What is consciousness?

 

CONSCIOUSNESS AND JEEVATHMA

*What is consciousness?*

Theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson, argues that: "*The universe shows evidence of the operations

of mind on three levels. The first level is elementary physical processes, as we see them when we

study atoms in the laboratory. The second level is our direct human experience of our own

consciousness. The third level is the universe as a whole*.” The third level consciousness is widely

known as “Panpsychism”

In panpsychism, it is argued that a "proto-consciousness" pervades the universe.

Historically, the oldest school of thought is in Vedic domain which is called “Sankhya Darshana”.

Sankhya divides reality into two super broad categories: subjective reality and objective reality ie.,

Purusha and Prakriti.

Prakriti is just one, but takes many forms. It manifests into the entire objective reality and continues

to change forms.

Purusha consists of both Brahman and Jeevatma(s). While there are many Jeevatma, Brahman is

only one. 

Jeevatma being mirror image of Brahman, shares many qualities of Brahman. One of such quality is

consciousness. It is the individual exclusive experience of prakriti. Ie., at a subjective level,

experience of one Jeevatma is always different from that of the other Jeevatma.  

*Experience of the objective world is purely subjective. It is unique to each Jeevatma. This

uniqueness of experience is aggregated in one term “consciousness”.*

Jeevatma has many levels of consciousness. 

From one perspective, there are three levels: jagrit (wakefulness), swapna (dreamstate) and sushupti

(deep sleep). From another perspective, there are other three levels: asrijya (latent state; not yet part

of the creation), srijya (work-in-progress; part of the creation) and mukta (full expression of individual

self; transcended the creation). Experience of Jeevatma varies based on different levels of

consciousness.

While Jeevatma is subjected to different levels of consciousness, Brahman is not. Brahman stays

ever conscious and constantly experiences everything. 

A sadhaka being Jeevatma needs to journey through different levels of consciousness in order to

manifest individual potential in full. 

External references:

The article that quotes physist Freeman Dyson:https://curiosity.com/topics/panpsychism-is-the-belief-

that-the-universe-is-conscious-of-itself-curiosity/

For more details on “panpsychism”, one may read:”Can Panpsychism Become an Observational

Science?” by Gregory L Matloff, published in the Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research:

https://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/579

ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ!

Greetings!

ಮಧ್ವೇಶ ಕೆ, ವೇದಿಕ್ ಟ್ರೈಬ್

Madhwesh K, Vedic Tribe