they do not really exist. nothing external to the soul/self exists. The one, which witnesses the three states ,which comes and goes, is the Formless Witness[Ataman]; the three states are mere illusion on the standpoint of formless witness. To perceive this requires a special sharpness of mind.
The religious illusion that there is a separate soul or mind in each person ignores that Self is only the seer of the three states; take only the knowing aspect, and how does anyone differ therein from another person? It may see separate bodies but that does not prove that they contain separate seers.
The essence/substance of the mind is Ataman. Ataman is the true self. The Self-means the Soul. The three states originate from the soul. Hence, mind is a created out of the soul. Mind is mere illusion, because nothing exist in the mind other then the soul ,which is the spirit Thus, the whole experience of diversity, which is of form and name has mere mirage, because it created out a single substance which is soul/Ataman.
Awareness is that which is aware of the three states it is not the physical body that is aware of the three states. The physical body and the world are within the waking /dream. Man sees the world within the waking experience. The formless witness is that which sees the three states, which comes and goes in succession.
One should not mistake the ego which sees the world within the waking/dream with the formless witness[soul/self] which sees the three states which comes and goes. By combing ego/soul as a witness is the cause of confusion, ignorance. Seeker has to Separate the Formless witness[soul/self] from the ego by proper understanding. Anyone can know that the ego is not the Witness but the soul is the witness , if they are receptive to self-knowledge.
The waking ego dies daily in dream, dream ego dies when one wakes up. Waking and dream ego disappear in deep sleep. There is change identities between waking and dream. One may be a president or peasant in waking or dream but in deep sleep there is no identity nor the experience of the world exist.
In sleep, the Ego of waking/dream is dead too; thus, ego changes constantly, and yet one mistake it for a reality. That which perceives the ego is the unborn, the unchanging reality, however. One can see forms and names only in the waking/dream , never in the deep sleep.
The one which witnesses the three states is within the three state as its formless substance and it is apart form the three states as their formless witness. It is apart because it is not an entity or identity within the waking and dream, because it is formless. Thus, the soul/self is not limited to the physical entity, but it pervades all the three states, as their formless substance and witness.
All the three states reduces itself finally to consciousness/soul. Soul/ Consciousness is the one thing which prevails eternally with or without the duality.
v What is ‘I’?
‘I’ not the self, but ‘I’ is the whole experience of duality[waking/dream], therefore ‘I’ is an object. Seen, known thus it is not the subject which is the soul/true self.
Whatever is of the seen ,known, experienced is the non dual Wisdom. Ego is the false self, and whatever is based on the ego is bound to be falsehood.
Religion/yoga and all the paths and practices are based on the ego as self. God is reality only on the base of ego as self. To realize the non dual truth one has to go beyond ego/duality/mind. Religionists does not want to give up the ego base because their belief of god will vanish. The mind remains in its formless non dual true state unconsciously during deep sleep. Consciously becoming aware of the formless non dual nature of the mind in the midst of the waking is wisdom.
Physical body is what one knows, what he perceive; perceiver is distinct: physical body and the world are a part of the experience of duality[waking/dream. Self/soul is not an experience. Self/soul is the formless witness of the dual and non dual experience, which appear and disappear as three states.
The answer to the query “What is ‘Self ’?" Self is the soul, not the mind/’I’. Self/soul is pure knowing.” Only in experience of duality there is doubt and confusion because everything in experience of duality is based on ego which is the false self.
So long as one thinks there is a second thing to be obtained, he can never be happy because the duality is always there. The Gnani, on the other hand, regards nothing as different that is as a second thing, and therefore escapes this unhappiness.
Proof that no separate self exists in each person is that he cannot measure the height and width of each self, cannot determine therefore where it begins or ends. For they do not truly exist, hence cannot be located. Individuality is therefore only an inference.
One can take a tape and measure the body, but it is impossible to measure each man's mind , because it is not and organ or a thing or entity. Self/soul is formless and pervades all the three states as its formless substance and witness.
Soul/self knows changes is itself be changeless. At no time can it be shown that the self/soul [knower]has ever changed. One may say that the doer and enjoyer is the ego, but the ego is part of the waking/dream, which comes and disappears as deep sleep. Only the Formless Witness remains.
The self/soul/ Seer of the three states , uncuttable, indestructible. It is infinite because it cannot say where it begins or ends. It is immortal, because no one has ever seen it die. The self is eternal. One may be attached to ego and say constantly, "I am so and so " but he is unaware of the fact that he and his world exist only in waking/dream. where does the waking/dream have to go eventually? It vanishes as deep sleep.
