THE SCIENCE OF SELF

By Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj & Sri RamanaMaharshi

14th November 2015

1. Deeper enquiry revealed that form is nothing other than vision or seeing. Form and sight areessentially one and
the same thing. And what is that thing? Well, since sight is nothing otherthan a mode of awareness, for seeing
does not take place independent of awareness, that thing is….awareness. Seeing is awareness. So form is a
mode of awareness.

2. Another analogy of form is given in Katha-Upanisad is; the vibration or movement in object is more than that of
our senses. If a ball in whirled faster it will appear as ring. But there is no ring only ball. Similarly The Brahman is
doing an act so fast or affecting a kind of a vibration in his Existence so finer that oursenses are seeing
something else instead of The Brahman Himself. This is the mystery behind form. In my opinion all five
“Tanmatras” are particular awareness generated by senses due to different kind of very fast act/movement or
finer vibration. It is due to a kind of finer vibration touch awareness is created, by another one the sound
awareness is created &again by another one the smell awareness is created. All are by very fine different
vibrations of consciousness only. RamanaMaharshi has spoken about different kind of flavours of consciousness
in being appeared as mind and matter while he is in his T.M Samadhi.

3. The Bhrahman has two “Swarupa”, NityaSwarupa&AnityaSwarupa. When Jiva exists theNityaswarupa is holding
his Anityaswarupa. He is then both Nityanitya. This Nityaanityastateof Brahman is Jiva. The subject object
module. Subject is Brahman Himself and object is hisAnityaSwarupa expressing through the Psycho-Physical
Gadget made of Mana-Budhhi-Chitta-Ahankara-indriya-Pysical body.

4. Who am I? I am a thought. Just a mere topsy-turvy awareness being generated by thePsycho-Physical gadget
worn by Brahman. I am just that individual awareness, the limitedpersonality. I am as an individual thought
complex which is never the substance, has no existence,but a property of Brahman. The is only one existence,
one substance and that is “He”. Rest all is mere thought generated by “Himself”. I am with my vision of external
world is athought generated by “Himself”. He is my resting ground, my “satta”, my consciousness. I amnothing,
everything is “He”.

5. SukadevMaharaj was advised by Raja Janak that; what ever may be the truth is there is onlyone person and that
is only “The Brahman”. Never belief external word of name and form andnever get eluded by its magnanimity
and grandeur.

6. The three bodies are what Vedanta calls the apparent self. It exists in the sense that weexperience it. It is not
real, however, because it changes form and has only temporaryduration. This apparent self is ‘you’ to which
RamanaMaharshi refers in the saying. Andscience the cmposite of the three bodies that constitute ‘you’ are
dependent for theirexistance upon the awareness that is self, it becames obvious that there is no ‘place’
for“you” to be other than the self.

7. In this context a very interesting thing is told by Sri NisargadhaMaharaj. He said; the worldwhich is perceived
outside is an inseparable part of ourselves about which we are notconscious. It is part of our body where our
consciousness is absent. That is why it appearsas stranger, unfamiliar. It is a tumor in our body having no sense
connection and thus appears as a stranger. Doesmy body appear stranger to me ? No. It is because
consciousness is spread through-outnooks and corners of my body.If consciousness is extended beyond my body
to external world what will be my feeling? Isuppose a very strange thing will happen ! One thing will happen that
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 is; the feeling of space-time will vanish. Because I am extended in every thing.The concept of physical distance
will vanish. The spacio-temporal net of mind will disappear.We will be having the feeling of space-less and time-
less. May be the concept of infinity willbe understood. This is because the duality will vanish and non-dual state
will be realized.Here one catch is there. We can feel distance inside our body. I can say from head to feet
adistance exists. It is because the body is truly part of the outside world. It is not We. Even themind and intellect
also. At least limiting ourselves to mind and intellect as part of we, if myconsciousness along-with mind and
intellect is extended beyond my body to outside worldview then the spacio-temporality will vanish.

AGAIN THE UPANISAD SAYS……

1. The grief of the mind, the sorrow of the individual is not brought about by outer circumstances

2. We suffer on account our maladjustment of our personality with the condition of life. The knowledge of this is
supernatural & super-sensual. We cannot understand it by mere intellect of ours.

