Dharma Kirtan: DOER ENJOYER & KNOWER

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

DOER ENJOYER & KNOWER - ATMANANDA

WHY IS THE KNOWER NOT THE DOER OR THE ENJOYER?

Because you never cease to be the knower. Doership and enjoyership come and go.
Knowing takes place in a different plane.

The doing, perceiving and thinking take place either in the realm of the body or of
the mind. When these activities are taking place, they are simultaneously perceived by
the ‘I’-principle, from a higher plane.

The doer and the enjoyer always change. The knower is beyond all changes. It is
evidently Knowledge or Consciousness itself. And it is no function, since it is
changeless.

EVEN AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE TRUTH, I SEE THE WORLD AGAIN. WHY?

It is not you who see the world again. It is the illusion of the apparent ‘I’ seeing the
illusion of the world. What does it matter to You?

AN ENQUIRY ABOUT THE TRUTH OF THE WORLD, GROSS AS WELL AS SUBTLE
The world has been taken up for examination from time immemorial by scientists and
philosophers. Both of them rely upon the generic mind, with its varied aspects, as the
only instrument for the purpose. The scientists have tried to solve the objective diversity by reducing everything to atoms or electrons, but cannot find the way beyond.

Philosophers, ignoring the gross, have taken up the subtle world of thoughts and
feelings (the apparently subjective diversity) for analysis, and cannot go beyond
nothingness. Thus both of them are entangled in the same vicious circle.

In every perception, thought or feeling, two aspects come into operation. The view
part and the material part. The view part is the result of one’s own individual experience and samskaras [inclinations] and therefore differs with different individuals. This
part, the more important of the two, is lamentably ignored by scientists and philosophers alike. They analyse only the material part of their so called experiences, taking
their stand in the changing mind alone.

Their fundamental mistake is their inability to take note of a changeless principle,
the ‘I’ standing behind, lighting up all their so called experiences. Without this stand
in the changeless ‘I’, the changes can never be correctly examined, whether in the
gross or in the subtle realm. This irrefutable stand is shown only by the vedantic or
advaitic approach.

For diversity to be, unity must stand behind, supporting it. You are merging diversity into unity every time a perception, thought or feeling merges into Consciousness,
the ‘I’.

CORRECT EXAMINATION OF THE WORLD

The name ‘world’ denotes the gross as well as the subtle worlds. The subtle world is
nothing but the mind or thought. The mind goes into the very make of the gross
world, but is also quite independent of the world itself.

Even after the gross world has disappeared, the mind continues to exist, holding
within itself the whole world deprived of its gross characteristics. Thus far, an ordinary man can well proceed, because life itself is composed distinctly of the physical
and the mental aspects. So, standing on the mental plane, the physical can well be
examined and reduced to the subtle.

This has again to be examined, taking your stand on a plane higher than the mind
itself, but in substance not essentially different from the mind. That plane is the plane
of knowledge, Consciousness or the ‘I’, which goes into the make of the mind. Taking
your stand, at least in idea, in that plane of Consciousness and examining the mind,
you will find that the subtle world loses its characteristics of being subtle and diverse;
and it shines as pure Consciousness and one with you.

If you leave it anywhere else before taking it to this ultimate Truth, the examination
is incomplete and the finding, to that extent, untrue.

CREATION AND DISSOLUTION OF THE WORLD

Creation:
1. Consciousness objectified is thought, and
2. Thought objectified is the gross world.

The reverse process is dissolution:
1. Gross world subjectified is thought, and
2. Thought subjectified is Consciousness.

A PEEP INTO THE HEART OF YOGA

Yogins say vaguely that they are trying to control the mind by dint of vairagya (dispassion) and exercise. This is easily said. But who is it exactly that controls the prana
[vital energy] and the mind?

Certainly not the mind itself; because the purpose of the exercise itself is to still the
mind, and the same mind can never be simultaneously the subject and the object of
the same activity. So some independent principle beyond the mind must be guiding
the yogin to control the prana and the mind. Is it not better to be that free principle
itself and cease bothering about the mind or anything else?

Leave the mind to itself. This is how the mind is dealt with in the direct method.

A LUNATIC CURED BY THE WITNESS-THOUGHT
Once, in August 1950, when Shri Atmananda stayed in Bombay for a couple of days
on his way back from Europe, he gave audience to a good number of spiritual enthusiasts who flocked for short interviews with him. Among them was an educated young
Parsi gentleman who was a lunatic for the past twenty years. But he had occasional
sober moments, for an hour or two every day. Fortunately, it was during one of those
sober moments that he came for the interview. As soon as he was led in and seated,
Shri Atmananda asked him: ‘Well, what is it that you want?’

Visitor: Well, Sir, I am not come for any spiritual instruction. They say I am a lunatic,
and I too believe it, more or less.
Shri Atmananda: Sorry, I am not a doctor myself. You must go to some doctor and
take advice.
Visitor: No Sir, I have tried all that in vain. I heard that you are a great divine, and I
am sure you can help me out of this malady.
Shri A: No, you are mistaken. I am not a saint and I have no powers to help you in
this. Please go and seek remedy elsewhere.
Visitor: No Sir, I am desperate. I shall not return without getting something from you.
Shri Atmananda was in a fix. The gentleman’s face did not show any signs of disorder
and he felt compassion for the man. So Shri Atmananda asked him, rather abruptly:
‘Well! What is your ailment?’
Visitor: They say I am a lunatic.
Shri A: Is it true?
Visitor: Yes, it is true, more or less.
Shri A: How can you say so?
Visitor: Because I know it. I cannot think about anything consistently for some time.
Shri A: How do you know that?
Visitor: Well, I know that. I can see my mind running from object to object, in quick
succession

Shri A: But are you that changing mind, or are you that knowing principle which
never changes?
Visitor: Of course, I am that knowing principle.
Shri Atmananda retorted with some force: ‘Be that knowing principle always, and
don’t worry about your mind.’
The gentleman opened his mouth wide and sat aghast for a minute, and said with
luminous satisfaction: ‘Yes! Yes! I have got it. I want nothing more from you now.
Allow me, Sir, to go, and I shall write to you from home.’
Shri Atmananda: ‘Yes. You may go and be at peace.’
He went home straight and wrote to Shri Atmananda regularly, after three days, one
month, three months, six months, one year, and three years (the last being in August
1953) – all equally assuring that he was leading a steady, happy, contented and prosperous domestic life with his dear wife and children, of course with hearty endorsements from each of them regarding his normality.
This was indeed a miracle of the ultimate witness. Shri Atmananda had only just
helped him to direct his own attention to that talisman in himself and he was saved.