No intellectuals in world have reached the understanding the Formless Witness, seer, is the Witness or looker-on. Intellectuals based it all on the I as self. F.S, on the contrary is based it on that, which sees the I [three states].
That which perceives, is aware of the three states, the three states must be its antithesis that is impersonal. When it mention or talk of three states , he is in waking experience , whereas the Witness is not the three states because Witness is not in the realm of seen.
The self/soul is the substance of the mind[three states]. The ‘Seer’ that sees three state is the real ‘self ’. Because ‘I’ exist only in waking/dream. ‘I’ cease to exist without the waking/dream.
People think that the ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ is something different from the mind. They believe that the ‘I’ is really two. This is the confusion among Religionists. If 'Soul' has any meaning, if 'spirit' has any meaning, so long as one thinks of them, they are merely idea or notions. True Self is it is consciousness/soul, not ‘I’ , discovering and realizing the soul as true self, is non dual Wisdom.
No intellectuals has discovered that the Ego is an illusion; hence, their systems have not risen above it. The key to truth is ego and non-ego. The religionists has hardly gone beyond three states. that means they cannot go beyond the ego. This is their great handicap. they do not know that considering the ‘I’ as self itself is erroneous. Hence their inability to find Truth.
Only F.S, alone can help the seeker of truth to progress. Intellectuals have not distinguished between ego and soul. Their "self" is of ego. Hence English word self creates confusion , it must be used carefully. Ego is false self with in the false experience[waking/dream]. Soul is the true self ,which witnesses the three states which comes and goes.
Self/soul is never separate from what it sees. Seen arises and disappears in soul/self. There can be no seer without a seen.
The individual exists within the experience of duality[waking/dream]. Thus The individual is cease to exist without the waking/dream. Therefore, the individuality is entirely part of the mirage. A Gnani says ‘I’ “is fallacious, because one starts by assuming the I as self. The ‘I’ itself is mirage.
There is no individual self in the thoughts. The Thought are part and parcel of the mirage. because they appears and disappears with mind mirage. The idea that it will go to some world after death, some astral plane or religious heavens will disappear as nonsense with the disappearance of belief in the reality of the I.
The ego itself is part of the object [waking/dream] the formless Witness is the subject which sees the object[three states].
When one analyzes he finds the I is only a waking/dream. However, the three states are itself is only mental . thus the three state are an object to the formless witness which is the subject.
A child thinks only of the ‘I’ as its body; later as it grows to adulthood it thinks, of the ‘I’ as all its past personal autobiographical experience, its knowledge, aspirations etc. However, it is unaware of the fact that the individual experiences are happenings within the waking /dream. that which is aware the three states is the self/soul .
The soul/self is permanent is always there; only the transient ‘I’ comes and goes. Really, there is no such thing as ‘I’ . Psychologists are beginning to suspect that the ego is apart from consciousness, but what the latter is they do not know.
Intellectuals has yet to explore into the meaning of the word “I”. However, this is so difficult because ‘I’ is the dearest thing in the experience o duality and hardest to give up. Seeker has to realize the fact that, all these mental states known, not to the ‘I’/ ego which comes and goes along with the waking/dream. Pursuit of truth starts with ego, as being the knower, then ask what is the objective experience[waking/dream], and this leads to discovery that ego itself is, part and parcel of objective experience.
To Gnani the meaning of the word “self," is not ‘I’ but the formless substance and witness[soul] of the ‘I’. Therefore, it is better not to call it as self-realization, but as truth-realization. The religionists often understood "Self-realization" wrongly too, because they take it on a Yogic not spiritualistic sense.
The ‘I’ that disappears every night in sleep, so there is no use of being attached to it. It is illusory. There is no ‘I’ in the realm of truth. ‘I’ dies in deep sleep. However, the notion of its unreality will gradually enter the head of the serious seekers . Individuality is illusory.
Religionists have written big volumes about the soul. Yet they are quite ignorant of the fact that the ‘I’ about which they write itself come and go and have no permanent existence, is only an idea or notion after all.
Ataman/true self is that which knows the three states, that which sees. Ataman alone remains after it gets rid of all three states by identification with itself. Ataman is only the seer. seeking mind becomes Ataman only after inquiry, analysis and reasoning on the base of soul as self.
