re Kena Upanisad

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Swami Sharvananda , in his commentory on Part II -Verse 4- of Kenopanishad

,

states as follows:

 

Atman is never experienced as an object like the things of relartive

experience.

But along with everymental modification that gives rise to the relative

experiences of life, the Atman is , as it were, blended, just as the

experience

of fire is blended in the experience of a red hot iron ball.For it is the

intelligence, that is, the Atman which gives self-awareness to thoughts or

mental modifications. The ignorant man lacking in fineness of

understanding, is

not able to disentangle the Atman,Who is thus implied as their Witness, in

everyone of our cognitions as well as in the states of waking, dream and

sleep,which contain all these cognitions.For the truely enlightened

man,however

,every one of these mental modifictions means the simultenious revelation

of the

Atman as their Witness and substratum -Prati-bodha-viditum.

 

It must,however,be noted that It is spoken of as the witness,only as long

as It

is thought of as in relation to the mental modifications which It vivifies

by

Its awareness. In Nirvikalpa samaadhi (the pure and unconditioned state of

Divine conciousness) these modifications disappear,or rather sink into

thei

rwitnessing and vivifying substratum,namely the Atman.Then it is no longer

spoken of as witness,though it remains the same entity;for when the

objects

dissappear,there is no meaning in speaking of the witness. It is only

after the

attainment of nirvikalpa samadhi that one really obtains the knowledge

needed to

disentangle the Atman as witness in and through every mentral modification

on

their re-appearing after the samadhi.

 

Hari Om!

 

Swaminarayan

 

 

ea

 

The commentary of Swami Shravananda was acute partiularly on the fraught

matter of the 'witness' which has a dualistic flavour. Adjunctive and not

contrary to that is my feeling (toiling in the foothills of atma vichara)

that although the chain of intellect, mind, body, senses may represent a

conceptual division of labour it is questionable how much it reflects lived

reality. Amongst the experiments of nature is that which is called the

'locked-in' syndrome where you may be totally paralysed but for the capacity

to blink and yet retain consciousness. Awful to contemplate from an

able-bodied perspective but it seems that the patient's emotional response

to their situation is muted. Think of the language, 'heart rending, gut

wrenching, stomach churning, lump in the throat, warm feeling etc. and it

will be seen that divorced from these 'concomitant' sensations there may be

less impact in the brain areas that process these emotions. Perhaps the

whole brain/mind, jiva, person is a locus of consciousness and the other is

a reflection of our love for the naming of parts, hierarchy and chain of

command from the subtle to the gross.

It may also be useful sadhana to think outside that box. Sankara says that

the intellect has no consciousness and the self no action. It is their

mutual superimposition that is avidya

"The intellect has no consciousness and the Self no action. The word

'knows' can, therefore, reasonably be applied to neither of them."

(Chap.XVII #54 Prose Section Upadesasahasri)

May I offer the speculation that the intellect has no consciousness because

there is no such *thing* as the intellect. Go back then to the Heart as

mentioned by the Rishis where 'deep thinking is deep feeling'.(Coleridge)

Best Wishes,Michael

 

 

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