3. It is a more deep-rooted condition which has been annoying us through centuries and through our births and
death.

4. Thus anything we do in the outer world does not seem to be an adequate remedy for these sorrows of ours.

5. Because the sorrows has not comes from outside but from the within the character of our existence as the
individual is to be studied, otherwise it cannot be understood and eradicated.

6. It is reiterated the enlightenment is not about any other person or object, but about our own self. It is an
understanding of oneself, anenlightenment of oneself, an illumination of oneself; and when this illumination
takes place, it is expected that everything connected with the self also get illuminated automatically.

7. We have three type of sorrow; Adhidaivika; earthquake, flood etc,Adhibhautika; from animal, wicked person etc,
Adhyatmika; mental illness, depression, born chronic illness etc. In actual they are oneand are appearing to have
generated from outside. It is ingrained inthe very being of the individual.

8. The Asvamedha sacrifice of Brahman, the “othering”,self-alienation of Absolute known as creation says
theUpanishad.

9. Creation is an “othering” or self-alienation of the Absolute, as it were.ThePurusha, the Supreme Being, becomes
another’ to Himself in an act to manifest the Universe. Same is told by NisargadattaMaharaj.

10. But the Supreme was ‘as if’ an ‘other’, but not truly for He nevertheless remained as the Absolute, self-
Conscious being and He knew Himself as ‘I-am’.

11. Rituals or actions done in Vedas are never complete unless they are connected with the thought or a kind of
contemplation, a psychological function. Simple action or a ritual is truss, a waste.

12. How The God sacrificed? By rendering his part of being to be theinsentient being, putting it into Agnana, under
Maya and letting the creation to happen, suffer for the sake of Lila, to create us.

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13. The Asvamedha sacrifice of Brahman, the “othering”,self-alienation of Absolute known as creation says
theUpanishad

14. What we do outside is what we think in our mind, and what we think in our mind is conditioned by what we are
in our true selves. A contemplative action from the outer realm of name and form and action to the inward
thought-processes of the individual, and to thought- process in general, leading to ‘being’, not merely to the
individual’s apparent being, but to the Being of all beings; which the Upanishad would describe as Satyasa
Satyam, or the Truth of Truth.

15. Upanishad does not regard anything as untrue. Everything is true, but relatively so. A passage from lower to
higher truth.

16. There is no sorrow; it is a misunderstood, misplaced context only. There is no sorrow in the world. Which appear
as sorrow is a misinterpretation of context. When things are placed wrongly they look ugly, similarly world
events are perceived in a wrong context hence appear sorrowful. If put in proper perspective it becomes so
beautiful.

17. If you cannot know what you are, how can you know what others are? Either you know everything or know
nothing; there is nothing called knowing something.

18. Life is a great confusion and a mess a conglomeration of involvements in the objects of senses. This is called
“Samsara”, the aberration of consciousness in spacio-temporal externality.

19. The Upanishad promises us the condition of perennial happiness even after death not merely in this life. In fact
the Upanishad assures us that death is not a bar, not a fear. There is no such thing as death as we think of it.
Death is training to the soul, a march towards path of perfection. There is nothing to be scared about death. Not
at all.

20. “Sat” &“ Chit”, that is our “Being” and “Knowledge of our being” are inseparable and they are one. This need to
be realized. In stone only “Being” is present and “Knowledge of being” is absent. In us both are present. In even
higher state “Bliss” is associated.

21. World experience is a myth as all sense perception may not be regarded as an ultimate acquisition even as a
collection of many reflections in a basket is not equal to the acquisition of anything substantially. Thus
possession in world is in fact collection of many reflections or thoughts in basket of individuality. In basket of
personality.

22. The object of sense perception is the Ultimate Subject really, and we erroneously regard it as an ‘object’. A
complete reversal. The meaning is; what we see as outside object is ‘God’ Himself. We are seeing ‘God’ as
object. On the contrary we are actually object, the individuality is an object created by ‘God’, but surprisingly it
appears to be perceiver! See the irony! This is the trauma of sense perception.

23. Our sense perception cannot perceive infinity as it is conditioned in three dimensional spaces and one
dimensional time. It cannot perceive thing beyond this. Whatever argument or logic we give about a perception,
an object perceived is confined within our four dimensional sense of existence. But mystical things are beyond

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 four dimensional existence. Then how to describe them. We take the help of symbols and stories as in the
Puranic literatures. They appear to our limited understanding fantastic.