Waking/dream contains the Feelings, passions, mental pictures, thoughts, idea or notions, seeker of truth has to consider the whole Waking/dream as matter. And matter as an object There must be a perceiver, which knows that all these are illusions. All three states rest on a substratum--Ataman. Imaginations are part of the waking and dream. Even if one say he do not exist he is thinking, and the mind is revealing itself.
That which becomes conscious of all the things contained in consciousness, is the seer, the Ataman , the Knower. Ataman has never seen the itself , for it is never an object. Hence, logic, inference, cannot be applied to it , because intellect, logic is for objective world which exists within the waking experience only, the state where one infers effects from causes.
The greatest mistake is to think of the object as self, to confuse the object with the subject. There is no proof that the seer/soul is confined to it, it is universal.
If the knower also had been changing along with the changes, how could he ever have known of the changes? It is only that which is known which is changing, otherwise it could not have been known. Those who say the self/soul is also changing are uttering words without meaning.
How could one know whether anything is changing unless there were something which itself did not change and could thus note the changes? One knows of no changes in the Ataman ; he knows only the changes in what is perceived by the Ataman .
When one realizes non dual true state of the nature of Ataman, he knows the Real can never change, hence never die. Death is only in the region of the "seen." That of which it is aware and which is nearer to it is the Seer/soul. Yet no statement can be made about it. All words will concern to the three states-- never the Seer/soul.
Without the individual self/ego one could never think. Through such thinking, he is able to prove the existence of Ataman, the individual and his experience of the world is finally identical with the Atman . If the unchanging had also been changing, then the fact of change would never be perceptible to one. The Seer/soul never alters and is thus the true witness.
The Seer immortal because it sees change. Change is always in the three states . one never sees changes in Seer because he never sees the Seer/soul. Hence, one cannot ascribe mortality to Seer as he can to three states.
Gnani only remains silent about it. Everything of which the seer/soul is aware is illusion. As the ego is something of which one is aware under certain conditions, it too is illusion. Whatever one says about Ataman as person , it is only an idea within the illusion.
Reason when applied to Three state one can grasp the formless witness; but he can never grasp the Formless Witness without the three states. Reason can tell it the Formless Witness is there, but he cannot grasp it. This is the limit of reason.
The Formless Witness/soul is always there; it cannot be known, or understood because knowing implies a second thing. However, in all acts of knowledge, the Formless Witness is there when one is thinking; he is therefore seeking Ataman. Hence, Ataman is known only in illusion-lessness.
It is impossible to be free from Ataman, for it is impossible for any states to arise without it. This is the distinctive feature of F.S. seeker must analyze himself and see that whenever there is three states , there must be the Seer, which is aware of it. When one observes this, he know the Ataman . Hence Formless Witness-Three States Analysis is so fundamental and so difficult.
People wrongly think that the ego is the Witness, even though the ego vanishing every minute. When one inquires deeply enough the personal self disappears it find there are no separate individuals at all, there is no variety of beings, all are really the undivided Ataman.
Birth, life and death , can only be applied to the three states. That to which such words cannot be applied is the formless witness of the three states. It is the only thing known that does not vanish. For this reason, it is called “the unborn.” The three states that is seen/ known, is only to the true self, the Seer, therefore all things are unborn, uncreated.
Seeker must observe the nature of the three states by thinking deeply through inquiry, analysis and reasoning , and he will find that the Seer, the knower is not the ‘I’ but the soul, which unborn.
That which blocks the way of acceptance of non dual truth even on the part of great thinkers is the ego. If Modern thinkers will only give up the viewing and judging and concluding on the base of ego they can the truth, but the reason why ego prevents such understanding is that it causes a person to be strongly attached in the belief that soul/self is the support of the individual.
Which is the true ego? Ego is always changing. As a youth, one had different idea to what he has in the middle age. The ego then was not the same as the ego now.
Psychologists glibly use the word personality but they do not see it is a term to be used with the greatest difficulty, because which of all the changing personalities of a man can be ascertained to be his real one? The truth is that a number of other things or thoughts have combined with the Atman , the formless witness, and must be separated from it.
Religionists believe ‘only by going to Heaven they shall attain freedom. Because they strongly believe ’ I’ is the true self. They are not aware of the fact that ‘I’ is not self. ‘I’ is only a mirage.
