The Philosophy Of The Upanishads part II

You are Pure Consciousness

In the Kena Upanishad, we ﬁnd a very interesting question. We see, hear, speak and think – but what power impels my mind to think, my tongue to speak, my eyes to see and ears to hear? In other words, what am I in the deepest, most profound depths of my being? Like most deep questions, it appears deceptively simple. Consider our bodies. They are made of matter. Yet, we have a ﬁrst-person experience in our bodies. There is something like experiencing the redness of a rose or ‘being myself’. In modern philosophy, these are called qualia. Modern neuroscience is unable to account for the vivid living conscious experiences which we have all the time. This vivid ﬁrst person experience cannot be captured

by a materialistic account like the ﬁring of neurons. This is the so-called ‘hard problem’ of modern consciousness studies. The Kena Upanishad begins with this question about consciousness – the innerexperience of thinking, hearing, seeing, speaking. What is that shining within me which enables all these conscious experiences and functions? The Guru’s answer is extraordinary and profound (and, at ﬁrst, rather enigmatic). ‘It is the Ear of the ear, Mind of the mind, Eye of the eye…’! Let us try to understand this.

The answer, simply put, is pure consciousness – Chit.

The moment we use a term like consciousness, we have to be very careful because the immediate temptation is to understand it in the sense of thoughts and feelings. This is how consciousness is usually understood by modern psychology. But when the Upanishads speak of pure consciousness we must carefully distinguish it from the ordinary understanding of consciousness. Science says consciousness is a product of the body (the brain to be speciﬁc). But the Upanishads hold that Chit

is not a product of the body or even the mind. Our bodies are made of matter and our minds too are made of matter, albeit of a subtle kind, while Chitis radically different from matter.

Chitpervades and illumines the mind and body enabling all functions – thinking, seeing, hearing, feeling, speaking and so on.

Chit is ‘known’ only through its manifestations in the various functions of the mind, organs and body. Without the body and mind, as in deep sleep,

Chit cannot be known or experienced – yet, It continues to exist. Now we are in a position to understand the Guru’s enigmatic reply: ‘Since It is the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind, the Speech of speech, the Life of life, and the Eye of eye, therefore (realizing It) the jnanis (yoga of knowledge) transcend the world and become immortal.’ Since Chit enables each organ to perform its speciﬁc function, it is appropriate to call It the essence of the organ viz, Ear of the ear, Mind of the mind etc.

Chit is what you really are – pure consciousness. It is unchanging and undying and if you realize yourself as Chit, you become immortal (rather, you realize that you are immortal and always were). Chit identiﬁed with body and mind appears to be mortal. Note that the bodies are mortal – equally for the jnani and ajnani. Ramakrishna, Christ and Buddha – all had physical bodies and those bodies are gone, just as our bodies will perish one day. But as Chit we are immortal. This is to be realized and this is the Upanishadic ideal of moksha or freedom.

Your true Self Chit, is not an experience, yet all experiences shine in Chit.

Chit is the consciousness illumining every thought, every experience. To the jnani,

Chit is experienced in each experience.

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