24. The modern quantum physics has revealed that our perception of objectivity is a mere mental obfuscation.
Reality is something else. It promulgates that there is no objects and everything is subject. What we see as
objects are thoughts not matter. Matter is thought only. Thought of whom? Thought of the observer. It finally
declares that the observer and the observed are two aspects of the same subject called self or consciousness.

25. Again the point is the individual is part of the cosmic. It is not a different one but very part of whole. It does not
exist as a part. Its existence is realized only in the whole. Jiva has no meaning if Iswara is not connected with it. It
is Iswara revealing, exhibiting peeping in various forms through jiva. And all jiva consciousness added together
plus many more is the Iswara consciousness.

26. When you see a form you miss an important point, you are not being able to locate the connection of the form
with the reality that is hidden in it.

27. He is there in all form as a whole not as a part, If we see a tree, the form of tree is Himself. He is in full even in all
atoms-Sun-In Hiranyagarbha. Thus every form is same as other form. This is the mystery.

28. Ultimately what is a form? It is a kind of perception of a very subtle, fine, vibration. A motion or act cannot be
perceived with its true object. The object which is vibration or in motion cannot be perceived but something else
is perceived. Example if a ball is whirled faster we see a ring, we don’t see the ball.

29. World in its true nature is “Becaming”, not “Being”. The truth is beneath and it is always “Being”. When the
“Being” is perceived as “Becaming”, the world, you, me all start appearing.

30. The fact remains that “Being” is never equal to “Becaming”. In true sense “Becaming” does not exists but only
imagined by The “Being” to be existing. For the “Becaming” to exist even in appearance itself it has to be
“Being”. Without “Being” nothing exists. “Becaming” is a disguised, camouflaged state of “Being”. The trick lies
in camouflaging the “Being” and presenting “Becaming” as “Being”. This is done by Mayashakti. Nama, Rupa,
Artha, Shabda, Gandha, Sparshaetc, all are the product of “Being” presented as “Becaming”.

31. How this camouflaging is done? This is the “ShrishtiRahasya”. In the world everything is restless. Changing from
one state to other. This indicates that there is something very wrong with it. As is it is running in one leg or
moving with one wheel and if it stops then everything will fall. In fact if the “Becaming” of “ The Being” will stop
then the whole structure of the universe will collapse to nothingness and that is the “Being” in real. Thus the
world is a verb not a noun.

32. What is mind and what are objects? In the root it is satwwikahankarasie, “Tanmatras”. These “Tanmatras” are
different flavors of the Pure Consciousness. Under the influence of Mayashakti with satwwik shades tanmatras
appears as mind and senses and with the tamasic shades they became pancha mahabhutas or matter. Sattwik
has a property to hold and reveal the consciousness “Being” aspect because of its transparency and closeness to
the pure “Being”. The tamasic shade is able to cover totally the consciousness and by severe incessant vibration
able to create a perception of form by less speedily moving mind as the ball appear as ring. The intense vibration
of tamasik consciousness appears as a form by mind. Now the mind does one more thing. Because the mind and
the object are two shades of the same “Tanmatras”, when in contact they mingle very intimately to each other.
Mind takes on the shape of the object or quality of the object. Then as the mind inherently possesses
consciousness of “Being”, this creates a outcome called psychosis, the co- mingling of subject-object in a new
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 awareness, new consciousness called object consciousness. We feel we have seen an object. The perception of
an object is established.
33. Now depending upon the state of mind and object the vastness of object consciousness can change. It is
different at Hiranyagarva level where the cosmic mind perceives the cosmic creation at one stoke. At the lowest
level such as human a small object is seen by an individual mind creating feeling of limited perception. However
result of that limited perception is an organic part of the cosmic perception made by The Hiranyagarva.

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 Space-time and object perception

SattwikShadewith consciousness Tamasic shades being insentient matter

of being in it(Mind) RUPA TANMATRA

DIFFERENT FLAVOURS OF
CONSCIOUSNESS AS TANMATRAS

Bindu-Nada-KalatitaAbasthaa

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 Sattwa with
being
consciousness

Rupa Tanmatra
is the flavour of
pure
consciousness Tama as
Raja as intense
medium insenient
vibration