Buddhism is partly right in teaching that it was an illusion. Once one understands the ego, he will be able to grasp the non dual truth. He must learn that the ego is different from consciousness. Homogeneity is the natural condition of the mind. Through ignorance, one create dissociations within it. The first dissociation is the ‘I’. There is no such thing as ‘I’, the ego is part and parcel of the mind. Mind is myth. Therefore, the understanding of the ego and its nonexistence is of vital importance.
Many books of thoughts, logical books are vitiated in value because they do not inquire into the Ego. the ego body and the world are within the waking experience. The waking appears and disappears every night as sleep. The 'I' [object] is always changing but the formless witness[subject] never changes.
Soul "self" is different from “mind” because without the soul/ the mind ceases to exist. The formless substance and witness of the mind is the soul/self. Thus the self/soul pervades the whole mind, which appear and disappear as waking/dream.
That which becomes aware of anything is Mind. The objective awareness is called mind. Waking/dream states a whole is called mind. Which is not permanent is called mind. whatever one thinks of himself of the world or of the god, he is aware of it only when the mind is present and they are absent when the mind is absent. Thus the physical existence including the world is mind. When mind becomes still , it remains in its formless non dual nature of the substance. The substance of the mind is soul. The soul is the true self.
Gods existence depends on the mind. If there is no mind, then there is no man, no world, no god. Whatever prevails without the mind is ultimate truth. Thus self/soul which prevails with or without the mind is ultimate truth. Thus , ultimate truth is god.
One can it say that God is here or is not here or anywhere only in waking experience. The waking experience is mere mirage. Mirage is not permanent, thus the personal God is part of the mirage. Belief in personal god is a biggest obstacle in pursuit of truth, because there is no second thing exists other then Ataman.
Experience is impossible if there is no Ataman[Witness]. consciousness and Ataman is one and the same ; the names only are different. Those who advocate Nothingness, or sunya are not gone deep enough, because if there were no Ataman[seer/self] to say so one would be blocks of wood, incapable of experience.
The ego is the thing one is attached to most; his attachment to the body is less.
the religionist think that the consciousness in one is different from the mind in another. He cannot measure consciousness, cannot say that it is confined to this or that body or that it starts here and stops there. Therefore, religionists who say every soul is different , and teach the reality of the individual soul, is because they cling to this ‘I’, because they lack the humility to give up the ego, because they don't understand that the Ego is not a permanent thing: everyday the ‘I’ dies in sleep. Thus the theory of individual soul is mere words.
Religionists could not distinguish between ‘I’ and ‘Formless witness.’ The 'I' was the Formless witness. There highest was the Personal self. It is so much attached to the 'I' that it do not want to think that 'I' does not exist. Again, it is unable to detach the ‘I’ from the Real witness, which is formless.
The intellectuals argue and says: If everything else is false, then Ataman also is false. However, when he says Ataman, is false, there must be the awareness, consciousness, behind the very statement. He is making statement with in the waking experience will also go, die, therefore waking experience is not permanent . The formless witness of the three states is permanent. One has to rely upon that which is permanent. Formless Witness alone is permanent. Anything that he says is a Seen[three states], but there is the Seer[formless witness] there before any statement could be made.
Again as a step leading to formless witness, the arguments, the three states avails. However, if one knows the formless witness, nothing else remains to be known. Even scriptures are unreal for the Gnani because it is part of the unreal.
Experience is three states and experiencer is the soul. Soul sees all experiences that is the three states. Everyone thinks that ‘I’ is the self; this is ignorance. One enjoys and suffers because he thinks ‘I’ is the true self . soul is only unaffected witness of the pain and pleasure. Ataman means the unchanging witness.
Only when on is aware of the three states the birth, life and death or pain and pleasure are reality. World, the ego and body are made of one single stuff. That stuff is the soul/spirit. The soul is the substance and witness of the three states.
Religionists/intellectuals think that that there is nothing higher than 'I’ and they try to get rid of the ego. To convince them by argument is a difficult thing, because they do not accept anything else then their accepted truth.
The individuals exist only with in the waking /dream. Thus, the individual has no value in the realm of truth. One thinks as a person within the waking/dream. Therefore, the thinker is limited to the physical entity whereas the self pervades in everything, and everywhere in the three states. All the objects within the waking /dream are non-different from the soul/self. The waking contains the world with so many people and egos. One takes the form he imagines as is experienced in dream.
One becomes aware of the seer within the duality [waking/dream]. In reality, there is no duality. thus Seer and Three states are mere mirage because the seer and the seen are both one in essence. "I know my physical body," means that there is something, which is aware of the body. ." It implies there is a something, which is formless, knows the form. There is no connection between the Witness and the three states, which appears and disappears. All is happy or miserable experiences are happening within the mirage. The one which the witnesses the three states remains unconcerned.
There is no such thing as internal and external with reference to the formless Witness. One cannot say where it is not, He cannot even say that it is not in three states. One has to begin by separating Seer from Three states mentally. Later one has to take them both together in the end because everything is Ataman.
Consciousness is bliss in the sense that it is aware of all. What is it that prevents one from knowing things as such? It is the superimposition of non-existence and non-luminousness on Consciousness or Awareness. It is because one is thinking. 'I' is the self , he does not know the fact that ‘I’ is not the self but the soul is the true self .
One can never know mind by himself; he can know only the states of mind. Psychology has yet to discover this. Similarly, it is impossible to define mind. For the deeper it go it come ultimately to the witness and it can say nothing about its nature. For if it describe or know it, it becomes an object and is no longer the true Witness! Intellectuals can only learn this from F.S. he will eventually have to come to this knowledge. Use any word he likes for mind, the moment he define it is defining only an idea.
The secret is to know that there is a Seer. Seer is the Atman. Atman cannot be defined: all one can say of it is "negate!" When intellectuals became skeptical of the existence of consciousness, first they must answer how they knows there is no consciousness. For it cannot be known ever soul/self[Formless Witness] is the knower, never the known. How at any time can it get rid of consciousness? The moment he is thinking of it, it is there: Every thing exists for him only through consciousness.
Psychologists regard consciousness as something, which appears and disappears, as relational to something. Gnanis position is the exact opposite, for he regards it as that which does not vanish, that which sees all the three states. Therefore he e do not regard it as self-consciousness (in Religionists sense) -- that is entirely different. Hence, the term Ataman, when meant for pure consciousness is not self on the personal limited Religionists sense.
Those who cannot understand Formless Witness and Three states Analysis cannot grasp non dual truth. Religionists’ psychologists, they combine Seer with Three states and all the combinations as "consciousness." Gnani separates them and call Formless Witness only as "Consciousness" [soul/self].
It is not settled by psychologists what the mind is. They often do not define what it is because they find it so difficult. It is impossible to know what the mind is, because the more they think about it get only thoughts: they cannot ordinarily detach themselves from them, the three states, and be the Witness (soul/self). They can go on thinking about mind for a century but all that will come will be more thoughts. First, they must analyze the formless witness, probe into the ‘I’/mind as such before they can hope to separate it from thoughts, but this they will not do. They will not go so far as to inquire and thus discover that there is a knower apart from the known thoughts.
Gnani does not rule out multiplicity of individuals and things; he admits this separate existence, since it cannot be denied. However, he asks, "What is meant by each existence? What has become of the vanished or changed individuality of each existence? What has become of the child I once was?" When it is superficial and fond of imagining, it can say what it like, but when it go deep in inquiry, it see that multiplicity of the Waking/dream is not what it seems.
When one Thinks of his body as an infant. What is that to him now? When he Thinks of it again as youth. What has happened to it now? When he Thinks finally of the body at middle age. Where is it now? He will see that he had so many different bodies. None can be identified as particularly and permanently his.
It is difficult to grasp at the beginning ,How did ignorance come into pure Atman ?it is due to ignorance. This ignorance is born of considering false self as real self. It causes in the person the contrary of Truth and he views and judges the worldview on the base of false self. It is the incapacity, the dullness, of the mind to understand it. However, when the mind gets clear, then he "sees" the Truth. Hence, the inability to see is not in the perceiver, but the mind['I'],, which comes and goes, which hides and prevents one from "seeing." This "mind/'I' " is like a veil.
It is the illusory reality which prevents one to believe the duality as reality. mind is only thing which is available for seeker , because the whole experience of diversity is nothing but mind. Mind is some thing that comes and goes, but the formless witness is untouched by it. Religion does not want truth because it is based on the false self within the false experience.
People who believe their physical self as reality makes the ego the center of everything by reducing everything and everyone to mere idea or notions. Religionists find itself in danger of falling into this egocentric predicament. Therefore, they avoid it by saying that God creates other minds, persons who really exist in a different way from material objects, which are merely perceived.
